August 15, 2019 by Francisco Castillo
In the month of Julius Cesar, a very particular event takes place in northern Spain. According to Mr. Wikipedia (which by the way just recently turned 18 years old) one of the most important traditional festivities takes places in Pamplona, Spain. It is called the Festival of San Fermin; a week-long annual celebration that involves fireworks, folkloric events, and of course… the very famous running of the bulls.
This event has been ‘running’ since at least the 14th century with some gradual changes along the way. Focusing on the bull run itself, originally there was the need to take the bulls from outside the city to the bullring. The most effective way to do it was to steer them through the narrow streets of old Pamplona. The intriguing part is that there is no palpable record of when people decided to start running in front of them.
So far, the bull run has taken approximately 16 recorded deaths. Also, every year hundreds of runners sustain light to severe injuries, most of them treated at the event by the 200+ medical staff and 20+ ambulances that are part of the logistics. Roughly about 30 of those must be rushed and medically treated in the hospital due to its severity.
Is it really necessary to keep bull running on the streets of Pamplona just to get people injured or killed for the sake of “tradition”?
Why do we take valuable space and resources from the hospitals, ambulances, and medical facilities to address injuries and possible death cases that are 100% preventable?
I know the numbers are a meager amount in comparison to many other natural or man-made events occurring every year. But my point is that a tradition as rich as the San Fermin festival doesn’t have to end up in catastrophe for some people. Specially if the essence of the festival is of a celebratory nature. Particularly, if the severe injuries and deaths are one hundred percent preventable.
We have alternatives to modernize but keep the traditions relevant. Imagine in this case if businesses propose using Virtual Reality to mimic the exhilarating effect of being chased by a herd of amped-up bulls across the old Pamplona district. The old-timers will most likely laugh at the idea and call this a direct insult to the beautiful tradition of putting your life in front of a bunch of raging bulls every July.
As presented in different disciplines such as medicine, it is really hard to remove the old habits of looking at things in a certain way. Generally, this is achieved until the old generation retires and the new one looks at the overly crafted theories with a new set of fresh eyes. Unfortunately, at times, even the new generations adopt the old habits, like the bull run, without an iota of skepticism and continue pushing the tradition forward.
It helps to have a globalized world. It gives the ability for anyone to get exposed and create greater contrast among traditions/habits from different regions around the orb. I think this is a good thing, because by comparing and synthesizing we reach a common ground that is much richer than its individual parts.
Many other things have tradition and intertwined habits that may not make much sense today, e.g. getting weddings celebrations on margin, throwing change into fountains, daylight savings time, Danish singles 25th cinnamon birthday, college, English cheese roll, weather groundhogs, birthday candles, La Tomatina, but we’ll leave those for later.
When thinking about century old traditions, I only hope that during our generation we get to witness an increase in conscientiousness and healthy skepticism to foster traditions that make sense in the modern world. I hope that during our generation we get to upgrade ourselves and see the last bloody run of the magnificent raging bulls.
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