Christmas in Spain is an interesting thing. As the world has gotten to be a smaller place, Spain has begun to adopt the traditions of others as their own. The combination of modern American Christmas traditions and older Spanish practices gives the holiday season a bit of a schizophrenic air. First of all, when does the holiday season begin? For us its an easy answer: The day after Thanksgiving. But what to do when there IS no Thanksgiving? I discovered this year that holidays need boundaries, something to tell them when to begin and end. Here in ZAZ, Christmas sort-of dribbled in bit by bit, starting sometime in mid November and clearly arriving some time in mid December. The streets in our neighborhood were lit by holiday lights (they don't look specifically Christmas-y, as they are white, blue and yellow..kind of a Chanukah-meets-tanning booth festivity if you like) and the big department stores were decked out in giant snowflake lights. The snowflakes make me giggle a bit, as Zaragoza almost never receives snow of any amount. There were a few flakes around the 17th of December, but the snow was gone by the afternoon. You can also see signs of Santa Claus here and there. And scenes of Bethlehem. The Belén scenes are the big deal in Zaragoza, and don't just have a manger with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. they include hills, buildings, water mills, flocks of sheep, and Roman fortresses with roman guards high over the town. And in the distance, the three kings make their way to the manger. Some stores have little scenes, some have big ones, some, like the banks, have HUGE ones. In the plaza in front of the Basilica there is a Belén scene so big that it takes 1o minutes to walk through it, looking at life-sized statues of people, donkeys, Roman forts, and an angel up in a tree next to a working water wheel powered by a real moving stream (see below).
What is missing from all of this are Christmas trees in lit windows. From our street the only tree that can be seen is our little, artificial tree. There are no other trees in any windows on our block, nor on any block around us. People tell us that other families have them, but that mostly the trees are inside the house and can't be seen. I had never thought of this before, but we display our trees as much for the neighbors as for ourselves in the U.S. In fact, here in Zaragoza there aren't really any lights up in ANY windows (at least facing the street). I have been searching on Youtube for images of lit neighborhoods to get my fix of the lights this year.
And, of course, everywhere are references to the kings. Epiphany, or Kings' day, is January 6th (today). Spanish kids put their shoes on the windowsill (or under the window if you happen to be on the 6th floor) along with some food for the kings and their camels on the night of the 5th. On the evening of the 5th there was a giant parade on our main street to welcome the kings to Zaragoza that included fairies, wizards, warriors, jugglers, flame throwers, accompanying Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltasar, the three kings, on their giant floats. At the end of this blog you can see a short video of the parade, set to music by the Alford trio (recorded as a present to Andee).
On the 17th my mother arrived from Bethel, experiencing the coldest few days we are likely to have this year (about 29 degrees and REALLY WINDY). We had a wonderful visit, taking her to all of the cool places we have discovered and cooking all of the yummy things we regularly eat here. On Christmas Eve we had the traditional meal of soft-shell tacos. Yes, tacos. This is not a Spanish tradition, as tacos are really not eaten here. This is a family tradition going way back. We eat special, secret-recipe tacos (our advisees know exactly what I mean here). After Christmas we took a three day trip to Madrid and Toledo to visit museums and monuments. and it rained. A lot. Every day. Just ask Ben about this picture.
Okay, maybe I exaggerate. Ben was standing next to the cathedral in Toledo here, discovering what the functional purpose of a gargoyle is (Renaissance drainpipe). After a really nice visit my mom left on the 30th, to rest from her vacation. We returned to Zaragoza for New Year's Eve (Nochevieja) with Alejandro and his parents. We had a fantastic meal of (traditional) seafoods, followed by grilled lamb and steak. Both Ben and Chaia ate like champions (steamed mussels+ meat on the bone=happy kids). Watching the ball drop in Spain is a bit more of a personal thing, as at precisely midnight, on each stroke of the count of twelve, Spaniards eat twelve grapes. If the clock you are using happens to have a fast chime, then you wind up with a mouth stuffed with grapes. Needless to say, the traditional New Year's kiss does not combine well with the Spanish tradition, and laughing about the awkwardness of trying to combine the two just makes the whole thing worse. Ben and Chaia saw 2AM for the second time this year, and we all slept until 10:30 on the 1st.
Happy new year all, may your 2010 be happier in all ways than your 2009!!
