With four decades behind them and with their sights set on taking the leap and being declared a Festival of International Tourist Interest, the Moors and Christians of Murcia experienced their big day this Saturday after having been preparing for what It loomed over neighbors and tourists throughout the week. Parades, varied activities in the Medieval Camp, which once again occupies the Malecón park and ride, the welcome from the Town Hall and, as an appetizer, the first children’s parade through the heart of the city.
Kábilas and troops, behind which there are already almost a thousand revelers, once again gave “everything” to leave the best possible taste in the mouths of those who have been filling the spaces that mark the route, from the Alameda de Colón in the neighborhood of Carmen, passing through the Puente Viejo, until you reach Avenida de la Constitución, once you have crossed Gran Vía from end to end. Lights, Moorish and Christian marches played live; own dances and those of academies that participate in the courtship; horse, wrestling and flying birds of prey shows; costumes and dresses designed and made with care, luxury and color… All to commemorate the history of medieval Mursiya, in which Moors and Christians have left their mark on the identity of those who, centuries later, populate the city.
The Moorish groups Almohads, Ibn Amnar ‘Abenamar’, Abu-L-Abbas, Almoravids, Mudéjares, Ibn Arabí, Abderramán II and Abenmardenix do their best. And the Christians: Santa María de la Arrixaca, San Juan de Jerusalem, Infante Don Juan Manuel, Order of Santiago, Jaime I, Templars of Murcia and Hosts of Fernando III.
The board of directors of the Federation of Associations of Moors and Christians ‘Civitas Murcie’ wanted to pay tribute on this fortieth anniversary to all those who have worked for these festivities and to get them to where they are today: no one perceives them as a private meeting anymore, as it was said in the beginning. And it did so with the participation in yesterday’s great parade of all the flag bearers who are still active with their own float.
The sisters Marta and Natalia Serrano Roses are part of those historical standard bearers who this year climbed onto the floats prepared to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the festival. They are the second example of sisters who have represented the same group, in their case the Kabila Abu-L-Abbas. Natalia in 2012 and Marta in 2016. “What we are most excited about is being able to experience it together, sharing the emotion we feel,” both agreed, as well as pointing out that, without a doubt, the “most magical” moment of the parade is when they pass through the Old or Peligros Bridge.
The public present throughout the entire route described the parade as the best in recent years and highlighted the horse show and the dances. The anecdote of the night was the proposal for a hand in front of the tribune of the authorities of Carmen María García Paredes and Ismael Fuentes Rubio, a lady and a gentleman from San Juan de Jerusalem.
#returns #splendor