What is San Fermin, what does encierro mean, how does Ernest Hemmingway fit into all of this?
These, and other questions will be answered...then I will ruthlessly copy and paste some links to some of the reliable sites about San Fermin and how to run with the bulls.
San Fermin is a festival that has occurred every year for hundreds of years in Pamplona, in the North of Spain, to celebrate their patron Saint...San Fermin.
It has all things that any self respecting European festival should...wine...music...food...parades with giant puppets etc.
But what makes San Fermin famous is the "running of the bulls".
This is because there are daily bullfights as part of the festivities...and the bulls need to be moved from the corral each morning to the bull fighting arena...about 900 metres away. The local men would show their bravado and physical skills by running with the bulls through the cobblestoned streets and help herd them into the storage pen of the arena, so the bullfights could occur in the afternoon.
Ernest Hemmingway spent a lot of time in Pamplona, and though he never ran the bulls himself...he introduced it to the outside world in his 1926 novel, "The Sun Also Rises".
I haven't read it...but a whole bunch of other people must have...because each year since then...in growing numbers...foreigners have been flocking to Pamplona between the 7th and 14th of July...to risk life and limb for the chance to become an encierro, a "bull-runner".
Early records were never kept...but since the organisers started keeping records in 1926, when Hemmingway let the world now of Pamplona's amazing tradition, there have been 15 deaths...many of them foreigners...who don't have the same knowledge or experience as the local encierros.
Wikipedia...the greatest site in the free world has some good background information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fermin
A great guide to any aspiring encierro can be found here:
http://www.pamplona.co.uk/running-with-the-bulls/the-course/the-seven-main-bull-runs/the-seven-main-bull-runs.htm
Here is another good one:
http://www.lostgeneration.com/article7.htm
This next link is to the site that I printed out and kept in my pocket to study before I ran, I actually met the guy who wrote it while I was waiting for the bull run to start, he apparently has been running the bulls for 25 years...so he must be doing something right!
http://www.bullrunning.immortals.co.uk/running.htm
PS: If you don't want to run with the bulls...it is worth the trip for the party. (See below)
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