Hello again!
As the first post for 2015, I thought I’d write about the
new traditions I learnt throughout this festive season! Although I went back to
the UK for a week at Christmas, I then came back to Madrid for New Year’s Eve
and the following period, so this is what I’ll be talking about!
So, in other words:
- Fireworks? No thanks, I have grapes.
- No Santa for Spanish kids!
Fireworks? No
thanks, I have grapes.
Turn on the news on the 31st December and 1st
January, and this is what you’ll see: “Sydney has welcomed New Year with
Explosive Display!” “Beijing has welcomed New Year with Explosive Display” “London
has…” you got the jist, right?
However, have you ever heard any news coming from Spain? No?
Well, neither have I… So it was up to me this year to discover what happens on
such a night!
On the 31st, the day is yours: do whatever you
like with it. It isn’t until the evening that the celebrations begin. You start
off with a big dinner, either with friends, or with your family, or whoever you
want sitting opposite you. After that, it is time to go to the main event! In
Madrid, huge crowds gather in the Puerta del Sol (one of the main squares) to
welcome the New Year, but how? The bells on the Puerta count down every quarter
of an hour starting from 11:00. When 12 o’clock arrives, you hear a carillon,
and a ball slowly makes is way downwards on top of the building. Then it’s time
for the cuartos, different bell rings
that anticipate the arrival of the hour. Then it all begins: everyone takes a
long anticipatory breath aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand…………………………………… YOU HAVE A GRAPE!
Yep, that’s what happens! For each of the 12 “dongs”, you eat a grape. They are
supposed to symbolise good luck for each of the 12 months ahead. Forget the
noise from the other cities around the world, this situation create a moment of
complete silence while 20,000+ people try and ingurgitate 12 grapes without
choking to death! I tried, I succeeded, however trust me when I say they bells
are very fast and it is very difficult to keep chewing at the same pace!
After this you have the choice of going back home and relax
for the rest of the night, or go to a bar or club and party until dawn! Also I’ve
been told today that it is traditional to end the party in the morning by going
to eat chocolate con churros. Nice!
No Santa for
Spanish Kids!
Yep, in Spain Santa doesn’t play a major role! But don’t
worry, your presents will still arrive. Only you have to wait an extra two
weeks until the night of the 5th/6th January when
Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar (aka the Three Kings) are the ones who carry out
this taks! The way it works is fairly similar to the “Santa issue”, however,
being noble, each city gives them a regal welcome to their homes! You can watch
the Cabalgata de Reyes from Madrid in
the following video:
This is it, I hope you’ve had a great start to 2015, and see
you soon!
Hasta pronto!
#JeSuisCharlie
As I write this blog, events are unfolding in Paris which
threaten some of our core values: freedom of speech and freedom of thought.
Workers (and not only) of the magazine Charlie Hebdo have
been brutally murdered just for using a pencil to create a drawing.
Yes it is satire, yes you might not agree with it, but while
it stays within the framework of law and morality then they have the right to
express themselves! If you disagree, you tell them, you respond word by word,
drawing by drawing, but you do not use a rifle. That is not justice, that is
cowardice.
YouTube and other blog sites like the one I am using now
enable each and every one of us to express our thoughts freely, so we have all
been attacked on this day.
You may have died today, but your pens live in our pens. The
writing will continue.
Je Suis Charlie.
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