2023-07-01 06:04:11
“January 1, February 2, March 3, April 4; May 5, June 6, July 7, San Fermín”. Who has not sung this song at some point in his life, followed by “we have to go to Pamplona”. Indeed, the San Fermín festivities are the most recognized in the capital of Navarra, one only has to see the number of people who travel, both within Spain and from other countries, to Pamplona to enjoy the San Fermin festival.
July 7 is marked on the calendar of all Pamplona residents, but the truth is that the chupinazo (or ‘txupinazo’, in Basque), which is one of the most recognizable moments of the festival, always takes place one day before. The RAE defines it as a “shot made with a rocket that signals the beginning of a celebration”, without directly mentioning the Sanfermines, since there are chupinazos in many other festivals as well.
The origin of the San Fermín chupinazo
The origin of the ‘txupinazo’ of the Pamplona festivities would have to be sought during the Second Spanish Republic, when a man from Pamplona named Juanito Etxepare, owner of a tobacconist, did it for the first time in 1931. According to the journalist and historian Iván Giménez told the newspaper Basque ‘Gara’, did it “at street level, surrounded by children” in the city’s Castle Square, in what was seen as a “popular, spontaneous” and horizontal act, promoted “by a worker”. Etxpeare’s chupinazo was repeated during the remaining years of the Second Republic, but in 1936, its promoter was shot by the rebel faction.
According to reports from Sanfermin.com, the custom was “retaken” in 1939 by Joaquín Ilundáin, deputy mayor of the city, and institutionalized two years later. Giménez, for his part, suggests that Ilundáin and the journalist José María Pérez Salazar, a contributor to the Falangist newspaper ‘Arriba España’, did not take up this initiative but appropriated Etxepare’s idea and transferred it to the balcony of the Town Hall, thus moving it away from the town. “The ‘txupinazo’ became a tool for political strategy,” says Giménez, adding that the mayor also “arrogated” the power to choose who is the person who launches it each year, although it was Ilundáin himself who launched it during the first years.
Who throws the chupinazo in Pamplona?
First it was Etxepare himself; later, the Falangist Ilundáin. Throughout the Franco regime, it was common for the fuse of the rocket to be lit by a person linked to the Pamplona City Council, although in 1964 an exception was made and someone from outside the city of Navarre was allowed to inaugurate the San Fermín festivities: the then Minister of Information and Tourism (and later president of the Xunta de Galicia), Manuel Fraga Iribarne. Other important sports figures also enjoyed this privilege, according to Sanfermin.com, and since the beginning of democracy, in 1979, the launch criteria was changed: the then mayor, Julián Balduz Calvo, decided that it would be a municipal group every year , in order from highest to lowest representation, the one that launched the rocket each year.
Now, since 2016, the way to choose the ‘txupinazo’ pitcher is absolutely democratic: it is decided through a popular vote, a model that gives the Sanfermines Table all the prominence. In 2022, Pamplona voted for the ex-soccer player Juan Carlos Unzué to launch the rocket; in 2023, so will sport: the team chosen for 2023 is Club Atlético Osasuna, after a season in which they finished seventh in the standings, entered the Conference League and finished runner-up in the Copa del Rey, which was played with Real Madrid.
When is the chupinazo of 2023?
This year, the chupinazo, more rojillo than ever, takes place on the same day as every year, exactly on July 6, the eve of San Fermín. That day, at 12:00 in the morning, the Plaza del Ayuntamiento is packed with dozens of people holding up their red handkerchiefs to welcome the Sanfermines. From the balcony, the person appointed by the person who runs the City Council —this year, the new UPN mayor, Cristina Ibarrola— lights the fuse of the rocket that announces the festivities from the balcony, shouting “Long live San Fermín!” and the Basque version of it, “Gora San Fermin!”. More than 12,000 people usually ‘lock themselves up’ in the town hall square to come and enjoy the ‘txupinazo’ of San Fermín.
Chupinazo de San Fermín 2023: Thursday, July 6, at 12:00 p.m. Pamplona.
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