Pilar Festival

From Bilbao and San Sebastian, we returned to Zaragoza for the Pilar holiday, a national day of observance on October 12 in honor of the Virgin of Pilar. Every year, the complete Pilar Festival is a giant Spanish fiesta which runs over the course of 10 days and is filled with concerts, dancing, street vendors, hoards of visitors, and more...at all hours of the day and night. For instance, this video of the David Guetta concert, which started at 4:30AM, was one example of the ongoing activities just minutes from our apartment. A 9 a.m. bedtime was not unusual for many folks during Pilar and some of the participates were kids not much older than Colin.

Photo: Basilica del Pilar


The festival has its origins back in 40 AD when St. James the Apostle came to Aragon to spread Christianity to the mostly Pagan population. On his journey, the Virgin Mary is supposed to have appeared to him on a marble pillar and asked him to build a church on the land. Initially, a chapel was built around the pillar followed by grander churches over the centuries. Today, the enormous Basilica del Pilar stands on this location.

Photo: Parade procession, bringing flowers to Pilar


Throughout the day, the 'bringing of flowers to Pilar' parade took place. A mountain of roses, lillies, orchids, and gladiolus found their way to the Plaza de Pilar as an offering to the Virgin and ultimately, they sat at the bottom of her 'skirt.' For the festivities, women, men and children wore beautiful traditional costumes that varied in color and style. We wished we had known the origination of the different styles of dress. When we asked some locals we were told that while many of them reflected other parts of Spain including Andalucia or Valencia, most of them were from Zaragoza and the Aragon region.

Photos: More parade












Video: Traditional dance frequently seen during the Pilar Week


















Photos: Pilar and the flower skirt in the background

































Photos: Women spontaneously dancing flamenco style to festival music


We enjoyed the Pilar holiday but were also relieved when the festivities came to a close on October 17. Our apartment is less than a block from all the action, and it was humming for 10 days; our street was filled with vans that doubled as the street vendors' homes and the noxious smells were almost unbearable by the end of it all.



Photo: Don Jaime street (the street where Ellen Wolff and Kevin King live) during Pilar