As part of Pollensa’s Easter Sunday procession, tradition has had it down the years that six or seven rifles are fired with cartridges. This Easter Sunday, there will be no shotguns, an amendment to Spain’s weapons regulations having prohibited the use of firearms for fiestas and similar events.
This amendment was made in August 2020. Until now it hasn’t had any impact. In fact, the amendment went more or less unnoticed. Coronavirus was preventing fiestas, people had more on their plate as it was, and little attention was paid to a legislative modification in Madrid.
There will be less public knowledge of the use of firearms in Pollensa at Easter than on an occasion later in the year - the Moors and Christians battle in August. It was when arrangements were being made for the island’s other big battle, Soller’s in May, that the change to the law really became apparent. Soller has firearms as well.
For Pollensa’s Moors and Christians, some thirty shotguns are fired in all. A solution is being sought, one being blunderbusses that are replicas from times past. These would also be more like the type of weapon that was used when the Moorish pirates invaded in the mid-sixteenth century. It still seems, though, that a special permit would be needed.
The guns that have been used in Pollensa and Soller have basically been hunting rifles. These are now specifically outlawed. Soller town hall was officially notified earlier this week by the Spanish government delegation in the Balearics that these couldn’t be used. An implication is that Pollensa only appreciated what was going (and which would affect Easter Sunday) once Soller had been informed.
In Soller, there are apparently seventeen registered old-style weapons that conform to the new regulations. Normally, 34 shotguns are used. Pollensa would need to get hold of these blunderbuss type guns at a total cost of some 15,000 euros.
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