Official mourning - luto

I forget exactly but I think it was when they were burying the old Queen. As the cortege passed, at least on one stretch, people applauded. The British public didn't keep quiet, they didn't hold with the old stiff upper lip rule. No "dignified" silence. They showed their appreciation. They clapped.

Spaniards always applaud at funerals, at celebrity funerals, at funerals for victims, at funerals for heroes. Reverence isn't the way; full voiced appreciation is. Spaniards applauded the health workers every evening for 64 consecutive days during the pandemic. Spaniards applaud under lots of circumstances.

When something bad happens. When women are murdered by their partners. When children are kidnapped, when workers die in industrial accidents, Spaniards go and stand somewhere, together, and make a show of their concern and solidarity. A short period of silence, at noon, followed by applause, outside the town hall is typical.

When something bad happens in a town. When workers die in fires and explosions. When miners are buried alive. When young people die in traffic accidents. When concert goers are crushed to death and when club revellers are let down by unscrupulous club owners and local authorities which may be better at writing rules than enforcing them, then, those same local authorities announce an official period of mourning.

Someone was killed a couple of years ago in Pinoso in the place that people run about taunting bullocks as a part of the town's annual celebration, its fiestas. I seem to remember that the official mourning period was for just one day. Flags at half mast, a sombre TV interview from the mayor. The bullock chasing was only suspended for that day though. Then it was back to business as usual. I wouldn't be cynical enough to suggest that the reason was financial.

Thirteen young people died in a disco fire in Murcia city on Sunday. The local authority, may or may not have failed in its duty to protect those revellers through proper inspections - the town hall claims there was no licence in place, the club owners say there was. The club was obviously unsafe and the young people are dead whichever side manages to dodge the blame. As a consequence of the deaths three days of mourning were declared for the whole of the Region of Murcia.

We were going to a concert in Yecla this evening, Yecla is in Murcia. The concert was cancelled because of that mourning period. So far as I remember that's the first time that we have actually been affected by any of this official outpouring of grief. 

And just in case anybody takes from this that I am moaning about the cancellation, I'm not. It was just that the cancellation reminded me of something that fits with the tagline at the top of this page about what an old, fat, white haired Briton notices around him in Spain.