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Bullfighting in Spain

Bullfighting is very popular in Spain, where people go to special bullfighting rings (like a stadium) to watch the matadors fight. First there are parades and ceremonies, then the trumpet sounds and the bull runs in. The Matador and his seconds tease the bull to see how it behaves. The bull is considered one of the smartest animals, much smarter than a horse. If the Matador is sloppy or takes too much time, the bull will figure out the deception and kill the Matador easily.

The Matador swirls his cape at the bull, which tries to attack it. Again the trumpets blast announcing the Picadors. These are two men on horses, carrying long spears which they stick into the bull's neck muscles. This makes the bull keep its head down, so that the Matador can fight it. The next act is the placement of three sets of small colourful spears called banderillera by men named Banderilleros. They slowly wind back and forth in front of the bull so it can't tell which way to charge. They must reach over the bull's horns stabbing a pair of Banderillera into the shoulder of the charging bull while dashing past. The Matador now replaces his large pink and yellow cape for a small blood red cape known as the Muleta , which is folded over a pair of dowels or fake swords. One of the swords will eventually be replaced by the real killing sword.

Now the Matador begins twirling his cape so that the bull will charge at it. If the bull is clever enough, it will gore the Matador with its horns, and it is up to his seconds to try to get the bull away from the body before he dies.

When the Matador does something especially brave, the whole crowd yells "Ole!", to show how much they admire him. When the bull is starting to see how he is being fooled by the cape, the Matador returns to the barrier and exchanges his fake sword for a real blade.

The Matador will now try to make a quick kill by stabbing the bull in the heart. The target is only the size of a playing card, and the Matador must reach over the horns to get it. If the bull dies quickly, the crowd cheers. If it dies slowly, expecially if it has fought bravely, they get angry, and throw things at the Matador. If the fight was a very good one, the men throw their hats into the ring, and the woment in the crowd throw roses to the Matador.

Matadors wear satin suit decorated in gold. A matator's suit is hand-made, taking six people a month to create and costing over 500,000 ptas. The most popular colours are red, black, green, blue and white. Yellow is never worn, even by spectators as it is considered to be unlucky and toreros are highly superstitious. The suit is worn with a white shirt, narrow black tie, a red, green or black sash knotted at the waist, pink, knee-high stockings, black ballet-style slippers and a black two cornered hat. The matador's cape is worn only in the parade before a fight begins and then hung on the fence in front of a friend or important spectator.