San Fermin Festival

In about 300 A.D. a young boy who was the son of the local leader of the village of Pamplona was so influenced by the visit and teachings of a French bishop named San Saturnino that he returned to Toulouse, France with the bishop to receive more religious instruction and became a bishop himself. He returned to Pamplona to help Bishop San Saturnino and after a short period returned to the city of Amiens, France to spread the gospel in that city. San Fermin ran into great opposition there and got himself tortured and beheaded. Because he was killed spreading the gospel, San Fermin was considered a martyr. His body was buried in Amiens, France but it was the custom to take various body parts of the martyr and return those "relics" to the city where he had worked. Those "relics" or body parts of San Fermin made him very popular in the village of Pamplona, so much so that the people started having a Festival every year to celebrate the Saint. San Fermin is not the patron saint of Pamplona (that honor is for San Saturnino), but the festival is celebrated in his honor and has become so enormously popular that it is recognized worldwide on his feast day, the 7th of July.
The original Festival was on October 10th, but the combination of three separate fiestas: the religious commemoration of San Fermin since time immemorial, the commercial festivals organized since the 14th century, and the taurine festivals or celebration of the bulls also since the 14th century motivated the Town council to change the date to July 7th for a better chance at suitable weather.