Jarramplas, the party

When is it celebrated?

This festival is celebrated every year on January 19 and 20 in honor of San Sebastian, the patron saint of the village. Piornal is the highest village in Extremadura (1200 meters) so it is not strange that during these dates the village is snowed and very cold.

Curiosities

Playing Jarramplas or dressing up as Jarramplas is a source of pride for every Piornalego (even if it means a real sacrifice). Parents sign up their children to dress up as Jarrampla when they are small. Each year one of those on the list (for many years) will become the "official" Jarramplas. The one who signs up this year will have to wait a long time to become the official Jarramplas, as the places have been filled for more than 30 years on a long waiting list.

Before the festival up to 35 tons of turnips are collected with a trailer or truck and dumped in the streets of Piornal so that there is no shortage of projectiles to throw at Jarramplas.During the festival days all the houses and apartments through which Jarramplas will pass become authentic fortresses covered with wood and protections of all kinds so that the actidental impact of the turnips does not break windows and glass, a sign of the strength that some of the throws carry.

The first day, January 19, the festivity is more anarchic, because Jarramplas goes out on many occasions making short trips (between 10 to 20 outings). But during this first day, both the Jarramplas of that year and the so-called mayordomos (the assistants and companions) and the Jarramplas of the next year will go out dressed. There is no rule about the number of departures or the place where Jarramplas will go on each departure (often to a nearby bar). But it is already a spectacle to see how the piornalegos, in each exit, throw as many turnips as they can with all their strength.

That same day, when the bells ring at midnight, it is the ALBORADAS. It is a large group of women who, starting from the church, go in procession through the village singing traditional songs called "alboradas", Jarramplas plays the drum looking at the Saint and the stewards play the music. Most of the people from Extremadura know some verse of these songs as they have been taken to the stage (and even recorded in studio) by well-known groups of Folk music.

The 20th is the big day. This day there will only be two Jarramplas outings, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This time if it is the official outputs of the real Jarramplas, are longer and therefore the protagonist sometimes receives considerable punishment. The most emblematic departure takes place at the end of the morning mass and Jarramplas, after praying to the patron saint, meets a crowd that punishes them with a shower of turnips when the church closes its doors. There are years that instead of an official Jarramplas there are two (in this case one goes out in the afternoon and the other in the morning). The afternoon ends with the Rosary.

And one more curiosity. Sometimes Jarramplas, exhausted by the palica, throws away the cachiporra (with which he usually beats the drum). This is an unmistakable sign that he is not feeling well and needs a few seconds of rest. Automatically, as if someone had pressed a button, the throwing stops and friends and companions rush to Jarramplas to help and rescue him. In this the Piornalegos are especially respectful.