3 Kings

Christmas in Spain

Christmas in Spain differs in many ways from the normal celebrations in England, the US and other western countries. For a start, it is nowhere near as blatantly commercialised. The Spanish treat Christmas very much more as a religious event. It is very rare to see Christmas lights, displays and produce in stores much before December.
Every town and city will have its streets adorned and decorated with lights and nativity displays. These displays have very important religious meaning and are called the Belén.  Feliz Navidad Merry Christmas. Pointsettiers are everywhere, with their red foliage.

Christmas

Christmas Eve is called Nochebuena (goodnight) and is the most important family gathering of the year.
People will often meet in bars early in the evening for a few drinks with friends then return home to the family and have their main celebratory meal. Fish or seafood starters followed by a roast will be a typical meal. Lamb or pork is the usual fare, not turkey as is the normal custom.
A Christmas sweet called turrón often follows. This is a nougat made from sweetened roasted almonds.
Spanish champagne, called Cava, is usually the preferred drink for the Christmas toast but you can be sure that plenty of fine Spanish wines will also be uncorked for the celebrations!
By contrast, Christmas Day will be a much calmer affair with the family getting over the night before.
Perhaps a visit to a local bar or a stroll through the square might be suggested.
There may be small presents for the children but the main present-giving day doesn’t come until January 6th - Three Kings Day.

The New Year

On December 28th we have Santos Innocentes (Holy innocents) day. This is much like April Fools Day and many people, organisations and the media play the usual tricks and spoofs to join in the fun.
New Year’s Eve is called Noche Vieja (old night) and is pretty much the same as anywhere in the world with much partying into the early hours of the morning.
As everything starts so late in Spain, people tend to stay in until midnight and then go out to celebrate after the traditional 12 Grapes ceremony.
Basically everyone has 12 grapes ready for midnight and at the stroke of midnight one grape has to be eaten on each chime of the clock. This is supposed to bring you good luck for the coming year.
New Year’s Day is a day of rest and recuperation - asprin for headaches!

Three Kings Day.

This starts on the evening of January 5th with excitement, processions and floats in every town.
The Three Kings and their helpers throw thousands of sweets (caramelos) from their floats to all the children and anyone else who comes out to watch.
Every town will have its own special way of celebrating this event. In some coastal towns the Three Kings may arrive by boat before the procession. Or in the ski centre of Sierra Nevada they even arrive by skiing down into the village.
The Three Kings Day proper is January 6th. This is the most important day of the year for the children, who will wake up to find that the Three Kings (los Reyes Magos) have visited and left them presents in the night.
That’s if they’ve been good, of course!
Throughout the day the Three Kings will carry on the good work and visit children in hospitals and in other less fortunate circumstances.
On January 7th it’s all over. Kids back to school, mum and dad back to work, situation back to usual
Merry Christmas (Feliz Navidad) to you all. Si Si Si

Just an update in case you were wondering.................

Its warm here, tshirt weather, after a cold spell and 3 days of rain with all the buckets and butts full to capacity, it is now warm enough for the beach in the early afternoon with the sun highest in the sky. 

The snow on the mountain horizon  has melted away, replaced by cloudless skies. Ok temperatures plummet at night, and the calor gas heater is on one bar. Spanish homes are not well built, no accounting for rain drainage, insulation, they are just cheap concrete frame constructions, bung it up that will do, in Spanish. Electricity is marginally better than Michael Faraday's system, wood is crap. If they did not have the sun, they would have the country to themselves riding donkeys on dirt tracks.

So odd jobs need to be done, like when electric wall socket arcs out, kitchen drawer fronts need replacing, etc etc.  The Spanish think   ( I use that term loosely)    that when it rains it will go to the sea eventually and what's left will evaporate eventually. None of them like gardens, they are all tiled over, hence the rain runs off into flash floods...dozy Diego's.

I did talk to Huello this morning as I picked up litter left from a parked car. No he was not down at  the school yard, me and Huello were in the street , he lives opposite. He is a rare hombre, he does not gargle when he speaks and he actually cares about outside his window. A rare Spaniard indeed.

Another new thing I have come across is you cannot trust the picture on the packet, it does NOT do what it says on the tin. Now I thought all Europe had the same Brussels legislation. It is that which makes Bird's Eye Unilever state "Gravy with Beef slices" on the pack, swimming in water.  Not here. Of course not I hear you heckle. No, here the Paella in a pack frozen, has NO rice, contrary to the picture. Toasted sandwiches in foil turn out to be cheese slices.  Spanish humour, no probably Spanish intelligence.  You may now think I have the same opinion of the Spanish as I do flies and other pesty insects, you would not be far wrong, but all us Northern Europeans have the same opinion, I am rather more verbose and blunt about them.

Of course there are exceptions, like Huello, even if he is not down by the school yard, nor for that matter is he related to double glazing.  There are helpful senoritas in shops, some actually speak English and again are less fluent in gargling. But I have to say their education system here is poor. For a start the kids have to learn 2 lots of Spanish, local dialect (gargling)  and proper Spanish. So as they are not at school long, there is not much time for anything else. Plus the fact that under Generalismo Franco 1938 to 1975, the women were sent to fields not school. Many cannot read or write. Maybe that is why Huello is not down by the school yard. Indeed on the maybe front, maybe they gargle all the time cos of the garlic, and maybe that's why they shout and holler, cos no one understands what they are gargling about, all the words rolling into one long gargle..................

Come to think of it the supermarket shelves have numerous varieties of Listerine !!!

So on a more positive note, really??  really??  don't hold your breath though. I have been invited to write for Spurs Mad !!! An internet Fanzine news letter, not that I write anything positive of course. Actually I do. I write Player Profiles, of the players I like, the ones that try.  I just slag off the manager big time and the lily livered players in lily white shirts. So much so that one reader thought I was a Daily Mail reporter hahahahahhahahahaha. However it is constructive criticism, not just torpedoes. "Fire 1, Fire 2. Dive Dive Dive."

Talking about rumbles.........We had another earth tremor during the night, its like a train going by on the underground, except the nearest underground is 400 miles away in Madrid. Last one we had was May which was more violent. Apparently, if we are insured, the Government will bail us out for acts of god, floods, earthquakes.

Scruffy has now fully recovered. Not that he caused earthquakes, rather small for that. He is the Toys are Us dog with too short legs. His back ones packed up cos of the high kerbs, he was very bad for weeks, but  now I can throw away the disabled badge after home therapy. Medicine actually for all animals including humans, it not very good here and not cheap.

Which brings me on to Christmas, (tonic, cheer, loose link).  WE are going to the Lemon Tree Restaurant Christmas Day 2pm. There is Tony Francis singing. He is a great act, funny with it. We have become friends, surely not, sure we have. He is also performing New years Eve too at Antonios. 

So Santa Amazon has been ordered to turn up and descend down the chimney for the grand kids.

Susan will be flying to England in January. I will be driving (I think)  for February the 17th to England, which is half term for Emily and Josephine, then Dereham, and going back with supplies  in the boot. There is an Iceland here but it is 50% more expensive  than in England. Carrefour  Hypermarket has an Ingleterre section, but there are some things that the Spanish has never thought of, dreamed of, blankety blank expressions, not even a gargle from them.

I see the Kiwi's are back now having had a good time with the all blacks (Tullis in NZ  for those non comprendez)

Right that will do for now, Hasta Pronto, run out of things to say, unlike you, well all good things have to come to some kind of end, so that was good was it, well not bad, surely...surely not.  Stop calling me surely.!!!!

Adios