Santa Faz

And here's the email USAC sent us, a rather bland description of the aforementioned Santa Faz Pilgrimage.

For Christians, life is a mere journey. This idea gave rise to the popular event, which involves both enjoyment and religion, where at least one day a year, people walk together to places of worship and devotion, shrines and sanctuaries outside the walls of so many towns and villages, on mass pilgrimages marked by traditions, promises and votive offerings and with displays of folklore and the gastronomy typical of each place. Out of the great number of pilgrimages in Spain we can highlight that of La Santa Faz de Alicante (more than 250.000 pilgrims walk in this pilgrimage).
This church, situated just 3 miles away from the town centre, is the pilgrimage church where the Saint Faz relic is kept and that is why every year thousands of people go from Alicante to and share their faith. The building has a pyramid shaped dome and is part of the baroque style. There is kept a part of the fabric with which Veronica cleaned Jesus face and that was brought to Alicante from the Vatican in 1489 as part of a pilgrimage.

Shopping carts with booze

Today I woke up at 7:30am during vacation days to witness the pilgrimage to Santa Faz. It begins in Alicante at 8am, where people gather (with bamboo walking sticks with evergreen poking out the top) at the church, then they walk onward, about 6 miles or more, to Santa Faz or something. The people who do it, however, vary in age. There are elderly people, there are parents with kids, and there are loads of teenagers. And since there are teenagers, there is booze.

There are loads of teens doing this, clearly many of them underage. But there are cops everywhere directing traffic (of which there is practically none since it's a holiday) and they sure don't give a damn.

I was walking out my door at 7:50am and saw a group of three teens. The boy was drinking a 40oz bottle of Amstel beer, the girl was carrying grocery bags, and the other girl was pushing a stolen shopping cart filled with more grocery bags filled with liquor, Fanta, Coke, and a cooler of food.

Rocio told me she used to do it as a teenager, where her and her friends would get up early to walk there, bringing food and drinks for the whole day. They would walk all the way there, then spend the entire rest of the day on the beach having a party, then take the bus home at the end of the day.

But now that I think about it, people probably look back on this event like this:

"Remember back in high school, when we would wake up at 7am on a Thursday, fill up a shopping cart with booze and food, and drink 40s of Amstel on the 6 mile hike up to the beach? Those were the good ole days..."

Where they put those shopping carts when they reach their destination, however, is unknown.