Spain Bull - Fighting

Every year from July 6 to 14, in Spain, thousands of revelers, dancing to traditional pipe bands, pack into the center of Pamplona to kick off Spain’s most famous bull-running fiesta in honor of the Navarre capital’s patron saint, San Fermin. Spain stages more than 3,000 fiestas a year – everything from fire walking to goat – throwing, but nine days of partying and running with the bulls at Pamplona still triumphs in terms of spectacle and recklessness.

Pamplona Bull-running Fiesta is Spanish traditional fiesta, it is reported to have begun in 1591, and every year attracts tens of thousands of people. Its formal name calls “holy FeiErMing festival” (Los Sanfermines).  The origin of bull-running fiesta has a direct correlation with traditional Spanish bullfights. It is said that, at that time it’s very difficult to move the big bulls to the arena from cattle shed .When its purpose was purely practical to move the bulls to the arena. The difference was that then only a handful of daring souls ran the gauntlet in front of the frenzied beasts. The tradition was immortalized in Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises in 1926, after which time many more foreigners began attending the festival and running with the bulls.

Pamplola Bull-running Fiesta

In the festival days, every day there are six big bulls chasing hundreds of stout men, along the “Encierro Road”, running through the city, straight into the arena, the scene is very unbreakable. The “Encierro Road” is located at the old PanPuLuo, which is actually a narrow stone street with length of 848.6 meters. During the bull-running, thousands of bull-running lovers crowd at streets, a 500 kilograms bull rushes out of the bullpen. In four minutes, it runs at a speed of 24 kilometers per hour in the crowd disorderly. It often causes danger. But if they finally bring in the bulls to the arena, they succeed. As there is certain danger of stabbed by the bull during the Bull-running Fiesta, every year, there are people endangered. According to statistics, from 1924 to 2002, 14 people are dead and more than 200 were stabbed by the bull. However the adventure lovers from all over the world still gathered in this small city named PanPuLuo, enjoying happiness and stimulation in this dangerous game between cattle and human beings during those 9 days. During the festival, tourists from all over the world are surging into PanPuLuo and the population of the town increases rapidly from 25 million to 150 million.

So if you select to travel to Pamplona during the Pamplona Bull-running Fiesta, make sure that you are in safety, and I wish you a happy journey.