( CNN ) -- A 400-year-old tradition is facing some new challenges this year at this week 's annual running of the bulls in Spain . Celebrations for the San Fermin festival are already underway , but the first running of the bulls will be held Wednesday in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona . The city is once again handing out 100,000 leaflets to local and foreign festival-goers explaining how to minimize the risk of accidents during the spectacle . It 's a warning and a reminder of the dangers and even death that can occur when hundreds of runners sprint alongside the half-ton bulls and steers . Last year saw the first fatal goring in more a decade . For the sixth year now , Pamplona has sprayed the entire 825 meter route with a special anti-slipping chemical to help avoid injury to the bulls and the red-and-white clad runners . The run in Pamplona started 400 years ago and became popular worldwide after author Ernest Hemingway wrote about it in the 1920s in his book `` The Sun Also Rises , '' also published under the title `` Fiesta . '' The event is held July 7-14 . Six bulls and a pack of tame steers run from the corrals , through Pamplona 's old town , to the bullring -- where the bulls will die later in the day in a bullfight . Including the recent death , 14 people have been killed in the runs since 1924 , when record-keeping began . But while the narrow cobblestone streets of Pamplona are expected to be as packed as ever , the tradition of bullfights , or `` corridas '' is under pressure elsewhere . The economic downturn is certainly taking its toll . With nearly one in five Spaniards out of a job there are fewer spectators packing the rings . And struggling towns are looking for ways to slash spending . Some local governments are cutting the expensive spectacles to save money for basic services like schools and police salaries . But there is also pressure brewing to change cultural attitudes about the tradition of bullfighting as well . Just as most other years , People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ( PETA ) and other animal rights groups organized a rally Sunday featuring semi-nude protesters covered in red paint in Pamplona , but also have staged protests outside Spanish embassies around the world . The tactics may be gaining some traction . A 2006 Gallup poll showed more than 70 percent of those surveyed said they have `` no interest '' in bullfighting , while 82 percent of those aged 15 to 24 held that same view . And now the tradition has begun facing legal and political challenges . The government in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia plans to hold a vote on banning the practice , potentially making it the second region in Spain to outlaw bullfighting after the Canary Islands in the Atlantic did so in 1991 . While Pamplona embraces tradition , one thing you wo n't be seeing -- or hearing -- this year ... the incessant buzz of the `` vuvuzela ! '' The government there has banned the sale of the plastic horns along the bull-run route , saying they would be dangerous and distracting to the animals .
400-year-old tradition facing challenges on many fronts . The first challenge is the lack of a clear understanding about what it means to be an Orthodox Jew in modern Israel, and how that relates to being Jewish as a whole. Animal-rights groups have held protests . Catalonia government is voting on a ban .