The Burial of the Sardine is an ancient tradition that is celebrated in Spain and some Latin American countries that is used to say goodbye to Carnival in style and start the Holy Week celebrations. In general, it is a moment of mourning with a certain comical atmosphere in which the streets are filled with floats surrounded by people crying over a 'dead sardine'. With all this we want to ironize about the idea of ​​losing the joy that a party like Carnival brings until the following year. In other words, after Carnival everything goes dark again and it seems that the laughter turns into tears


The Burial of the Sardine is an ancient tradition that is celebrated in Spain and some Latin American countries that is used to say goodbye to Carnival in style and start the Holy Week celebrations. In general, it is a moment of mourning with a certain comical atmosphere in which the streets are filled with floats surrounded by people crying over a 'dead sardine'. With all this we want to ironize about the idea of ​​losing the joy that a party like Carnival brings until the following year. In other words, after Carnival everything goes dark again and it seems that the laughter turns into tears. This curious celebration takes place every year on the Wednesday after Carnival, coinciding with Ash Wednesday. On this occasion, the Burial of the Sardine will be held on March 2. Same day that Lent begins for Catholics. Generally, and without having anything to do with religion, the participants usually walk the 'corpse' of a sardine in a coffin through the streets of the town in the form of absolute parody. Later, they end up burning the sardine itself in some cases, since in many places they usually save this representation for the following year. On a symbolic level, this celebration also represents society's ability to bury the past and gain strength for what awaits in the future. After a period of joy and color people are invited to reflection and tranquility.


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Keywords: ash, burial, carnaval, carnival, celebrations, coffin, culture, de, el, entierro, folk, holy, la, latinoamerica, madrid, mourning, parody, sardina, sardine, spain, tradition, week, wendnesday