Entierro de la Sardina ("Burial of the Sardine") is a traditional Spanish festival marking the end of Carnival and the beginning of Lent. This event typically takes place on Ash Wednesday, and the celebration includes a mock funeral procession, during which an effigy of a sardine is paraded through the streets and eventually buried or burned.

There are several theories about the origin of Entierro de la Sardina, a tradition that even Goya portrayed in one of his paintings. One theory is that at the beginning of the 18th century, a cart of sardines destined to be food for the citizens of Madrid during the Lenten vigil, arrived rotten. It was ordered that they be buried on the outskirts of the city. The people of Madrid, still enjoying the last moments of the Carnival, jokingly joined the shipment as if it were a funeral procession. The performance was popular and in the following years they celebrated the funeral again until it became a tradition that expanded beyond Madrid, even reaching the other side of the Atlantic.

The festival is characterised by its satirical and humorous nature. Participants often dress in mourning attire, and the event is accompanied by music, dancing and various performances.

One of the most famous Entierro de la Sardina celebrations occurs in Murcia, in southeastern Spain, where the three-day long festival takes place after Easter, and culminates on the Saturday following Easter Sunday with the setting on fire of enormous papier-mâché sardine.

This Murcia version of the festival is known for its elaborate nature and sheer scale, featuring a grand parade with floats, music and costumes. Each year there is a fish-headed mascot (it’s been a guy named Pablo Garcia for the last 18 years), a Doña Sardina appointed as Sardine Queen [Ed: It’s a great honour, apparently], and someone named El Gran Pez, typically a big shot local businessman who, along with the Doña Sardina, is responsible for taking the celebrations beyond the borders of the Region of Murcia.

It’s a huge deal in Murcia. The normal population of 450,000 doubles with visitors attending from all over the world. 400 local participants known as sardineros spend virtually the entire year designing and planning parade floats from which they will be tossing toys and sweets to the excited throng of spectators. Each of the 23 floats carries around 40,000 toys, so you can imagine that not many have to go home empty handed. Each sardine group is named after either a Roman or Greek God, e.g. Apollo, Bacchus, Eros, Jupiter, etc.

On the day before the fish-burning parade, Doña delivers the sardine’s will from the balcony of the Murcia City Hall. It is a satirical speech that touches on the current affairs of Spain in a humorous way and is designed to delight the spectators. The last syllable of each sentence is repeated by the attendees as a way of encouraging the Doña as she speaks.

Spaniards know how to do strange … and have a good time. Here’s a good example.
_____________________

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entierro_de_la_Sardina
https://entierrodelasardina.com/gran-pez-dona-sardina/

Images

1. Entierro de la Sardina, Murcia, 2024. Credit: laverdad.es.
2. The Burial of the Sardine by Spanish artist Francisco Goya, circa 1812
3. Burial of the sardine in Pòrtol, Mallorca. Credit: Jordi Avella.
4. Murcia on map of Spain
5. Entierro de la Sardina, Murcia, 2023, Credit: EP.
6. Entierro de la Sardina, Murcia, 2024. Credit: laverdad.es.
7. Pablo Garcia the mascot. Credit: Great Big Story, 2023.
8. Official Committee of Entierro de la Sardina 2024. All men.
9. Doña Sardina delivers the sardine’s will to the crowd in 2022
10. Video: This Spanish Festival Is a Funeral For a Fish, Great Big Story, 2023