Every year during the last Saturday in January, pirates invade my town. They arrive on ship through the Hillsborough Bay, take the city key of Tampa from the mayor, and throw beads and coins during a parade.
This invasion, known as Gasparilla, first happened in the city of Tampa in 1904. Outside of Florida the holiday is generally unknown,
but around the city preparations begin months in advance. The holiday celebrates the legend of Jose Gaspar, believed to be a Spanish Pirate, though there are no records of such a person ever existing.
According to
10connects.com, Gasparilla started when a society section editor of a newspaper sent a bunch of “pirates” over to the annual May Day parade, trying to “spice things up.” The festival began as “good old-fashioned fun.” Today, however, more than 400,000 annual pirate-goers teem the streets of Tampa during Gasparilla, usually drunk. Beer cans line every street corner, and during this year’s festival (perhaps one of the rowdiest), it was not uncommon to see some urinating on the front lawns of houses. At my college, only a few blocks from the parade, many students wake up at 7 a.m. to begin drinking.
I attended the Gasparilla parade during my freshman year of college, in 2008. People really take the event seriously; the pirates who ride on the parade floats have their makeup done so well that on a normal day, you might actually believe there are good, old-fashioned pirates walking the streets. Trying to catch the beads as pirates on floats throw them at you is fun, but to get a good amount you either have to squeeze your way up to the front or else be very tall.
Personally, I didn’t see much in the way of rowdiness when I attended, though I only stayed for a couple of hours. One rather disgusting thing I did see though was how girls at the front of the parade went about getting their beads. They’ll let pirates touch them anywhere, and I mean anywhere, just to collect the most necklaces.
I didn’t attend the 2009 festival, one because I had schoolwork to catch up on (lame, I know) and two, because I couldn’t imagine there was much more to see after the first experience. To me, Gasparilla was fun the first time, just to see what it was all about. I guess I’m just not the kind who finds the excuse to wake up at 7 a.m. to drink all that great.
Does your town have any unique holidays? What about holidays just for the sake of getting drunk?
Comments (3)
Gosh look at all those trash!
Yes, we have the annual Harvest Festival for the whole month of May in Malaysia. This is when the Kadazan people, the majority ethnic group in Sabah, Malaysia (in Borneo) celebrate with plenty of merrymakings and drunken parties beside participating in the traditional sports and traditional beauty contests.
Other than Cinco de Mayo, I don`t know of any other hey-let`s-get-drunk! holidays.
I went to Gasparilla in 2008 too! I was a senior at USF and had never been. It was definitely interesting to say the least. We got there early and proceeded to drink heavily all day. One girl went home with a dude she just met and my roommate's sister flew asleep at the parade and threw up on herself, not cool! I sooooo agree with the sentiment that you only need to go once...after that it's kinda that same drunken scene I would imagine. I actually just threw away the last of the beads I acquired which makes you wonder why you needed them in the first place...