La Virgen de la Paloma

One of Madrid's oldest and most celebrated fiestas, the Virgen de la Paloma, begins on August 11th and culminates on the 15th.

The fiesta has taken place since the 18th century in the Plaza de las Vistillas, which itself is an excellent example of old Madrid.Behind the celebration of the Virgen de la Paloma - which translates as the Virgin of the Doves - is the story of Maria Isabel Andrea Tintero, who healed one of the children of Queen Maria Luisa.

To this day, the climax of the fiesta remains the procession of a statue of the Virgin of the Doves, carried by the city council firemen from the Plaza de las Vistillas and through the streets and squares of the surrounding area.

However, the celebrations start much earlier than that, with events beginning four days before. Concerts, dancing and street performances can be found on every corner. The event remains a traditionally Spanish feel, with many of the locals dressing in Madrileño costume. Visitors can observe the men and women of the region dancing the chotis as they wear Chulapo outfits and shawls respectively.

http://www.fiestas-de-madrid.com/

Personal Experience:

Well as usual, I didn’t know any of the background of this holiday before I wrote this blog. I just knew that it was another excuse for dressing up, heavy drinking and dancing in the streets of Spain. This particular fiesta is special to Madrid. At the time, I was still living in Toledo but I knew from the stories I was hearing that I had to take part in at least one night of La Paloma. I finished out my work week and returned to Toledo. The next day I made plans to meet up with one of my colleagues, Luke, that I was quickly becoming friends with. I hopped the late morning bus back to Madrid and took the metro to Luke’s barrio. I met up with a bunch of his friends that I had met some weeks earlier when they came to visit me in Toledo. We went back to Will’s place and relaxed because they were still recovering from the previous night’s festivities.
When night fell, we hit up a small bar for some tapas and drinks then met up with some more of his friends. The streets were already becoming more and more crowded by the minute.

The small group of us went to a nearby ‘chino’ to get our take in beverages for the night as this is one of the few occasions where excessive alcohol consumption is completely ignored by authorities. We roamed the streets of La Latina with our full cups of calimocho as I took in every second of the insanity. We did the cultural part and stopped by one of the churches that held a procession for the religious ceremonies. I love Spain’s deeply rooted religious undertones to all their holidays; they definitely haven’t been overtaken by the novelty business as the US has been.

After I took my fill of touristy pictures, we found a corner to rest on while we drank and socialized. There were people in traditional dress, actors in full-costume, drunken tourists running around and wide-eyed children taking in the spectacle. Around midnight there was an amazing firework display. After our bag of drinkable goodies was gone, the group and I walked back to the main plaza where we hunted down some more beer. We sat in the plaza until early morning with groups on Spaniards drinking, dancing and signing along with hardcore “American pop.” Haha

A few of us staggered our way back to Will’s where we crashed around 6 am. Luke and I went out to this pretty tasty Indian place the next morning and by mid afternoon I was back in Toledo trying to recall the madness that happened in the last 24 hours. Definitely 2 thumbs up for La Virgen de la Paloma.