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When did the yellow arrows first appear? Was there a color that was used in the past? Did the current color get adopted after "The Wizard of Oz" come out with the thing about following the yellow brick road?
I have seen yellow arrows painted on the road in my own city, and assume that they have something to do with roadworks being carried out at the time. But they remind me of the camino.The boring answer is that arrows are widely recognized directional symbols and yellow is a color that offers a good contrast
I had always heard it was because it was a colour he was able to acquire in quantity for free from the people who painted the highways. he started painting them in the early 80s, 1984, I believe.It seems hard to find a definite answer on why the arrows are yellow.
According to the article posted in post #2, Elias Velina chose yellow (amongst other reasons) because yellow is typically used in Galicia for signposting hiking trails.
According to a family member, however, he chose yellow because - when in France - he saw that yellow was used to signpost mountain routes in France.
I do not know which explanation makes more sense - as I do not know in which colour trails are typically signposted in either Galicia or France.
Legend has it that the priest started painting yellow arrows seizing the opportunity using leftover paint used for signposting roads which had been given to him by some workers who worked in the area. For José Manuel López Valiña, a descendant of the parish priest of and resident of this village, the choice of this colour was by no means entirely by chance. “In the first outings to explore the terrain and signpost the Route, my uncle realised that it was necessary to use something for attracting a lot of attention and which would last for a lifetime. When he arrived in France he saw that yellow was the colour used to signpost mountain routes, so he decided to paint the Camino de Santiago (St. James's Way) route in that colour ”, he states.
The yellow arrow, the sign of the Camino de Santiago
The yellow arrow, established by the parish priest Elías Valiña in the 70s, becomes the only valid sign to mark the direction of the Caminowww.elcaminoconcorreos.com
I had always heard it was because it was a colour he was able to acquire in quantity for free from the people who painted the highways.
Q: Why do firefighters wear red braces?It seems hard to find a definite answer on why the arrows are yellow.
Q: Why do firefighters wear red braces?
A: To hold up their trousers.
This is what I also have heard, many years back in time. It was leftover roadmark paint that he got for free.I had always heard it was because it was a colour he was able to acquire in quantity for free from the people who painted the highways. he started painting them in the early 80s, 1984, I believe.
Camino Chrissy,I can only imagine the people who got a bit lost a "few" times along the Way prior to 1984...I surely would have been one of them.
The story that Father Elías used yellow paint 'liberated' from the highway department is one of those stories you wish were true but probably aren't. I think it has gained traction because it fits the legend - Fr Elías was a firm believer in, and arguably the principal protagonist of, the idea that pilgrimage should be something for the masses, for ordinary people rather than a semi-official event presided over by the hierarchy. He probably just used yellow paint because it is highly visible. But it was pretty certainly him who first started doing it. Before that, there were no markings at all and many pilgrims arrived by train.When did the yellow arrows first appear? Was there a color that was used in the past? Did the current color get adopted after "The Wizard of Oz" come out with the thing about following the yellow brick road?
It didn't really occur to me until I'd done a couple of caminos, but those arrows don't paint themselves, and they don't last forever. That vast army of volunteers, who put in thousands of hours and often expense from their own pocket to keep the camino going, are invisible to us pilgrims. So, absolutely, our thanks and a hearty salute to the asociaciones and friends of the camino.... and this reminds me of staying in the former infirmary within the confines of the bullring in La Roda on the Camino de Levante. (an unforgettable experience!)
In one corner of the whitewashed and basic room was a collection of spray cans of yellow paint and metal cut-out stencils of arrows, used by the great friends of the Camino for weekend ‘marking expeditions’.
My thanks to all the Associations which keep up the invaluable work.
In September 2016 as I was leaving León before the sun was up I spotted this volunteer refreshing the arrows near the cathedral.It didn't really occur to me until I'd done a couple of caminos, but those arrows don't paint themselves, and they don't last forever. That vast army of volunteers, who put in thousands of hours and often expense from their own pocket to keep the camino going, are invisible to us pilgrims. So, absolutely, our thanks and a hearty salute to the asociaciones and friends of the camino.
My first credencial was from Los Amigos Del Camino D. Santiago Estella (although it was given out in Roncesvalles and designed specifically for pilgrims starting there).Two other early pioneers of marking the Ways of Saint James in Spain were Don Javier Navarro from Roncesvalles and Andrés Muñoz Garde from the first Spanish Camino association, established in Estella.
David,My first credencial was from Los Amigos Del Camino D. Santiago Estella (although it was given out in Roncesvalles and designed specifically for pilgrims starting there).
Beyond the history of yellow arrows, it would be interesting to look into the history of credenciales used to collect stamps (as opposed to letters from one's home parish establishing one as a pilgrim, but not necessarily used to collect stamps along the way).
Click here for Muñoz's article in the Estella documentation of November 1990. This seems to be an interesting document, btw, I see now that it contains another communication about route marking, and other potentially interesting information about the situation along the Camino Francés in 1990 and in the 80s.
Interestingly, Andrés Muñoz writes that the Camino in Spain had been marked with yellow arrows since July 1982.
You have to read Muñoz' comments carefullyQuite interesting that many articles on the internet claim that Valina started using yellow arrows in 1984 - probably a matter of copy and paste while nobody knows anymore what was the original source for this information. When Munoz says it was 1982, I tend to regard him as a more reliable source.
So perhaps Elias Valina did not come up with the idea of the yellow arrows but he certainly made them popular.
Unfortunately, I do not have a link to my source now, but it was stated somewhere that Elias Valiña was given surplus yellow road paint from the Spanish road authorities, as it was no longer needed by them, due to the change from yellow to white. The free consept was obviously of importance for using yellow, it may seem.Thanks for the information about Spain switching from yellow road marking to white road marking in order to comply with the European Traffic Code. The availability of cheap cans of yellow paint from the authorities makes more sense now.
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