La Ofrenda Floral a la Virgen de las Angustias

Last Saturday was a very exciting day for Granada due to the annual Ofrenda Floral a la Virgen de las Angustias (Flower Offering to the Virgin of Sorrows). The flower offering serves as a kickoff for an annual festival in Granada that celebrates the city's patron saint, la Virgen de las Angustias. Starting on Thursday, I saw them setting up metal grids in front of the church near my house, but I didn't quite understand what the flower offering is so I was interested to see how everything would pan out. I wasn't sure what time the festivities began so I walked around the center of the city in the morning and saw that about 10 different booths had been set up to sell flowers for the offering.

There were people walking through the streets, but it wasn't that much busier than normal so I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about. Everything was closed for the offering other than restaurants which meant there wasn't much to do other than wander around. The grids at the church were still empty, although a stage and sign made of flowers had been added to the area around the church. 

After a while I went home for siesta feeling unimpressed. Once siesta was over, Brittany convinced me to go back to the flower offering where she was meeting some friends. I wasn't all that excited to go back since I had been a little disappointed, but I figured it was better than just sitting in my room at home. It turned out to be worth it! I'm so used to festivals and parades in the US that start mid-morning and are done by the afternoon so Brittany and I hadn't even considered that the real events would occur later in the day. I'm assuming there was some sort of speech on the stage and there was definitely a small parade that we missed. At the end of the parade, all the participants stayed in order so we at least got to walk by them and see the various participants. It was a bizarre mix of traditional flamenco costumes, policeman, and horses. 

Above is a picture of volunteers (I think they're volunteers) whose job is to put the flowers on the metal grids. The way it works is that everyone goes to the nearby square where all the flower booths are, buys flowers, gets in line, and then hands their flowers one by one to the men on the ladders. The men are all wearing harnesses that are hooked onto the grid and they set up metal floors and railings for them to stand on as well. The floors and railings are removed level by level as more flowers are put onto the grid. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but there are literally mobs of people surrounding the church to watch as they slowly fill up the grid. 

Of course after watching them add more and more flowers, I had to come back the next day and see the final product. This is what the flower offering looks like in the end. There must be thousands of flowers and it's really beautiful. I kept seeing people sit and stare at the flowers for 2 or 3 days after the offering. The festival that follows the flower offering isn't until the last Sunday of September and it's supposed to be much more exciting than the flower offering so it'll be fun to see what happens next!