Running of the Bulls festival in Spain

Running of the Bulls festival in Pamplona (Spain)

   This funny and crazy festival is held in Spain every year. The Running of the Bulls (in Spanish encierro) is a practice that involves running in front of a small group of bulls that have been let loose on a course of a sectioned-off subset of a town's streets. Spanish tradition says the true origin of the run began in north-eastern Spain during the early in 14th century. While transporting cattle in order to sell them at the market, men would try to speed the process by hurrying their cattle using tactics of fear and excitement. After years of this practice, the transportation and hurrying began to turn into a competition, as young adults would attempt to race in front of the bulls and make it safely to themselves without being overtaken. When the popularity of this practice increased and was noticed more and more by the expanding population of Spanish cities, a tradition was created and stands to this day. In Pamplona and other places, the six bulls in the event are still those that will feature in the afternoon bullfight of the same day.

   The most famous running of the bulls is that of the eight-day festival of San fermines in Pamplona, although they are held in towns and villages across Spain, Portugal, in some cities in Mexico, in San Jose Festival held in Trujillo, Peru, Mesquite, Nevada  in southern France during the summer. 

Brief History of the Running of the Bulls Festival: 

   The history of the bull running in Pamplona (Spain) is not clear. There is an evidence of the festival from as far back as the 13th century when it seems the events took place in October. Over many years the mainly religious festival of San Fermin was mixed by music, dancing, bullfights and markets such that the Pamplona Council proposed that the whole event be moved to July 7th when the weather is far more conducive to such a celebration. To this day San Fermin remains a fixed date every year with the first bull-run at 8am on July 7th and the last at the same time on July 14th.

   The joining together of the religious, commercial and bullfighting festivals and the move to July 7th led to the first official celebration of San Fermines in 1591. This initial holiday was a low key affair in comparison to the modern day running of the bulls as it only lasted two days although there was much fun involving music, a parade and a bull-fight. Dancing and fireworks became features of the festival over the next few years and the event was extended to July 10th.

   The first evidence of foreigners turning up in Pamplona for San Fermin are recorded in stories from the 17th and 18th centuries when reference is made to the local priest being concerned about “the abuse of drink and the fantasy of young men and women”. By now there was plenty music, dancing, drinking, street theatre and bull running as the religious focus of the occasion took a back seat. By the 19th century all kinds of fairground attractions were making their way to Pamplona including human fireballs and circus animals. The actual route of the bull-run did not have a double security wall as is the case today so the bulls were able to escape, creating chaos in the streets of Pamplona.

   Every year, between 200 and 300 people are injured during the run although most injuries are contusions due to falls and are not serious. Not all of the injuries require taking the patients to the hospital. As most of the runners are male, only 5 women have been gored since 1974 to 2012. Previously to that date running was prohibited for women.

   Overall, since record-keeping began in 1910, 15 people have been killed in the bull running of Pamplona, most of them due to being gored. To minimize the impact of injuries every day 200 people collaborate in the medical attention. They are deployed in 16 sanitary posts (every 50 metres on average), each one with at least a physician and a nurse among their personnel. Most of these 200 people are volunteers, mainly from the “Red Cross”. In addition to the medical posts, there are around 20 ambulances. This organization makes it possible to have a gored person stabilized and taken to a hospital in less than 10 minutes.

   Goring is much less common but potentially life threatening. In 2013 for example, 6 participants were gored along the festival, in 2012 only 4 runners were injured by the horns of the bulls with exactly the same number of gored people in 2011, 9 in 2010 and 10 in 2009; with one of the latter killed. 

Media illustrations of this traditional festival: 
 
   The Pamplona “encierro” is the most popular in Spain and has been broadcast live by RTVE, the public Spanish national television channel, for over 30 years. It is the highest profile event of the San Fermin festival, which is held every year from July 6–14. Among the rules to take part in the event are that participants must be at least 18 years old, run in the same direction as the bulls, not incite the bulls, and not be under the influence of alcohol. 

   The encierro (running of the bulls) of Pamplona has been depicted many times in literature, television or advertising, but became known worldwide partly due to the descriptions of Ernest Hemingway in his novels “The Sun also Rises” and “Death in the Afternoon”. The cinema pioneer Louis Lumiere filmed the run in 1899. 

   The run is depicted in the 1991 Billy Crystal film “City Slickers” where the character "Mitch" (Crystal) is gored (non-fatally) from behind by a bull during a vacation with the other main characters.

   The run appears in the 2011 Bollywood movie “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara”. In that movie, it was the final dare in the bucket list of the three bachelors who have to overcome their ultimate fear of death. In that movie, at first, those three friends run part of the route. They stop at the square, but then recover their nerve, and continue to the end. The completion of the run depicts their freedom as they learn that surviving a mortal danger can bring joy.

   “Running with the Bulls”, a 2012 documentary of the festival depicts the before and after of the controversial tradition. Many animal rights activists oppose the event and protest this kind of act.


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