El Rocio Pilgrimage

Every year, the week before Pentecost, about 1 million people from all over Andalusia gather in the town of El Rocio to celebrate Nuestra Senora del Rocio, Our Lady of the Dew. The pilgrims, or Romeros, have been making this journey annually since the 17th century. It takes 4 days or more to travel across Andalusia, because they ride on horses, and pull colorfully-decorated wagons to carry their supplies as they camp and make their way towards El Rocio.

The tradition of Our Lady of El Rocio goes back to the 13th century, when a hunter found a statue of the Virgin in a densely wooded area of the modern-day Donana Park. At first, the hunter tried to carry the statue back to his home town. But it became so heavy that he stopped to rest, and when he awoke, the statue was missing. He found it once again in its original place, several miles behind him, and realized that the Virgin intended for her chapel to be built on that site. On the night of Pentecost, the town of El Rocio has a huge celebration and procession of the statue of Mary, as she is carried from the chapel of one brotherhood to the next. Devotion was originally a local event, but in the 17th century, other cities began to form groups, or brotherhoods, to make the pilgrimage together.

Now, each town in this region sends their own brotherhood. The groups travel together riding horses, wearing traditional attire: short traje jackets and wide-brimmed hats for the men, and colorful ruffled flamenco dresses for the women. They are followed by wagons and modern caravan homes, which they sometimes camp in overnight, although some groups have large tractors pulling trailers of supplies. One essential supply is... wine! There are huge plastic barrels of manzanilla wine to fortify the Romeros on their journey. Because this is a Spanish pilgrimage, it is basically one long party. During the day, they drink and sing songs. At night, they make campfires, drink, and sing more songs. The pilgrimage is a family affair, with plenty of children riding in the wagons and caravans.

There are several routes the pilgrims can take, but they all eventually come to the Donana National Park, which is a protected wildlife area. Typically, people are not allowed to travel though this park unaccompanied, so the Rocio pilgrimage involves lots of police watching the route, and protecting against forest fires. To reach the Donana Park, the pilgrims must cross the Guadalquivir river, so they all come together at the town of San Lucar de Barrameda to board ferries and enter the park. For 2 days, brotherhoods line up at designated times to board the ferry together. The kids and I, along with some friends, were lucky to be able to go to San Lucar and watch the festivities while at the ferry crossing.

Although it was a little chilly and drizzly, I am glad that we got to travel to San Lucar (which is only a half hour from base) to see this event. The children enjoyed watching the horses travel through the streets and line up to get on the ferry. Andalusian horses are beautiful-- mostly brown or white, with such graceful lines. We enjoyed the festive atmosphere, as locals filled the riverfront restaurants, sang in the streets, and enjoyed the event with us.



My favorite part of the day was probably chatting with a local woman named Lola, who first came over to admire our children (my friend and I had 4 young children between us, and the Spanish can't resist cute kids). She began telling us--in Spanish-- how beautiful the children were, and how we should treasure them because they will grow up so quickly. She had 3 grown children of her own. Next thing we know, she is showing us pictures of her grandchildren, and inviting us to go to her family's caseta (pavilion) during their Feria, which was the following weekend! Of course we didn't take her up on the offer, but she completely expected that we would just show up at her caseta and introduce her to the rest of our family. My friend speaks better Spanish than I do, but we were both able to follow the conversation and appreciate Lola's compliments. To me, she demonstrated so many of the positive traits of the Spanish-- the openness to strangers, their generosity, love of children, love of life, and love of celebrations. And of course it was refreshing to be complimented on Spanish and feel a little bit of accomplishment after so many mistakes and struggles.

My other favorite detail of the day was visiting the local chapel, which was right on the riverfront in San Lucar. This tiny chapel was a stopping point for some people on the pilgrimage, and was filled with candles and fresh flower bouquets. It was dedicated to our Lady, "Queen of the Sea and Queen of Heaven." Of course, since San Lucar is a fishing town, there is a strong dedication to our Lady to protect all ocean activity. The symbols and images were so interesting: anchors, ship's wheels, drowning sailors, and even blinking lights around Mary's head. The kids enjoyed it, and as I sat there and prayed a Hail Mary with them, I was happy to be a part of this interesting Spanish tradition.