We knew the parade was to start out from the Gate. As we looked around, it became evident that the "route" was directly through the crowd! As the fireworks were going off from the Gate, many people in the crowd wrapped their faces in handkerchiefs and scarves, pulled down hats, and otherwise covered their hair and faces. Even the children were bundled up by their parents.
(In the following paragraphs the terms are given in Spanish then in Catalunyan and are excerpted from the local newspaper.)
The drumming started in earnest and the first of the Diablos appeared. They had long lances called "macos or cetrots" . Macos used a single carretilla which was swung over the Diablo's head on the end of a lance. The cetrots looked more like a candelabra with 6 to 12 carretilla attached. The carretilla were actually a 1/2 inch gerb, 6 inches long which terminated in a salute.
There was another type that looked like a squirrel cage or lamp shade with rows of the carretilla fixed above one another, driving it like a Catherine wheel around a central spindle.
The Diablo would begin to dance and spin the pole, spraying the shower of sparks directly into the crowd. Actually, everyone was dancing at this time, in unison, an amazing effect, with the devils pushing through the crowd trying to spray everyone with sparks. The carretilla would terminate with the bang of a salute, which, likely as not, would go off right in your ear. As the Diablos made there way into the crowd, the square would be illuminated by the carretillas, there could be as little as 10 Diablos in one group, the next could be 30 or more dancing out of the gates of hell with their "macos" ablaze.


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