Barcelona Photoblog: firecrackers
Showing posts with label firecrackers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label firecrackers. Show all posts

June 24, 2008

Sant Joan Firecrackers: Launching Gadget Closeup

Sant Joan Firecrackers: Launching Gadget Closeup [enlarge]

The word petardo in Spanish or petard in Catalan has different meanings: banger, firecracker, that is, a small explosive device. Not only that, it can be someone or something that's boring. Sometimes it can be a fraud but the most curious entries are "a hag, an old hag" what we know as a petarda and a joint, you know, the smoking kind. My intention today was to show not only firecrackers but the gadgets some people use to launch the artifacts. Many are completely handmade and others can be bought in stores. By the way, firecrackers are sold at special stalls which are regulated by city authorities. Normally they are located in the middle of a square with some fences all around and only two clients can be in front of the counter at the same time. Apart from that, you can also find specialized shops and major dealers for professional purposes.

June 23, 2008

Sant Joan's Eve Firecrackers

Sant Joan's Eve Firecrackers [enlarge]

Bonfires of Saint John (Fogueres de Sant Joan in Catalan) aka Nit de Sant Joan or Revetlle de Sant Joan on June 23rd is time for firecrackers (petardos), cocas (a sort of pastry) and cava which is in other words the Catalan version of champaign. If you follow the above link you will find out that this event intended to welcome the arrival of summer is not exclusively ours although we celebrate it perhaps more intensely than in other places. It must be said that bonfires are not as popular now as in the past when people used to take old furniture into the middle of the street to watch it burn and party all around. Now you have to go to the beach where the city council still allows bonfires and massive celebrations. The mess is so big that special brigades of garbage collectors have to be organized to clean up the sand from all sorts of bottles, shoes, and assorted crap. Most of us avoid these mega parties and gather with family and friends to eat and drink till late in the evening. All night long before and after supper we find some place in the garden or go to the nearest square to ignite firecrackers. In spite of all this you can hear firecrackers big and small, during the whole month of June. The one in the picture was a turning wheel not particularly dangerous. Some others are scaring just like the sort of big tube a friend of us tied up to a pole. The artifact got twisted upon burning and sent "shrapnel" against the big bucket where we had the beers on ice, piercing through it and leaving a big hole that emptied the whole thing in seconds.

June 23, 2007

Sant Joan's Eve Firecracker Armageddon

Sant Joan's Eve Firecracker Armageddon [enlarge]

Sant Joan's Eve is not the best day for people with sleeping disorders. Unless you live far from civilization or up in the top floor of a tall building, you will find it hard to get a good sound sleep in Barcelona. As you know this celebration is about partaking with friends in the open at night fully armed with all the pyrotechnic gadgets you could afford to buy in the authorized stalls spread all over the city (they are on sale long before the day arrives). Firecrackers who had initially been heard during previous weeks, suddenly increase the number of decibels, dogs go mad, people get drunker than average, kids go to bed later than ever and the night becomes day, or better said hell on earth. The following morning as you can expect it is as quiet as a post nuclear scenario with just one exception, the constant swearing of the garbage men.
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