Con Madres & Con Padres

This is a typical custom of this area. Images are made of different people in the town or family. They are dressed in their clothes which in the past have been pinched off the washing line if the person wasn´t forthcoming to provide them. They are then displayed for all to see and burnt that night. I joined the women in my choir to prepare the effigies of the men. We used turnips and melons for heads and packed the bodies with straw. The following week it is the turn of the conmadres. It is all done in good fun although it was strange to see myself swinging from the tree as part of the choir I had joined. That night I was burnt on the fire while someone played the bagpipes.