The Granada protagonist of the carocas of the Corpus Christi festival

Granada is one of the great protagonists of the traditional Carocas of the Corpus Christi festival. The city dresses up for this tradition and In the Plaza de Bib-rambla there are already 20 limericks finalists of this 2021 and in four of them, Granada is the main theme. The carocas are elements that are identifying marks of the festivities of the city of the Alhambra.

Las Carocas are drawings in the manner of humorous caricatures, which, accompanied by a poetic text, ironically tell the most outstanding events of the year. And in this year of pandemic, Granada has been one of the few that has given great joys. For this reason, the Nasrid club is one of the great protagonists, even of the winning Quintilla this year.

The winning Limerick goes like this: “Covirán meets sixty, our firefighters two hundred, the great Granada ninety, those of Aspace and forty and Jordi Hurtado … five hundred.” But it is not the only one.

Granada is also the protagonist in three others: “With Soldado and his great troop, Granada marvels in Europe, the league and the Cup from home they clothe him and even Barça kneel down”.

“During this season our beloved Granada lived its best days. Could there be a bigger bitch than seeing its empty stands?”

“He has turned ninety in his second youth, all of Europe was attentive, Granada makes us happy. Let's toast to his health!”

A total of 260 have been the limericks that have participated in the contest called by the City Council, of which twenty have finally been selected to show off in the central square of Granada where citizens can enjoy the ingenuity of writers.

The tradition of the Carocas in Granada

Las Carocas have been a tradition of the city for years. In fact, as the RAE says, caroca is: “decoration of canvases and frames that offers painted funny, picaresque or epigrammatic scenes, …”. But, when was this tradition born?

In 1501 the Catholic Monarchs established the Corpus Christi festival as the largest celebration in the city and as such activities began. It was at the beginning of the 16th century when it was decided to decorate the historic Bibarrambla square. These ornamental paintings were, over time, changing thematic, from religious to heroic, reaching those of today.

In the program of the festivities of 1867 the drawing that accompanies the limerick is described, and the Carocas are still called Cuadros de Capricho. Between civil war and prohibitions, They did not appear again at the Corpus Christi festivities until 1952 and it has remained that way to this day.