ARCHIVED - The Murcia Moors and Christians, tonight is your last chance for this year

Whats on in Murcia, the last night of the Feria and Gardens of Malecon

2010-09-13

The Moors and Christians celebrations in Murcia close at midnight today for another year, together with the Gardens of Malecon, so youve still got time to get down there tonight and see the last of the representations, then enjoy a spot of tapas in the atmospheric gardens which run along the river banks.

Coming from a country which just doesnt have these amazing fiestas, its a real privilege to have such a wealth of events to choose from right throughout the year. Some weeks its just impossible to choose where to go, and we now regularly drive all over the region discovering and enjoying these events.

But on Saturday night, it was brought home to us that so do the Spanish, and a surprising amount of the "domestic tourism" comes from this "fiesta chasing "As obviously English photographers with our logo emblazoned across the back of our jackets, we tend to stand out a little, so people remember our faces.

On Saturday night, whilst working in the Moors and Christians parade, we were called over to photograph and talk to three different groups of Spanish, whod seen us at the Fiesta de la Huerta y el Mar in Los Alcazares,

The running of the wine horses in Caravaca and the Semana Santa parade of the Coloraos in Murcia, and yes, several of you were there as well, having a great night out.

Every time we talk to any Spanish residents at these parades and folk events, theyre delighted to see us enjoying their culture, and yes, we deliberately post these post-event reports to show you what youve missed so maybe youll come next year.

The Spanish go away for the weekend when the big fiestas are on, stay in hotels, make a real weekend of it, yet many of us are reluctant to drive 30 minutes to go to an event when weve come all the way to Spain to seek a better lifestyle, only making an effort to go out when weve got visitors.

This Moors and Christians is very typical of these " historical" fiestas, which are based very loosely around historical fact. Murcia was founded by the arabs, and was once a vast walled arab city, and many remains of the original structure still exist today.

The founding of Murcia is quite an interesting little story

This area was known as Tudmir by the arabs, and was inhabited by two rival tribes, the Yemenies and the Midaries, who mutually loathed each other.

This enmity dated back long before they arrived in this area, and although the dislike didnt boil over into anything more serious than resentful rivalry, there was constant tension in the area, which was ruled from Cordoba.

This all changed, however, due to the most trivial of incidents- an argument over a bunch of grapes.

One day, a Yemeni went down to the waters edge of the Rio Segura to fill his drinking flask, and decided to help himself to some grapes he noticed growing nearby. Unfortunately , the owner of the grapes, a Midare, saw him just as he was about to cut the branch and ordered him to stop. He refused, popped a grape in his mouth, and the enraged and insulted  owner attacked.

A big fight ensued, in which the Yemeni was killed.

His tribe were furious and launched  a raid on their rivals, which turned into a war.

Troops from Cordoba were sent to quash the fighting and an uneasy peace agreed, but by the time theyd ridden back to Cordoba, the fighting had broken out again.

Back they came, and the same thing happened again.

Fed-up with all the fighting, the emir decided to leave troops in the area permanently and built a fortification with the highest walls in the arab kingdom.

Mursiyya was born.

One big arab area of Murcia is San Esteban, the cause of a vast amount of wrangling last year, an extensive area of the old arab city uncovered during building works to construct a car park, which the constructor wanted to demolish.

Protests began, archaeologists wheeled in their experts who said the ruins were of irreplaceable historical value, the developers brought in their experts who said they were just a load of houses and of no historical value, the politicians got stuck in as well, and months of wrangling followed until finally it was decided to conserve the remains and build yet another museum over the top of them.

We watched the battle with astonishment; if just one 20^th of these ruins had been unearthed in the UK, thered be a visitor centre, gift shop, marketing and publicity campaign, book, BBC documentary, annual theatre festival, all with bells and whistles on top, yet here, theyve got so many amazing historical sites that they would quite happily have concreted them over and stuck a carpark on top.

These murcian Moors and Christians commemorate the changeover from arab to Christian occupation, commemorating the arrival of young prince Alfonso, who later became Alfonso X, El Sabio, the wise one, who loved Murcia so much he willed it his heart, which is still within the walls of the cathedral today.

There are markedly more Moors than Christians in this festival, probably because the costumes are so drop dead gorgeous and everybody looks absolutely amazing as they file past.

Apparently, they change every year, as most of them are just hired, so this means anyone can get involved without having to pay out a fortune, and the great joy of this festival is seeing all ages participating, from tiny babes to their great grandparents.

So maybe well see you there next year.

Apologies for the delay in posting the Romans and Carthaginians, the Paramount story wiped us out this weekend under a deluge of enquiries and research, so check back tomorrow and the programme will be live.