Rapa das Bestas

**~~Beorn~~** · 01-13-2010, 09:26 PM

I've only just come across the whole festival and wanted to hear the input of a Galician member here who may have attended this festival.

Is there a significance to this festival that goes beyond the practical nature, or is it just a practical custom?

Pictures found here.

It seems PETA have been warned of this festival and may pay a visit next time

This is so disgusting! What kind of people are entertained by wrestling these animals who have no clue that this is their idea of a game?! I've already reported it to PETA and not sure who else yet but it needs to stop.

More pictures to be found here from the Guardian.

[YOUTUBE]liu0wYgl6ks[/YOUTUBE]

Yet another custom of Spain I will have to hurry up and witness before the cold hands of the "concerned" get involved.

**December** · 01-14-2010, 12:38 AM

Never heard of this.

**Falkata** · 01-14-2010, 12:42 AM

The most famous rapa das bestas is the one from Sabucedo (a small town, the pics that you posted are from there i bet), i tried to go some years ago but it was really hard, too much people!

It became really popular in the last times.
The tradition comes from the Bronze Age and the romans wrote about it when they invaded the region. First, the "aloitadores" (fighters) go to the mountain to round up the wild horses and direct them to the rapa´s place(curro).The "aloitadores" jump on the horses to cut its mane and mark them, nowadays i think they are using microchips.
I´d try to go this summer and take some pics

I dont know why the ecologists are protesting btw, it seems they want protagonism as usual

**~~Osweo~~** · 01-14-2010, 02:02 AM

The horses look better off than some of the mangy tick-ridden scrawny nags I saw in the New Forest last year, anyway. There's a horse in the next field from where I am at the moment, whose owner bought it from a judge at pony-trials, which had been so neglected that its teeth prevented it from chewing properly, and the vet had to anaesthetise it to file them down. Plenty of worse things go on than this tradition, among supposedly educated and civilised people. PETA should get its priorities straight. The Rapa das Bestas isn't even number 500 on a sensibly made list of things to investigate.

The 'rapa' is the enclosure they're in? I am relieved that the name doesn't translate as violación de las bestias, which first came into my mind...

**Falkata** · 01-14-2010, 02:31 AM

Originally Posted by Osweo

The 'rapa' is the enclosure they're in? I am relieved that the name doesn't translate as violación de las bestias, which first came into my mind...

LoL dont worry

The verb "rapar" means just cut the hair, and rapa is the noun derivated of it

**~~Osweo~~** · 01-14-2010, 02:57 AM

Originally Posted by Falkata

LoL dont worry

The verb "rapar" means just cut the hair, and rapa is the noun derivated of it

Ah!!!

reap
"to cut grain with a hook or sickle," O.E. reopan, Mercian form of ripan "to reap," related to O.E. ripe "ripe" (see ripe). Reaper is O.E. ripere, in compound hripemann. Meaning "personification of death" is recorded from 1839.
ripe
O.E. ripe "ready for reaping, fit for eating," from W.Gmc. *ripijaz (cf. M.Du. ripe, Du. rijp, O.H.G. rifi, Ger. reif); related to O.E. repan "to reap" (see reap). The verb ripen "to grow ripe" is from 1561, replacing earlier verb ripe, from late O.E. ripian, from the adj.
rapacity
1540s, from M.Fr. rapacité (16c.), from L. rapacitatem (nom. rapacitas) "greediness," from rapax "grasping" (gen. rapacis) "plundering," from rapere "seize" (see rapid).
rapid
1634, from L. rapidus "hasty, snatching," from rapere "hurry away, carry off, seize, plunder," from PIE base *rep- "to snatch" (cf. Gk. ereptomai "devour," harpazein "snatch away"). Rapids is 1765, from Fr. rapides, applied by Fr. voyagers to North American rivers. Rapid-transit first attested 1873; rapid eye movement is from 1916.

up