A poor substitute, I know, for an Ipod or Pony but all I can afford to share these days are my love and experiences; and has you now have the former, I will attempt come through with the latter.
Unlike our Christmases in the U.S., which basically begin on ‘Black Friday,’ the holiday season in Spain doesn’t begin until the 22nd of December with a very special event. It is the Christmas Lottery of course and it is required for every person from young to old to partake. Many only play this once every year and do so more for the joy of the tradition and holiday cheer then any thoughts of winning. All day in Madrid they do the drawings with it being broadcasted over all channels.
This lottery is performed in a unique way in that it is required that the two kids doing the drawings have to be ex-orphans and must sing every number that they draw. Not sure of the reasoning behind the necessity for ex-orphans; maybe to battle such unfair stereotypes that Oliver Twist and The Newzies have put in place about orphans and money. Anyway these two kids are continuously drawing little wooden balls out of a devise that looks like it could meet the ‘bingo’ needs of every senior center in Spain. When the balls are released the two kids start to sing every number in this special little tune. They draw enough balls to last them all day but in the end they only have about six winners. I would strongly advice a search in youtube of this event so you can at least hear them constantly singing out numbers. It’s funny.
After this event my family and I packed up and headed to Aranda de Duero where I spent the entirety of my holidays. In earlier blogs I spoke of Aranda as the town where I saw my first bullfight and continue to visit quite often doing to the grand majority of my extended family residing there. My full nineteen days in Aranda were ones filled with great food, company, traditions, and memorizes. Couldn’t of asked for a more relaxing and enjoyable place to spend the Holidays.
As it would be taxing on us all to retell everyday as the quality experience would deserve, I will hit on the most memorial, beginning of which with “Noche Buena.” Translated literally to mean “Good Night,” Christmas Eve in Spain is one greatly differing from that of home but no less enjoyable. The importance of the day revolves around the making and eating of a grand dinner that, like anything of import in Spain, doesn’t end until some point the next morning. This year’s meal was made up of four truly amazing courses and wild fun with the whole extended family on my mother’s side until five in the morning. My true accomplishment for the night was I managed to make nine euros by winning bingo. Exchanges rates being as they are, I would consider the night a success.
After what normal people would consider too little sleep to function, Spain was up and ready to begin Christmas day. As we spent all last night with my mother’s side of the family, Christmas was spent with my father’s. Now normally Santa Claus doesn’t visit Spain on the 25th as in the U.S. but instead does so in the form of the “Reyes Magos” on the 6th of January; normally making Christmas more or less a retake of the night before. My father and his siblings however spent the beginning of their childhood living in France because of the hunger that existed under Franco. France is a country where Santa Claus or “Papa Noel” does journey and so, not partaking in normal Spanish tradition, we spent most of the morning opening presents and preparing for the huge lunch that would follow. As dinner is the most important on Noche Buena, lunch on Navidad is instead the meal that takes up a great deal of your day. It is quite common on Navidad to eat “Lechazo” or a lamb of about a month old so that it has only been fed off its mother’s milk. Aranda de Duero is famous for dish and the people take great pride in that fact. Now it may sound a little cruel but, trust me, when you’re actually eating it you will forget that PETA ever existed.
After a couple days we reach “Noche Viejo” and with it one of the wildest nights of my life. Aranda holds a fun tradition each New Years Eve that I was fortunate enough to have been a part of and that is a 5K race beginning at early evening. The race goes throughout the town with just about 2000 racers and everyone dressed up in wild costumes. I ran next to zombies, giant grapes, and rowdy a rugby team attempting to play a game in the middle of everyone. Literally right when I crossed the finish line it started to randomly hail very heavily for a good while. I couldn’t have been more perfect and made me so extremely happy. My family thought me insane but at this point if it comes from the sky and sort of looks white then I am considering it snow.
From there followed another large dinner and the traditions of the grapes. One year, described to me as being “only” about a century ago (a babystep in what Spaniards consider their history), the country had a grand surplus of grapes on its hands and needed to be rid of them all before the new year. The solution was to give every family a bundle and tell them to eat them on the changing of the year. Ever since then every family in Spain tunes in, with grapes in hand, to a broadcast of the large clock in the Puerta de Sol in Madrid right as it is about to hit 12. The clock does four beginning tolls before it tolls twelve times at which you’re supposed to chew and swallow a new grape with each. If you are able to eat twelve grapes in the allotted time then you will have a great year to follow. Didn’t sound too hard to begin with but is in fact quite a challenge. Before now I didn’t realize how much goes into eating a single grape, let alone 12 in rapid succession. I will say I managed to get them all down by the last ring and only with limited gagging involved. Spaniards take this tradition very seriously and grape companies advertise heavily beforehand. This system does seem to have some merit however; people seem to buy what they’re told when their luck for a year is on the line. If only we had the same but with buying something like . . . You may each in turn substitute the ellipsis for whatever will solve your economic problems.
When we were finished with the grapes is when the really craziness began. Left with my mom and other family members and didn’t return until nine in the morning. I have now lived in Spain for over 4 months yet the way they’re able to continue living on such little to no sleep all the time truly amazes me. If Tinkerbelle were in Spain telling me to clap if I believe in fairies, I would truly be the loudest. I have seen more mind confounding phenomena in a Spaniards sleeping habits that one can’t help but begin to question the other more mystical things out there.
Then it all comes together again on the 6th of January for the “Reyes Magos.” These are the three wise kings that brought Jesus presents when he was born and so now do the same with the rest of the children of the world. The night before it marked by a large number of parades around Spain with the largest and most widely watch being in Madrid. Aranda had a parade as well but there seemed to be some sort of confusion on the routes the floats and where to go and by the time they had reached us many were lost around the town. Each of the Kings had their own floats as well but had been lost in the crowds much earlier so were merely three large empty thrones being pulled along my four-wheelers. Many of the floats that did reach us had children on them that would literally huck terrible tasting hard candy at the crowd. So I learned very fast why the people prefer to stay home and watch them on TV.
We then went to a nearby town that turns itself each year into a living nativity scene. Navitity scenes are huge in Spain and people spend months building them so they will be ready in time for the 6th. I was shown a few that took up entire rooms with many elaborate moving figures and decorative scenery. I’ll post some pictures below of just one of these. This town takes it to the next step however and every year takes the entire town and its people and dresses them up as though they existed 2000 years ago. It was actually really amazing and the effort that was put into it was extraordinary. The high point of the night is when the three kings come down from a medieval castle that is on the hill next to the town to ask the Romans if they know where to find Jesus. From there they all go to give their gifts to Jesus then let kids sit on their laps and ask what they want for Reyes Magos tomorrow. It was actually a really interesting experience.
The last part of getting ready for the 6th is you have to clean and put out your shoes. You have to make sure that they are squeaky clean or the Reyes Magos won’t leave treats in them. The U.S. with our stockings and Spain with its shoes. I do wonder who originally thought that the articles of clothing that we keep are feet in is probably the best place to put candy and such things. Seems more hygienically oriented clothing item could have been chosen.
Then the morning of the 6th arrives and you wake to find presents all around your shoes. You spend the morning opening presents with everyone which is a wonderful time. Just like Santa Claus the Reyes Magos give coal to naughty kids so every year it seems to be common place to have among your other treats a hunk of coal as joke. It is made out of sugar and so edible but extremely hard. Then you proceed right into getting ready for the large and amazing lunch that is to follow. It is custom to eat Lechazo on Reyes Magos as well along with a great deal of other foods. There were 13 of us there for lunch so they set a 14th place setting that no one used so as for our lunch to not be bad luck. For dessert they have a circular cake that is only eaten on this day every year. I didn’t realize until I was eating my piece that it is apart of the cake to hide to little figurines inside of it. Those who get these figures will have luck for the year and there is a little crown that came with the cake that they get to wear. My figurine of a little blue man I found my great surprise and confusion in my mouth during one bit. After the explanation and having an icing covered paper crown put on my head, I came to like my little blue man.
So those were some of my bigger highlights over the holidays and had an absolutely amazing time. I will quickly touch on now some of the other littler things I did between these crazy days. My father at one point took me to look at all the centuries old monasteries that surround the area along with exploring a sort of very narrow but tall canyon that you can walk through. My uncle, grandfather, and great uncle took me out to a stream in the hills and tried to teach me how to find a specific kind of plant that lives there that we then ate in a later meal. The 28th of December is what would be April Fools day in the U.S. so my family had a great time making a fool out of me all day. My father and I drove down to Madrid for the day and spent it looking at gardens, palaces, churches, plazas, and other famous monuments. I struggled with the hiccups all that day however and my father would look at me fun whenever I would accidentally break the silence of and old church. Aranda is famous for its Lechazo but also its wine and my Uncle is of one of the oldest wine families that live there. He took me on a tour of his vineyards, his fermentation rooms, his wine cellars, barrel making rooms, wine tasting rooms, and four star hotel that they have connected on to this grand structure. He’s great guy and knows about all there is to know about wine and its making. My grandfather also took me fishing for a day which we had a lot of fun and were later able to eat the trout we caught. Some of the new and interesting food I was able to eat this holidays were battered lamb brains, lamb tail, lamb tonsils, crab eggs right out of the shell, and a whole fried piglet. Just a few things. It was all an amazing time and truly a holiday season to remember.
Just this last Saturday my father and I went on a little trip together for the afternoon to a town about 45 minutes to the south called Pinafiel. This town is known for having one of the most beautiful castles in Spain. We were able to go on a tour around the castle which is situated on a high hill next to the town. A part of the castle has been turned into a wine museum which we then spent a long time exploring.
Well I believe that I have gone on long enough and now will post some photos below. Hope you again are all extremely well and had a wonderful holidays!
Cody
