The burial of the sardine

That's the name of today's fiesta. The picture here is in a museum in Madrid and it's called "the burial of the sardine" from Goya.

I missed the show at the central square here in Sabadell because I was working but the fiesta is actually called the burial of the sardine and it marks the end of carnival. Some said that the tradition is really ancient, from pagan times and it was incorporated as part of Catholics closure of carnival (another pagan tradition).

To make matters more confusing, there is the figure of a sardine, but it doesn't get bury but burned as you can see in the other picture taken from the local council website.

In some villages there's a tradition that are a sort of open air panto. The sardine is taken to be buried (cremated) and is followed by his widows (actually men dressed as women in black), the priest and his helpers. Then the devil enters and tries to take the sardine and is stop by the police (not the real one), then a mock fight ensues, the widows and the police restore peace and the sardine is finally burned.

After that people used to go in droves to church to the Ash Wednesday mass, where the priest mark a cross with ashes in people's forehead and remain everyone that "we came from ashes and in ashes we will turn" or something to that effect. There's a church nearby and it was packed when I return from work so the religious part of the tradition is still very much alive.
The Spaniards play hard but also pray hard. (pun intended)

Another excuse for a fiesta!! Nevertheless, we're going to shove pancakes tomorrow and we'll eat them with some maple syrup that we still have from USA. We're truly citizens of the world!