Bullfights in Spain
Matador dress
A matador is usually distinguished from his assistants by his satin traje de luces (suit of lights) which is generally decorated in gold. Assistants tend to wear suits decorated in silver. A matator's suit is hand-made, taking six people a month to create and costing from 1.500 € to 2.400 €, the whole outfit usually costs over 3.000 €.
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 astrakhan which is a kind of two cornered hat.
One final adornment is the pig tail which denotes a matador and is clipped to the back of the head and symbolically cut in the ring when the matador retires). The matador's cape is worn only in the parade before a fight commences and then hung on the fence in front of a friend or distinguished spectator.
Bullfighting as a ritual
Bullfighting is a ritual. It is a ceremony that is carried out in carefully pre-arranged steps, as called for by the tradition of the corrida, each stage with its own name, and which the aficionados in the crowd will know by heart. The lead roles are played by the bull and the matador in the arena. It is a ritual that requires a sacrifice, a sacrifice to the death.
Only this thought can justify the ritual, the performance, the bullfight, the celebration, and that is death. Man, in his complex relationship with the fear of death but also his willingness to risk it, seeks to vanquish death. He does that by physically overcoming death; and doing so in the arena, he seeks immortality. The bull, therefore, is death personified.
Man's melodrama is forgotten for an instant. The matador, representing mankind and dressed for his date with death in the fantastical if impractical traje de luz, suit of lights, goads, mocks and sentences the bull to death with the estocada, the death blow, from his sword. The most spectacular estocada is the estocada recibido ('received', when the matador stands his ground and lets the enraged bull charge him) but it isn't seen that often. The ritual has been carried out, the bull is dead and the matador is triumphant. Man has defeated death - today he is immortal.
