We have been two years in which the carnival parties They have not been celebrated (or they have been celebrated virtually or not very lavishly), so this year they are presumed to be especially desired and, for that reason, spectacular.
When the festivities are about to begin, they announce how the celebrations that precede the Lent -the liturgical time that lasts 40 days and that precedes, in turn, the Holy Week– and what activities are celebrated in the different towns, as is the case of Sitges or Cádiz, which has delayed its Carnival this year.
popular
And it is that the carnival parties have always been very popular in Spain and have been celebrated even during the French invasion, at the beginning of the XIX century.
However, there was a time during which the celebration was suspended: the February 5, 1937in full Civil warwas published in the Official State Gazette the prohibition of carnival and other celebrations: “In view of the exceptional circumstances that the country is going through, moments that advise a withdrawal in the externalization of internal joys, which are poorly combined with the life of sacrifices that we must lead, attentive only to the fact that nothing is lacking for our brothers who watch over For the honor and salvation of Spain they fight on the front lines with as much heroism as self-sacrifice and enthusiasm, this General Government has decided to suspend the Carnival festivities at all,” reads the call ‘Circular order’ of the aforementioned BOE on page 9.
Cadiz, dissident
Most Spanish towns and cities accepted this decree. However, Cádiz disobeyed the ban and continued to celebrate its annual Carnival, albeit behind closed doors.
Finally, a decade later, the ‘Tacita de plata’ officially recovered the celebrations when, on August 18, 1947, the explosion of the San Severiano mine deposit, which caused about 150 deaths. civil governor, Carlos Maria Rodriguez de Valcarceldecided that to raise the spirits of the city, the best thing was to recover the festive spirit of Carnival.
veto lifted
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It must be said that, even if the veto was lifted, the groups sang in the streets under strict control and the word “carnival” could not be used (it was called Cadiz Typical Festivals). As expected, the people of Cadiz did everything possible to avoid censorship by using letters that harbored hidden meanings. The date on which it was celebrated was also changed, instead of being held in February, it was held in May.
It was not until two years after the death of dictator Francisco Francoin 1977, when the Carnival was fully recovered and as we know it today throughout the country.