SAN MATEO: OVIEDO’S GREAT FESTIVITY

 

The festivities of San Mateo are Oviedo’s major celebration, but they are not the festivities dedicated to the city’s patron saint.

The big day is the 21st, the festivity of San Mateo, the seventh day after the celebration of the exaltation of the Holy Cross or the beginning of the Jubilee of the Holy Cross or of the Jubilee Indulgence.

The history of the “mateína” festivities in Oviedo is that of the pilgrims who visited the Cathedral and fulfilled the requirements to enjoy plenary indulgence. As the indulgence ended on the 21st, this was a day of celebration. Today, the 21st is the Big Day, the “Día del bollo”, when citizens and visitors take to the parks and green areas of the city to eat the bollo preñao or bollo de chorizo (chorizo roll). Also on the 21st, the Holy Shroud of Oviedo (popularly known as "el pañolón de Oviedo"), a relic of the Church that is kept in the Holy Chamber of the Oviedo Basilica and which is believed to have covered the face of Jesus Christ, is exhibited at the Mass in honour of San Mateo, which is held in the Cathedral.

In addition to 21 September, The Holy Shroud is displayed on Good Friday and on 14 September.

During San Mateo, the festivities are organised by zones and timetables, although it is the chiringuitos (traditional taverns) in the old quarter that attract most of the party goers. During the festivities, about ten days depending on the year, the Cathedral square hosts free concerts and, a few metres away, in Feijoo Square, the stage for the City of Oviedo-Alejandro Espina Rock Competition is set up, where new Asturian bands compete. Paraguas Square usually hosts smaller musical events.

Regarding the history of the San Mateo festivities, the chronicles tell us that back in the 19th century, in 1894, the Oviedo City Council paid 5,000 pesetas to hire music bands and bagpipe and drum groups.

America´s Day in Asturias. Parade suspended due Covid

In the late 1940s, a Valencian artisan who made giant paper mâché puppets for traditional festivities commented in reference to Uria Street in Oviedo: "...you have one of the most beautiful streets in Spain for parades and cavalcades".

The phrase, heard by the well-known artist Alfonso Iglesias - author of the characters Alfonso, Telva and Pinín protagonists of a comic strip published in the local press - served as a script for him to devise a great parade as a tribute to the many Asturians who had emigrated to America and, who, in summer, returned to Asturias and showed off their luxurious cars (haigas) in a city where there were practically no vehicles. The word "haiga" refers to big American cars and comes from an expression attributed to the "rich" who, when going to buy a car, always asked for the most expensive one on sale. The word is still used today.

The idea was not exceedingly popular at first because of financial issues. However, Alfonso Iglesias insisted on organising the Parade and began by involving the Emigration Office and the mayors of the main cities and towns of Asturias.

The first parade was held on 23 September 1950 and brought together thousands of people fascinated by the luxury of almost 60 haigas decorated with flowers and flags, nine music bands and eight floats, all of which paraded down the main street. The floats, designed by Iglesias, represented an emigrant’s farewell, the ship that took him to America, the main countries of destination - Cuba, Mexico and Argentina -, the return of the rich emigrant (indiano) on a modern plane, and Spain, which welcomed him back. Newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic named it "the festivity of festivities".

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, when people started emigrating to Europe, this fact was reflected in the parade. Times changed and so did the parade. The haigas stopped coming and folk groups from Germany, Belgium or Switzerland began to attend, sharing the limelight with the classic groups from Mexico, Argentina or Chile.

America Day in Asturias continued to grow in terms of spectators, extension, quality, and budget. Over the years, the philosophy of the Parade has changed as society changed. Today, it is a tribute to the Asturians who went abroad and to the thousands of immigrants who live in Oviedo, an example of multiculturalism, colour, and coexistence that fills the city every 19 September.