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LA CULTURA
January 27th - February 9th 2023
Flaming tradition Horses ridden through fire as part of San Anton celebrations
STARS: of the show
Historic China
By Dilip Kuner
A TRADITION where horses are spurred to leap through 20 flaming bonfires has been revived after a COVID break - and not everyone is happy. Las Luminarias, which celebrates Spain’s patron saint of animals, San Anton, returned after the COVID-19
SPAIN will be the first place in the world to host an exhibition on the legacy of China's Qin and Han dynasties, after the communist country relaxed pandemic restrictions. Alicante’s Archaeological Museum will host the display of over 150 items from March until January next year. All exhibits have been loaned by nine Chinese museums. Highlights will include nine warrior statues dug up in archaeological sites and an original terracotta horse. Alicante Provincial Council's Julia Parra said: “The exhibition will become one of Spain's biggest cultural events of the year and will attract visitors from across the country.”
Eurovision time BENIDORM will once again host the search to find Spain’s Eurovision Song Contest entry at the end of the month. Benidorm Fest 2023 will stage the semi-finals on January 31 and February 2 at the Palacio de Deportes with the grand final on February 4. Tickets for all three nights were sold out within minutes of going on sale, with the event screened by TVE. Some 18 singers and groups will fight it out to represent Spain in Liverpool this May. After years of lacklustre entries, Spain moved to a festival format in Benidorm last year. The winner was SloMo sung by Chanel, which finished a very respectable third in Turin.
CRUEL?: No horses were hurt, claim participants
pandemic last year, but with pandemic restrictions still in force. This year the 200-year-old event saw 120 horses and donkeys going through the cobbled village streets of San Bartolome de Pinares, near Avila with no such restrictions. The strange ritual is in memory of a devastating epidemic that wiped out a large part of the area’s cattle and horses. The bonfire smoke from bonfires is meant to drive away evil spirits. For an event that celebrates animal well-being, it has attracted controversy over the way the horses are treated. The National Association for the Protection and Welfare
of Animals made its annual demand that horses should only pass by the bonfires to take in the ‘purifying’ smoke, rather than riding through them - a move backed by the town hall. But many of the riders ignore the official advice and charge through the flames.
EYE OF THE STORM A SPECIAL Ukranian art exhibition will be hosted in Madrid at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. The exhibit In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930s can also be visited through a virtual tour. Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Anastasia Bondar said one of the most important tasks for culture is to open national art to the whole world. “Exhibitions like this aim to show our art, unknown to the West, which embodies the difficult path of self-determination of Ukrainians, and on the other hand, prove the belonging and synchronization of Ukrainian art with the European context of those times,” she added. For more information, visit: www.museothyssen.org
Burned
Organisers said no horses were harmed during this year’s hour-long celebration. Precautions like clipping horse hair to avoid the animals being burned were also taken. Horse owners and riders had to be officially registered and take out civil-liability insurance.
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