Spain <Why do bullfighters wave a red cloth?>

Spain

Capital: Madrid

Area: 504,782 km2 (about 2.3 times the size of the Korean Peninsula)

Population: 39.37 million

Language: Spanish

 

Why do bullfighters wave a red cloth?

 

In Spanish newspapers, bullfighting articles are not featured in the sports section but in the culture section. Spanish people consider bullfighting as a cultural activity, not a sport. Bullfighting usually starts around Easter (April) and runs until October, mainly on Sundays and festival days. Typically, the bullfight starts around 5 pm when the heat of the day has subsided.

 

There are over 300 bullrings throughout Spain, and bullrings in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona have more than 30,000 seats. When a bullfight is held, six bulls are killed. Sometimes bullfighters die or are injured by the bull's horns. However, the bullfighter must keep both feet on the ground when the bull runs towards him. If the bullfighter loses his footing or tries to run away, he is mocked as a coward.

Furthermore, the bull must be killed in one strike. If not, the audience boos the bullfighter for repeatedly stabbing the bull with a sword.

The reason bullfighters wave a red cloth is to provoke and excite the bull.

The showdown between an angry bull and a bullfighter is very thrilling.

 

Animal rights activists around the world constantly call for an end to such animal cruelty. However, Spanish people respond by saying that the bulls in the bullring have had a lifetime of freedom in the fields. Moreover, the time the bulls spend in the bullring before they are killed is only 15 minutes. They also ask, what about the cows that are worked to death in other countries and then sold to the butcher's shop?

On the day of a bullfight, Spanish people love it so much that the whole city shuts down.