Zaragoza (EFE).- The town of Calanda in Teruel has once again demonstrated its passion with one of the most emotional acts of its Holy Week, the “rompida” of the hour, in which thousands of brothers dressed in purple tunics make every year the Plaza de España with its bass drums and drums.
The streets of this municipality in Bajo Aragón, land of drums and the one that saw the birth of the illustrious universal filmmaker Luis Buñuel, who carried the name of his town around the world, are filled these days with the members of his nine brotherhoods and the lovers of this tradition, many of them international tourists.
With the clubs in the air and a great desire contained seconds before twelve, noon has marked the moment in which gangs and entire families have begun to beat their drums and bass drums in unison to the rhythm of the traditional Palillera March.
The Calandino mayor, Alberto Herrero, has given the signal to those in charge this year of giving the inaugural blow in what is known as the “big hype”: the older brother of the Brotherhood of Jesus Nazareno, Juan Herrero, and the actress and filmmaker Eulalia Ramón , widow of Carlos Saura.
A tribute to the recently deceased Aragonese filmmaker, friend and disciple of Buñuel and lover of Holy Week in Calandina, who in fact moved to his funeral chapel with ten drummers who redoubled in his honor.
Saura already broke the hour in 2008, an honor that other cultural personalities have also had, such as the actor and director Paco Rabal, the actress Charo López, the singer-songwriter Luis Eduardo Aute, the film director Fernando Trueba or the actress and presenter Lara Dibildos, in charge last year, when this massive party was resumed after the pandemic.
The big hype has also been joined by the mace of the president of the Government of Aragon, Javier Lambán, and the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, in a front row that has also been the mayor of Zaragoza and president of the PP of Aragon Jorge Azcon.
A 150-kilo drum that celebrates half a century this year since its construction and that today has been one of the most photographed elements in the square, along with the statue of Buñuel, who internationalized Calender’s Holy Week and who referred to this moment as ” an indefinable emotion that soon turns into a kind of intoxication that seizes men”.
And it is that children, young people and adults have gone from the silence of the seconds before noon to the noise of a town that rumbles at the same time, always playing the same march, but each year with different feelings that make this moment unique for who live touching it.
After “breaking the hour”, the Calandinos participate in the Proclamation procession, at 3:30 p.m., in which entire families parade redoubling the traditional toque for the occasion and there is silence when the town crier proclaims the death of Christ.
The sound of the instruments will cease in Calanda tomorrow, Holy Saturday, at 2:00 p.m., when the tribute to Mosen Vicente Allanegui and all the deceased in Calanda will take place, playing again the Palillera March, composed by himself.
