The Virgin comes down

I drove over to Novelda yesterday to see La bajada de la Virgen. I'd never seen this particular procession and I'm always up for a good romería. The idea of a romería is that a saint, well the carved statue that represents a saint, is moved from one place to another in a procession - usually from some sort of chapel to a parish church or vice versa. Normally the saints are carried on the shoulders of the faithful using a stretcher like base but not always, in la Palma for instance the saint rides in a cart. There are all sort of variations. The shrine where this particular saint, Mary Magdalene, came from is on la Mola Hill so she was brought down; bajada implies coming down, subida is when the saint goes up the hill.

The style of a romería can vary, some are pretty large scale like San Pancrecio in Sax, San Isidro in Salinas or the Virgen de la Nieves between Aspe and Hondón de la Nieves. Several are much smaller scale including very local ones like moving the Virgen de la Asunción from Caballusa to Pinoso and back or taking la Fatima up and down Monte Cabeço. If you want to see sheer madness the romería associated with el Rocio in Andalucia is the one - religious fervour turned pitch battle. It's worth a bit of YouTubery to see it!

Anyway Novelda was due to start at 7pm from the santuario up on la Mola. I thought I'd leave Culebrón around 6pm, park in the car park by the castle on La Mola have time to take a few snaps as the Virgin set off with maybe a couple of hundred people in attendance. I expected to be home in an hour or so. 

When I got to Novelda the town was under a state of siege. Roads were closed everywhere. Local Police and Civil Protection moved around purposefully. Parking spaces had to be fought for. Obviously this thing was bigger than I'd expected. In fact I reckon that half of Novelda was there. The crowds were impressive and to be honest I had no idea what was going on. The road up to the castle and sanctuary, Paseo de los Molinos, had a few stalls along its length selling beer and water and candles. There were promotional tents for dance clubs and most of the big houses along the route were hosting pool parties. Lots and lots of young people had matching t-shirts which I presumed were simply unofficial peñas, often just friendship groups, but they may have been tied in with the Moros y Cristianos festivals that are going on this week in the town. I wondered about asking but I never quite got around to it. I don't like to expose my appalling Spanish and, anyway, my mum told me not to talk to strangers.

When the Virgin came into view I was a bit surprised. Those teddy bears you can win at the fair are often bigger. As she progressed there were lots of ¡Vivas! - Hurrah the Virgin of Novelda - Hurrah. Hurrah Mary Magdalene - Hurrah and so on. I was wandering along close to the Virgin's carriers and every now and again something would happen. Maybe there were a bunch of people forming human towers to delight the Virgin. Or maybe she would dive into the spectators when she saw someone alongside the road in a wheelchair. The Virgin got close, the wheelchair user stretched out to touch the Virgin. I saw no actual miracles. As she passed some of the houses along the route there would be a volley of fireworks. Every so often Mary Magdalene would be set down on a tabletop, brought out of one of the local houses by well wishers, so that people could rub their mass cards against the little figure or lift their babies up to touch the statue.

When the Virgin passed the junction which led to where my car was parked I decided to let her go on her way. I did notice though that the candle sellers were doing brisk business. Presumably a candlelit procession would be part of the event later.