Journalist Anastasia Sukhanova and Sarah Gatward with her GoPro were thrilled to run alongside anther 12.000 in the Cascamorras, Baza.
Personal account of the Cascamorras Festival in Baza
Guest post by Anastasia Sukhanova
6th of September is an important day for Baza – the whole town and its 20.000 inhabitants are brought together for the celebration of the Cascamorras festival. The tradition originates from the 15th century, when an ownership dispute arose over a sacred image of the Virgen de la Piedad (Our Lady of Mercy) between Baza, and its neighboring town, Guadix. Cascamorras was the nickname of a workman from Guadix, who tried to appropriate it for his town, but failed. Ever since, each year on the saint’s day, the newly nominated Cascamorras tries to complete the challenge of reaching the main church of Baza clean in order to take the sacred image back to Guadix. And each year thousands of people smear him (and each other along the way) with black oil – making sure the image of the Virgen stays where it belongs. The crowd, mostly made up of young Spanish people, had already gathered as we drove up the hills on the outskirts of Baza overlooking the town. Read this post in our Baza section.