Yet again we have celebrated Tres Tombs in Vilanova i la Geltrú, and either the event has developed or I am just better at reading the local cultural agenda, but I think that we have seen more popular culture than ever before.
The performance parade (cercavila) last Sunday attracted a lot more spectators than I had expected and one of the reasons might have been the premiere of Vilanova’s version of the Catalan horse dance ball de cotonines.
To have our own cotonines and perform the dance during the winter is obviously what you would expect in a town where the Festa Major de l’hivern is centered around horses. Like every year, the big parade on January 17 counted several hundred horses, ponies, donkeys and mules and on top of that a great number of carriages. And, of course, the protagonist of the day: Sant Antoni, the patron saint of domesticated animals, or at least a figure in his honour.
The routine to make working animals complete three loops around a church while being blessed by a priest – i.e. tres tombs –will be repeated in several Catalan towns during the weeks to come, but thanks to the huge number of participants the event here in Vilanova is among the most colourful.
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Find here my earlier posts about this event: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.
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