Ein spanisches Fest / A Spanish Festival

Photographs from El Rocío / Almonte by Kurt Kaindl. A documentation of the traditional pilgrimage with teams of oxen and horses to the festival "La Colomba Blanca - La Virgen del Rocío" in El Rocío (near Almonte in Spain), photographed at Whitsun 2000. In the small village El Rocío, which has a good 1000 inhabitants during the year, more than one million people come every year to the pilgrimage - Romería del Rocío - at Whitsun. The pilgrims, the Romeros, come from over a hundred brotherhoods from all over Spain, mainly on horses and teams of oxen, to celebrate the cult of the Holy Spirit (often referred to as Blanca Paloma - the white dove) and pay homage to the Virgin Mary. All the time, the horses and carriages are characteristic of the town, moving through it alongside pedestrians, displaying themselves, forming processions or making their reciprocal visits to the other brotherhoods.