El fin del Pilar (The end of Pilar)

I think I'm more happy than sad that the festivities of Pilar are over. Why? Paseo Independencia and the Plaza of Pilar are MUCH less crowded now, and surprisingly, those four days of "vacation" felt much slower than expected. It probably has to do with the fact that I didn't have a book to read for fun. But I passed some time (not including hanging out with friends) watching movies on YouTube and listening to music. 

Saturday night, I saw the Rosary of Crystal (Rosario de cristal), which is a parade that begins at 7 pm and has what could be considered floats made out of colored glass. They contain lights inside, so the effect when it's dark outside is very beautiful. The streets were blocked off, and the people in the parade walked between the metal fences, carrying candles and the floats and singing. You could only cross the street maybe every five minutes, which means that the sidewalks would get filled with people, then when they were allowed to cross, you were squished between like twenty people going both ways. I'd never been in anything like it.

On Sunday, one of my friends called me and asked me if I was still interested in going to see a bull event. From what a woman had told her, the event was about men jumping over cows for points. I wanted to see it, so I said that I would go. I met her at the SYA school about 11:15 am, and we rode on bus 21 to the ring, called the Plaza of the Bulls. It reminded me of the Colosseum! I got to pretend I was in Rome for a few seconds. We bought the tickets there, and I also bought some salty dried corn to snack on during the event. On the tickets it read "Vaca del Pilar," which means "The Cow of Pilar," so that was the name of the event we were going to see. We entered the ring, and the first thing I saw was the big hole in the roof. The sun shone through, brightening the apparatuses in the arena. In the middle stood a rectangular platform with a ladder on top. On opposite sides on the platform were two staircases, two square metal fences, and two metal pyramids. My friend and I sat about half way up, so we had very good views of the whole ring. Soon a booming male's voice filled the air, scaring me at first. Then six men entered, dressed in white shirts and pants with red stripes on the sides. The crowd cheered, and the announcer said each man's name. Then they got capes and flags, preparing themselves for the first cow. It came charging into the arena, and I had a momentary thrill of fear and excitement, trying to imagine what it would be like to be one of those men in the arena facing an oncoming cow. Using the capes and flags, the men tried to provoke the bull to make it climb one of apparatuses. The first few cows didn't fall for the bait, so it was a little boring, but afterwards the cows grew more aggressive, making it more exciting. Whenever one of the cows did climb an apparatus, the crowd would applaud and hoot and whistle. I could really see how much the Spanish love the bull events. During the event, three men got injured, so they were taken out of the arena. At the end, the three remaining men left the ring, and a table with trophies was set up. I expected one of the participating men would win one of them. However, it turned out that the trophies were awarded to the owners of the best cows. The third place winner was a man, second place winners a man and woman, and the third place winners two men. My friend and I left the ring and rode back to the school on the same bus as before. There, we said goodbye and went to our homes. 

One thing I did like about the fiestas of Pilar is the independence. We got to choose what to do and where to go. It's very different from anything I've experienced before. 

One of the floats in the Rosary of Crystal.

The Plaza of Bulls.

Third place winner.

Second place winners.

First place winners.

Me in front of the Plaza of Bulls.