We knew the parade was to start out from
the Gate. As we looked around, it became evident that the "route"
was directly through the crowd! As the fireworks were going off from the
Gate, many people in the crowd wrapped their faces in handkerchiefs and
scarves, pulled down hats, and otherwise covered their hair and faces.
Even the children were bundled up by their parents.
(In the following paragraphs the terms are given in Spanish then in Catalunyan
and are excerpted from the local newspaper.)
The drumming started in earnest and the first of the
Diablos appeared. They had long lances called "macos or cetrots"
. Macos used a single carretilla which was swung over the Diablo's head
on the end of a lance. The cetrots looked more like a candelabra with 6
to 12 carretilla attached. The carretilla were actually a 1/2 inch gerb,
6 inches long which terminated in a salute.
There was another
type that looked like a squirrel cage or lamp shade with rows of the carretilla
fixed above one another, driving it like a Catherine wheel around a central
spindle.
The Diablo would begin to dance and spin the pole,
spraying the shower of sparks directly into the crowd. Actually, everyone
was dancing at this time, in unison, an amazing effect, with the devils
pushing through the crowd trying to spray everyone with sparks. The carretilla
would terminate with the bang of a salute, which, likely as not, would
go off right in your ear. As the Diablos made there way into the crowd,
the square would be illuminated by the carretillas, there could be as little
as 10 Diablos in one group, the next could be 30 or more dancing out of
the gates of hell with their "macos" ablaze.
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