Fiesta de Los Gansos: Or, Things That Make You Say, "WTF?"

Sometimes, when living abroad, your life starts to fall into a routine. You have friends, cafés you frequent, grocery stores you shop at...what was once new and exciting becoming very, very normal.

But then you go to the Fiesta de los Gansos (Goose Festival), and you remember that the place you're living now is very different from home.

Lekeitio, decked out for the festival

After waiting for an hour in line, Matt and I boarded a bus a took a hot, cramped, and nauseating ( a big eskerrik asko to the girl who gave me the kleenex after I lost my breakfast in transit) trip to Lekeitio, where they were wrapping up their annual festival. The end of the summer in all of Spain is full of festivals, from tiny pueblos to booming cities, and País Vasco is no exception.

Waiting for the goosing!

I've been to Lekeitio before, but being there during the festival made it a totally different town. And by different, I mean Basque. Yes, I know I live in the Basque Country, but in Bilbao I don't see as much blatant displays of Basque patriotism. I saw booths with people handing out pamphlets about why PV should separate from Spain, people with shirts with pictures of Basque prisoners, and the "Send the Prisoners Home" flags everywhere. I realized, yet again, that I don't live in Spain.

"Bring the Prisoners Home"

The main event of the festival is one of the more bizarre traditions I've heard of. Groups of people row out into the harbor in little rowboats. One person is designated to be the goose grabber. There is a rope strung from one end of the harbor to another, and a dead, greased-up goose hanging from it, over the open water.

One of the competitors

The grabber, in the boat, gets a firm grip on the goose. Once in the water, the whistle blows, and the goose and the grabber are skyrocketed into the air, then plummeted into the water. This continues until either the grabber lets go, or breaks off the goose's neck. I would like to add that in previous years, the goose was actually alive when this happened. If the grabber is successful in breaking off the neck, he gets to keep the goose.

This guy went about 4 rounds, it was very impressive.

It's a pretty astonishing thing to see. I was surprised how high the rope goes, and how violently the grabber is slammed into the water. We saw at least 4 people get taken away in a stretcher after their turn.

I think he also left in an ambulance.

It was quite the spectacle, and I'm really glad I got to see it! It's definitely a good cultural tidbit to share!

Here's a video if you want to check it out: Goose Fest 2011

Originally published 9.5.11