Fiestas de San Isidro Labrador, Madrid, 2014

The Festival of San Isidro is a nine-day celebration of Madrid’s patron saint, held in mid-May, and we happened to be in Madrid this year for a friend’s college graduation. May 15th is the traditional day of pilgrimage for the saint: a procession carrying larger-than-life statues of San Isidro and his wife, Santa Maria de la Cabeza, moves down the Calle de Toldeo from the Basilica of San Isidro toward the Plaza Mayor.  (That’s San Isidro in the photo above.) Catholic prelates and laypersons accompany the statues, many carrying antique and elaborately embroidered banners. Most were dressed in what looked like medieval academic or religious garb, with heavy velvet surcots and the kind of crazy hats I’ve only seen on university academics in official regalia. (Not a Catholic myself, I can’t be sure what the various costumes indicated.)  I regret any impiety, but the outfit below reminded me so strongly of Alice in Wonderland I couldn’t help giggling.

The procession is filled out by a mass of laypeople in traditional costumes. I’m going to have to quote from a description I found, as I can’t put it any more succinctly: “There are two kinds of costume: the majos and majas, and the chulapos and chulapas. The former is the popular dress as recorded in Goya’s works, the men looking rather bandolero-like, the women sporting high combs and lace shawls. Chulos and chulapas are even more engrained in the spirit of Madrid. This costume is rather like that of London’s pearly kings and queens and probably dates from around the same time – white neckerchiefs, black-and-white check jackets, waistcoats and caps for the men and clinging, frilly dresses and headscarves for the women.”  http://www.escuelai.com/spanish_magazine/san_isidro_madrid-in.html

Judging by her headdress, the woman at left is in maja costume, the man at center is dressed as a chulapo, and the woman at right as a chulapa. I’m going to give you a string of images now, with minimal commentary. Enjoy the parade! First, the chulapos and chulapas:

Now the majas and majos:

The religious portion of the parade:

[6/5/14: I’ve since found that this is academic headgear, probably indicating a doctorate. Useful website: http://www.dieter-philippi.de/en/the-philippi-collection/head-coverings-1 ]

There was a contingent of women elegantly dressed in black, wearing black lace mantillas. I overheard someone refer to them as “the widows” but can’t tell you anything more about them:

It was a rather intimate parade – the open area for the marchers was quite narrow. I shot most of these photos wedged sideways between a very large man in yellow and a smaller woman with luxuriant hair – I ended up tossing out more than half my shots due to an unfortunate shoulder intrusion or a banner of hair across the frame. For this next photo, I was on a friend’s balcony overlooking the street. You can see how narrow it is!

The other balconies along the street were full of spectators, too:

It’s a long post, I know, but couldn’t resist showing you this little girl riding on her (father’s?) shoulders. She was busy trying to make his hair stand up on end, and paid no attention to the crowds.

And at the very end of the procession, everyone broke into song, and the marchers danced in the street outside the basilica. I know it looks like they are dancing in the street outside a mobile-phone store and a dried-fruit-and-french-fry shop, but I’m standing on tiptoe on the steps of the church, holding the camera way above my head.