Well, here we go, my first Spanish 52
.
This might seemlike a week or two too late but
La Navidad (Christmas) goes on here for a lot longer than in the UK.
The festivities start on
Noche Buena (Christmas Eve/the Good Night) when families gather together for a huge meal. Food includes lobster, shellfish, goose, rabbit, and lots of other meats that are eaten rarely during the year, like lamb for example. Dessert consists of
Polverones (Individually wrapped biscuits made of almonds that melt in the mouth
),
Mantecados which are very similar,
Turron which comes in many forms: see
here, marzipan (my favourite) and dried fruits and nuts all washed down with Cava. Those that are still capable go to Midnight Mass and on Christmas Day (
El Dia de la Navidad) even more food is consumed but rarely are presents exchanged.
There is no equivalent to Boxing Day in Spain so it's back to work on the 26th December.
New Year's Eve (
Noche Vieja/the Old Night) Rather than starting early and building to a crescendo at midnight, the Spanish see in the New Year sober (well, nearly sober), either with friends or with family, and then go out to the bars at about 12.30. The partying then continues until about 6am (if you fancy an early night) or much, much later, if you don't!
There is an 'ancient' tradition, started by some shrewd farmers about 100 years ago when they were left with too many grapes after the harvest, of eating twelve grapes at the twelve bongs of midnight. This is a fun ritual, only spoiled by the fact that it is almost impossible to buy seedless grapes in Spain - in the rush to chomp down the dozen grapes, everyone ends up biting into a seed and pulling a silly face. Every grape you manage equates to a month's good luck and the first time we tried it I needed that luck straight away as I nearly choked
I've now found that supermarkets sell small tins (
latas) of peeled, seedless grapes. Much more sensible. Local custom decrees the wearing of red knickers on New Year's Eve and I was reliably informed that it is also custom to burn them the next day.
New Year's day is spent sleeping
Then comes the fun of the evening of the 5th January. The 6th of January is Epiphany, know in Spain as
Los Reyes Magos (The Magic Kings) who arrived on the 12th Day with gifts for Jesus.
Throughout Spain children look forward to attending the 3 Kings Procession.This is a very colourful event as the 3 Wise Men; Caspar, Balthazar and Melchior ride through all Spanish towns and cities accompanied by an entourage of floats often depicting cartoon characters and by the pageboys and girls throwing out kilos of boiled sweets (
caramelos) to the children (and parents) who line the route while everyone gets excited about what gifts they might receive the next day.
In Spain, children traditionally write to the Wise Men, or sometimes just their favourite of the three, to ask for gifts and explaining why they deserve them.
On the night of Jan 5th they line up their shoes and leave out sweets or turron for the Kings and water and straw for the animals which are usually depicted as a camel, a horse and an elephant. Come the morning they find their desired gifts beside their shoes.
Another great tradition is the eating of the
Roscon de Reyes.This is a ring shaped sponge cake, hollow in the centre like a donut and decorated with candied fruit and sometimes filled with a cream mixture and has the flavour of orange water. Inside the Roscon is usually a gift (
regalo) and a bean (
haba). The person who is lucky enough to get the gift becomes King for the day and wears a cardboard crown and the poor soul who gets the bean has to pay for the Roscon (which is not cheap!)
So, today in Spain (6th January) is the last day of
La Navidad.
)
