THE horse and the rice
mowing: summer in Valencia.
Summer mowing has been a religious festivity for peoples of
the Mediterranean Seashore during thousands of years, with offerings
and contests of all kinds about bravery, generosity and gallantry..
The offering of the first fruits of the mowing and harvesting was
already regulated in the ancient codes of the Hebrew Bible. Songs,
dances, body expression and emulation among young people to conquer
maidens and boys was another feature of these festivals of
prehistoric times.
We focus this summer on
the equestrian competitions of both shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
First at the North of Africa, Morocco give us an example. During
the harvest of the month of may culminates the harvest of wheat with
popular exhibitions of crafts and an increase of human
relationships. To the South of Tangier, a few kilometers away from
Larache, at the end of may is held a competition of riding horses
bareback by young people competing for a doll, as a token of love for
a beloved one. The festival takes place as the culmination of the
spring and as a symbol of plenty and blossoming of young forces of
nature.
We return to the
Middle-South of Spain, to Valencia. To the end of summer and the mowing
of another important product in our Mediterranean diet, the rice
crop. During the 15th August at Pinedo, at the entrance of
the rice fields and Natural Ressorce Albufera Lake, on the golden
sand of the Beach at sunset another similar competition of horsemen
and horsewomen takes place. The stage is somehow special, to the
north the Valencian Port and Sport Marina and the Avandgarditst
Komplex of the City of Arts and Sciences, to the west the green rice
fields as a no end green meadow. .
The contender fight for
the prize, just a tissue or yellow handkerchief (mocador,
jóia or jewel).
For some people, the festival dates back to
the end of XIXth century and represents the competition between
beasts of burden. According to others they compete to test the speed
of farm animals. . Analogies with the careers of Morocco allow us to
also identify as a feast of the harvest which demonstrates the skills
of young people for a prize in the presence of female fans. Only one
modern change. Pinedo allows the presence of the Amazons in these
challenges between two or three riders, and it is women who now get
the best positions, when one thoroughbred ridden by a courteous rider
let her by.
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