Wine battle
The battle of wine is a Festival of National Tourist Interest, which takes place annually on the morning of June 29, the festival of San Pedro, in the city of Haro (La Rioja) Spain.
It consists of soaking other participants in red wine until they are completely purple and takes place about six km north of the town of Haro, in the area of Riscos de Bilibio, located next to the place known as Las Conchas, for which the Ebro makes its entry into La Rioja.
In the place where it is celebrated, Felices de Bilibio lived and died, master of San Millán in the 6th century. Since then the place has been visited and venerated by pilgrims. It seems that the realization of the pilgrimage in a more organized way arose with the construction of the first hermitage on the cliffs at the beginning of the 18th century.
The transformation of the pilgrimage into what is now known as the "wine battle" has its origins in the revelry that took place during the lunch that the pilgrims had after attending mass in the hermitage. Plentiful wine accompanied the feast, encouraging people to sing and play tricks on each other, such as staining their boots with the wine they had to drink. This was not to everyone's taste, so for several years the influx to the pilgrimage decreased, especially women who did not want their dresses stained. In 1949, the throwing of wine was already so common that it earned its first mention under the name Wine Battle, gaining popularity over the years until it achieved the influx of the current festival, which annually attracts people from everywhere.
Development of the celebration
A little before seven in the morning, the people, dressed in white, dressed in the red scarf of the festivities and carrying the wine for the contest, headed towards the Riscos de Bilibio, walking well, in dragged trailers by tractors or private vehicles.
Once at the top, the wine begins to be thrown using boots, bottles, sprayers, cauldrons, water pistols and everything imaginable that can hold liquid.
While this battle is being fought, around eight thirty or nine depending on the year, the city councilor, who symbolically has command during the festivities, opens a procession on horseback until they reach the hermitage of San Felices de Bilibio, where after placing the banner at the top of the rocks, a mass is celebrated. At the end of this, a rocket is fired, officially starting the wine battle, beginning the brass bands to encourage the crowd that gathers in the fields under the hermitage.
Around 10:30, when the ammunition runs out (20,000 liters estimated in 2007. Between 30,000 and 40,000 in 2008, coinciding with the weekend.), the people are withdrawing towards the surroundings to dry their soaked clothes and have lunch of the typical snails or chops al vine shoots.
At the end of lunch, the pilgrimage returns to Haro until reaching the bridge over the Tirón river. At twelve noon, you begin to enter the city (an act known as "las vueltas"), heading down Calle Navarra to the rhythm of brass bands and, after surrounding the bandstand of the music of the Plaza de la Paz, go to the bullring where several wild cattle are released.
Historical setting
The importance of the Riscos de Bilibio for those of Haro
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In the Riscos where this festival is celebrated, the anchorite Felices de Bilibio, master of San Millán, lived and died between the 5th and 6th centuries. After his death, the devotion of the inhabitants of the town of Bilibio and its surroundings began to his person, producing visits to the cave on the Riscos in which he was buried, as a tribute to the acts he carried out in life and for the protection of the region that they attributed to this.
The inhabitants of Bilibio gradually moved to Haro until it was left uninhabited in the 10th century, taking with them their devotion to the saint.
In 1090, when the sanctity of Felices had spread throughout Castile, Abbot Blas decided to take the remains of Felices to the Monastery of San Millán, leaving the cave that had housed them empty on November 6. This act He did not lose devotion to the saint over time, so the town of Haro asked the monastery for a relic of Felices. On November 6 (commemoration of the transfer of San Felices from Bilibio to San Millán) of 1605, the feast of San Felices was celebrated in San Millán de la Cogolla with a solemn mass, during which the abbot expressed his intention to grant Haro a relic, handing it over to the council of the church of Santo Tomás. The next day it was taken to Haro and placed in a reliquary in the hermitage of La Vega, since the church of Santo Tomás still does not have a reliquary, nor is it open for worship. This was conditioned, and the relic was transferred to it on June 25, 1607.
On January 31, 1644, he was officially named patron saint of Haro and on June 2, 1655, a brotherhood was founded to venerate him
In 1694 a hermitage was built in his honor under the hill of La Mota, near the church of Santo Tomás, deciding on July 23, 1710 the construction of the first hermitage in Bilibio, which would cover the cave where he believes he lived in Felices.
Precedents of festivities on Saint Peter's Day
It seems that in the fifteenth century the festivities of San Juan (June 24) and San Pedro (June 29) were the most important. The most notable was that of San Juan, also known as San Juan del Arc, since it was customary to take out an arch in a procession, adorned with the "church vestments", in which the images of San Juan and San Pedro appeared.
An expense account from the municipal archive of 1462 says "That they ordered Abrahin to be given, tamboril, because he had twenty maravedies on the day of San Juan and San Pedro" so it follows that some kind of celebration was already taking place on those dates.
In 1469 it is known from another expense account that there were bulls in both San Juan and San Pedro.
To reduce the expenses of the council, in 1491, what was granted to mayors and aldermen for the "yantar" of San Juan and "çenas" of San Juan and San Pedro.
Pilgrimage to the Riscos de Bilibio
Approach to the beginning of the pilgrimage
Although since at least the XV century, events were held on June 29, the date on which the pilgrimage to the Riscos de Bilibio began.
It is known, through documents in the municipal archive, of the realization of other pilgrimages by the inhabitants of Haro. One that was held annually since before 1467 was the pilgrimage to the monastery of Santa María de Toloño. In other times there were also pilgrimages to the hermitage of Santa Águeda and that of Nuestra Señora de la Puente (next to the Briñas bridge).
In 1710 construction began on the first hermitage in Los Riscos, so it is likely that the organized pilgrimage began around that year.
Changes in pilgrimage due to wars
It is known that the traditional pilgrimage has been modified on several occasions.
At the time of the third Carlist War, Carlist guerrillas roamed the Montes Obarenes, which posed a risk for the pilgrims, so in 1873 and 74 the pilgrimage was held in the Fuente del Moro area.
In 1875, due to the raids of the guerrilla jarrero Benigno Barrionuevo "Carrión", who occupied Las Conchas de Haro to hinder the progress of the railway, the pilgrimage in Bilibio could not be held either.
Wine Battle
Wine begins to be poured, to the complaints of some
In the newspaper La Rioja of June 29, 1898, the chronicler Aguilera indicated about the pilgrimage:
By the time this number reaches the hands of my dear readers of Haro, the typical pilgrimage of Bilibio will have passed into history; we will have a few less wine jars in the wineries and some more between the body and the suit; we would have been disgraced by singing with all the forces of our lungs and those that give us alcohol the popular booth of Lacalle and Manzanos.Aguilera
From this it can be deduced that since previous years people ended up stained with wine during the pilgrimage.
In 1905 the same newspaper says that the attendance at the pilgrimage has not been so numerous and that there were fewer women than usual. Although the day had turned out cloudy, he gives as a possible reason for the decrease in the influx that the women came with their light-colored suits completely stained with wine just like the men, considering it graceless brutality. The following year he returns to say that the party declines because some funny people stain the whole world with wine and that it will get worse if the authorities do not remedy it.
Manrique in the recasting in 1907 of the sainete "Eh, á Bilibio!" It states that the pilgrimage involved soaking in wine, which was not to everyone's taste.
It seems that the influx of people recovered since in 1910 it is said that a lot of people had gone up and in the following years the animation continues normal.
In 1918, the newspaper La Rioja published an exhaustive account of the festival under the title To Bilibio! where it is indicated that some soaked others in wine amid the joy caused by the red wine taken during lunch.
The morning goes smoothly: as they go, they seek good place, they run, dance and hear mass, ten o'clock: the critical time to "kill the gusanillo." One corrode here, another there and another farther, sitting on the rabbin, with eyes fixed on the steaming casserole, gives beginning the lunch, which is celebrated with the general romeril joy, running the joke that is a taste, and even more gladly runs the red through the throats. After lunch, the rosemary, with a cigar of "gorra" in the mouth and the already half boot in the hand, go down to the other deadline next to the corral, and there the chords of the music are heard again, and the boys of both sexes, big and small, young and old, are thrown to dance in a "edifying" way; they understand, they stumble, fall, Then it is when the wine starts to do its operation, help by the stifling heat of an advanced summer morning. One, over here, reaps the heads of the people closest to him. Another one with a glass of wine raised high sings with all the forces of his lungs.Juan Lapresa
In a report in the magazine Blanco y Negro from 1929, it is said that when they arrive in the town, those in long blouses wear them soaked in wine and that from the hermitage to the Plaza de la Paz they baptize with the red wine from the boots to as many people as possible, a custom that has been carried out for a few years.
In the chronicle of the newspaper La Rioja from 1932, it says that the baptisms of wine were lavished with great frequency, which made the party lose its shine and the women refrained from attending. A poem from the same year published in the jarrero newspaper San Pedro indicates something similar:
...St. Peter's Physics of such a happy memory
...
You are losing your brightness and also your just glory,
when the waiters did not come - they all came before
by mor of four beautiful shorts of wit and grace,
that with their wine boots the face and dresses stain.St.Peter's Newspaper No. 2., "Romance of a Short View (not Blind)".
The number of women continued to decline. Thus, in 1933, with good weather, the newspaper La Rioja says that there was a "rowet of pretty girls". In 1934, on a cold day, there were hardly any women and in 1935 and 1936 the correspondent indicated that none had gone up. In 1937, when the country was in the middle of the Civil War, the city council decided to limit the celebration to its most religious aspect. The pilgrimage would be made without the music band and there would be no heifers or bullfights. Even so, almost two hundred people went up to the Riscos. Unlike other years, two masses were held at eight and nine and the authorities who always ate lunch in the only building that stood there, that year did so with the rest of the pilgrims. In 1938, the situation of the previous year was repeated with the same number of people and a "swarm of pretty and nice young ladies". There was no shortage of wine baptisms and upon reaching the square they took the typical turns ending the party.
In 1939, with the war already over and a large number of replacements demobilized, it was expected that young people would come eager to have fun. The large number of attendees broke the forecasts, also participating hundreds of women who gave shine to the festivity. The music band came up again, two masses were said, with lunch they drank and threw a lot of wine and after the tours there were heifers and in the afternoon a bullfight.
The throwing of wine becomes popular giving rise to the current celebration
In the following years the population ended up accepting that some spilled wine during the pilgrimage, which is why it became part of it, appearing named in 1949 for the first time as Wine Battle in the Chronicle by Enrique Hermosilla Díez for the newspaper La Rioja. Then the battle took place when leaving mass, next to the stairs of the hermitage and the small adjacent esplanade.
Given the success of the celebration, the brotherhood of San Felices, with Domingo Contreras González as prior and the city council, with Antonio Vargas Carranza as mayor, requested the Ministry of Information and Tourism to recognize the pilgrimage as a festival of tourist interest, obtaining such recognition on July 8, 1965.
On September 22, 1968 at 12:30 p.m., a second Battle of Wine was held at the request of an American advertising agency, which was filming the most typical and colorful festivals in Spain. In this battle, people did not have the joy of the holidays and were tired, having had to wait from 10:30 (the time at which they had been summoned) until the time of the shooting.
The number of participants was increasing, which meant that in 1976 they moved under the southeast face of the Riscos for greater security. In this way today the battle takes place in two areas, the most massive in the grove and the most traditional next to the exit of the hermitage at the end of the mass.
When the festivity of San Pedro was canceled at the national level in March 1977, the Haro city council, fearing that since it was a weekday the pilgrimage would stop being crowded, decided to submit to a referendum the possibility of changing the date of celebration to Sunday following Saint Peter's Day. The town of Haro concluded that they wanted to continue celebrating it on June 29 as was the custom and today it is still crowded.
Festival of Tourist Interest
On July 8, 1965, the Secretariat of the Ministry of Information and Tourism granted the honorary title of "Fiesta of Tourist Interest" to the "Pilgrimage of San Felices de Bilibio".
On January 18, 1980, the Secretary of State for Tourism, in compliance with article 7 of the ordinance of January 29, 1979 to reclassify the Festivals of Tourist Interest in Spain, published a list of festivities classifying them between &# 34;Festivities of International Tourist Interest", "Festivities of National Tourist Interest" and "Fiestas of Tourist Interest", including the pilgrimage of San Felices de Bilibio in the latter.
On June 15, 1988, the Ministry of Transport, Tourism and Communications was asked to declare the "Pilgrimage to San Felices de Bilibio", being dismissed on November 30.
In November 1998, the government of La Rioja granted it the title of "Fiesta of Tourist Interest in La Rioja".
On March 22, 2011, it was declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest.
Other data
The Trustee
The main protagonist of the pilgrimage is the Regidor Síndico, who opens the procession and carries the banner of the city. The position originates from the Procurador Síndico, who was in charge of the outer neighborhoods and villages under the jurisdiction of Haro, such as San Felices, Atamauri, Alviano. He was also in charge of the trips, sometimes accompanied by the mayor. In 1888, this position was named for the first time as Regidor Síndico, which is the one that is maintained at present, although now the position is elected during the festivities, being the symbolic representative during these.
Legends and popular beliefs
The absence of rigorous studies at the end of the XX century on the historical development of the festival led to the establishment of some beliefs and legends that had arisen over the years. On June 26, 2010, the researcher Fernando de la Fuente gave a conference at the Casa del Santo de Haro organized by the Brotherhood of San Felices de Bilibio, in order to disseminate his studies on the origins of the pilgrimage on June 29 and thus try to prevent the spread of false beliefs.
Legend of disputes between Haro and Miranda de Ebro
Every year, both in the pilgrimage on June 29 and on the first Sunday in September, the procurator-trustee places the purple banner of the city over the hermitage of San Felices. The reason is unknown, but a comment left by Domingo Hergueta in his book "Historical News of the Very Noble and Very Loyal City of Haro", has led some to give as good assumptions origins that have never been endorsed with data, nor do they seem to have historical accuracy. Speaking of the June pilgrimage, Hergueta says in his book:
As already ten and a half or eleven begin the rosemary to prepare for the return, after locking the flag of the villa that has taken the prosecutor and that has been waving at the top of San Felices and that it seems to be one of the most outgoing notes of the romeria, since both on this day and on the first Sunday of September that it has also been placed to Bifraro by the Procurador-Sindico
In the quote he indicates a supposition (based on tradition) but without delving into it since he could not find the reason why the banner was placed on top during the pilgrimages. It is known of the existence of several lawsuits with Miranda between the 11th and 13th centuries, but it is unknown to which documents he would refer, since in the existing ones there is no possible relationship with this matter. In addition, the pilgrimages seem relatively recent, being verified that of June from the construction of the first hermitage in Bilibio after 1710 (although the day of San Pedro was already celebrated in Haro before) and that of the first Sunday of September, Established by the Brotherhood of San Felices, from 1849.
The act of throwing came as if it were a war has been attributed on many occasions to the old disputes that existed between Haro and Miranda, when by the different mentions in the press of the first half of the century XX it is seen that throwing wine was part of the revelry that took place after lunch and from there it evolved over time into the current wine battle.
Belief that it was a Festival of National Tourist Interest before 2011
At the end of the XX century and beginning of the XXI century, the idea spread that the celebration was considered a Feast of National Tourist Interest and thus it was collected in numerous media. It was not until 2010 when the Haro town hall collected documentation to find out the different attributions that had been made to it over time, detecting that the maximum it had was that of a Festival of Tourist Interest, which is considered regional. The city council processed in 2010 the granting of the national title, being granted on March 22, 2011.
Children's Wine Battle
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Since 2004, during the June festivities, a children's wine battle has been held so that the youngest can enjoy this tradition.
On June 26 or 27, between 10 and 11 in the morning in the Plaza de la Paz, they distribute vouchers that can be exchanged for a barrel full of red wine. Shortly after, the procession goes out to the El Ferial site where, after making an offering to the patron and launching a rocket, the battle begins. After this, a lunch of chocolate and biscuits is distributed, continuing with the return to the Plaza de la Paz where Las Vueltas is given accompanied by brass bands, to end up running big-headed in the Plaza de San Martín.
Similar festivities in other towns
In Jumilla (Murcia), the Saturday after the August 15 holiday, the Great Wine Parade is held, framed within the Harvest Fair and Festival, where other parades and festive events are held, such as Moors and Christians or a National Folklore Festival. It is a parade that serves as the culmination of ten days of festivities, where floats parade, representing Jumilla and its wine. These floats are accompanied by music, typical sweets and many liters of wine that will end up distributed among the participants. It attracts several tens of thousands of people from numerous nearby towns and bordering provinces.
In the La Rioja town of San Asensio, the battle of claret has been celebrated since 1977. It takes place in the neighborhood of the wineries at 12 in the morning on the Sunday closest to July 25. In 2007 it celebrated its thirtieth edition and was attended by more than a thousand people.
In Llamigo, a town in the parish of Nueva, council of Llanes (Asturias), every September 9 they hold a solemn mass with a procession, horse race and a wine war similar to the one in Haro, during the festivities in honor of the Virgin of Loreto.
Contenido relacionado
Louvre Museum
Annex: Regions of Aragon
Annex: Municipalities of La Rioja (Spain)