Choosing to spend Christmas in Spain was a hard decision. I have spent every single Christmas of my life in Pine Point, my mom's home town, with all of her family. But a ~$1000 price tag on my return flight and the opportunity to celebrate Navidad Spanish style won over and December 23rd found me on a train heading south to my Spanish home-away-from-home, Granada. And I'm SO glad I took a risk and spent Christmas away from home and got to experience new customs and ways of celebrating familiar holidays.
Here's some key elements of Navidad in España!
Villancicos (Christmas carols!)
While it's not uncommon to hear Jingle Bells (with the lyrics translated to Spanish) or other familiar songs to any American, Spain has its own collection of classic Christmas songs, known as villancicos. I got to hear and learn several of these while helping my students prepare for their annual Christmas concert.
Here´s a video of the children of Tudela singing Christmas carols in the Plaza Nueva in the center of town. (The students wearing matching navy blue jackets are from my school).
Belenes
Spain has a love for Nativity scenes bordering on obsession. They´re creative, they´re elaborate and they´re everywhere: store windows, churches, and private associations create ones around the city for people to come visit during the Christmas season. I loved seeing them. The kids at my school made an enormous one in the hallway out of cardboard boxes wrapped in brown paper with the silhouettes of the figures cut out and glued onto the boxes.
I got to see some more traditional ones while taking a Belén-tour-of-Granada with my host family. It´s unbelievable how much time goes into the creation of these and how much detail and intricacy there is. They include the entire town of Bethlehem and they were enormous, at least 10-20 feet long. The best ones included houses with beds, plates, paintings on the walls, every detail you could possibly imagine. Some had day and night, one had a storm with thunder and lightning every 15 minutes or so, smoke came out of the chimneys, and running water. The ground was covered with real plants, stones and moss. Some of the figures even moved as they worked on whatever task they were undertaking in Bethlehem: putting a horseshoe on a horse, slaughtering a pig, making sausages, fishing in a stream, it was incredible.
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| The best Belén, in Pinos Puente, a small town outside of Granada. This is about a tenth of the entire Belen! |
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| A smaller Belén in a store window in Granada, complete with miniature potttery with pomegranates (granadas!) on them |
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| My favorite Belén, made entirely from crochet! |
Food
You won´t find many candy canes or Christmas cookies in Spain, but they have more than enough Christmas sweets to make up for it! Some typical ones include polvorones (a powdery cake, the name means dust, that come in a variety of flavors), garrapiñadas (sweet roasted almonds), and marzipan. One of my favorites were mantecados, especially the ones from Cónchar, a little pueblo near Granada. A crumbly shortbread with almonds, coated in powdered sugar. Yum!
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| My host mom sent me home with a whole Tupperware container of them. Have I mentioned that I love her? |
Turrón
The most famous of all Spanish Christmas sweets is turrón. Traditionally, there were two types, although both were made from almond. Blando, or turrón from Jijona, is soft, almost fudge-like. Duro, also known as turrón de Alicante, is hard, with whole chunks of almond. Guirlache is another typical kind of turrón from Aragón and northeastern Spain, which is made from almonds coated in caramel. There is also turrón made with walnuts, egg yolk, and milk and white chocolate. In the picture, going clockwise (more or less) are guirlache, turrón blando, white chocolate, turrón duro, milk chocolate, walnut, and egg yolk (the one with what looks like caramel on top).
A Navarran/Basque alternative to Santa Claus, it is a coal worker who brings the children their presents on Christmas Eve in this part of Spain. Unfortunately I was already in Granada when Olentzero came to Tudela so I missed him.
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| Photo: Diario de Navarra |
Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) and Christmas:
Christmas in Spain has no presents, just food and family. I was awoken on the morning of Christmas Eve by my host dad, who had stopped by on his break from work to bring us all churros! Later I went out for tapas for lunch in the center of Granada with my host-sister and a host-cousin. My host-aunt´s family all come over for a five course Christmas Eve dinner with sushi, paté, crab-stuffed tomatoes, stuffed eggs, a crab, avocado and shrimp salad, and the main course of codillo (the elbow of a pig) and potatoes, before an arroz-con-leche mousse for dessert and homemade bombones (chocolates, like the ones that came out of a box on Valentines Day).
Christmas Day was a whole family potluck lunch (there were 23 of us!). One uncle brought homemade wine, the first vintage from their new vineyard. Food included olives, homemade chorizo, morcilla and paté, a million other appetizers that I can´t remember (I was full before we even reached the second course), meatball soup, a mixture of meat that nobody would tell me what it was until I had tried it and said I liked it (turns out it was chorizo and brains. Yeahhh, adding that to the LONG list of foods I´ve tried in Spain that I never though I would ever eat), pork loin in a prune sauce, cheesecake, an orange bizcocho (cake), and pears soaked in sweetened red wine (AMAZING). After lunch I tried some of the typical liquors of Spain: pacharán (a drink from Navarra made from sloe-berries) and anís (a sweet clear drink made from aniseed).
Christmas in Spain has no presents, just food and family. I was awoken on the morning of Christmas Eve by my host dad, who had stopped by on his break from work to bring us all churros! Later I went out for tapas for lunch in the center of Granada with my host-sister and a host-cousin. My host-aunt´s family all come over for a five course Christmas Eve dinner with sushi, paté, crab-stuffed tomatoes, stuffed eggs, a crab, avocado and shrimp salad, and the main course of codillo (the elbow of a pig) and potatoes, before an arroz-con-leche mousse for dessert and homemade bombones (chocolates, like the ones that came out of a box on Valentines Day).
Christmas Day was a whole family potluck lunch (there were 23 of us!). One uncle brought homemade wine, the first vintage from their new vineyard. Food included olives, homemade chorizo, morcilla and paté, a million other appetizers that I can´t remember (I was full before we even reached the second course), meatball soup, a mixture of meat that nobody would tell me what it was until I had tried it and said I liked it (turns out it was chorizo and brains. Yeahhh, adding that to the LONG list of foods I´ve tried in Spain that I never though I would ever eat), pork loin in a prune sauce, cheesecake, an orange bizcocho (cake), and pears soaked in sweetened red wine (AMAZING). After lunch I tried some of the typical liquors of Spain: pacharán (a drink from Navarra made from sloe-berries) and anís (a sweet clear drink made from aniseed).
Nochevieja (New Year´s Eve!)
Like most Spanish holidays, food is the center of New Year´s Eve! My host aunt´s family came over for another enormous dinner (a million appetizers, a pineapple-crab salad, stuffed peppers, and two kinds of flan for dessert! One a normal egg-flan with cookies and the other made with coffee and whiskey). By the time we finished eating dinner it was 11:30 and time to prepare for 2014!
Spain has one unique New Year´s Eve tradition that really tops anything we do in the US: grapes! According to tradition, you have to eat one grape with each chime of the clock at midnight (the most famous clock to follow is the one in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, the equivalent of New York´s Time Square for Spaniards!). Each grape will bring you one month of good luck in the New Year! The tradition began about a century ago, when there was a surplus in the grape harvest. The uvas de suerte (grapes of luck) add some excitement and entertainment to the night. As midnight approaches, everyone´s nervously counting their grapes and anxiously awaiting the clock chimes, hoping they don´t start laughing or choke on a grape and throw away a whole month of luck! I would just like to say I was a pro in my uvas debut. 2014 looks like it should be a lucky year!
Reyes
While January 2 means the holiday season is winding down in the United States, Spain is gearing up for the most important of the Christmas holiday (it sounds like an infomerical special offer, call before the new year and we´ll offer you a whole extra holiday at no extra price!). In Spain, the most important holiday is Janaury 5th and 6th, when the three kings arrived to Bethlehem bearing gifts for Jesus. This is the day when children receive presents, but it is the three kings that bring their presents, not Santa Claus.
There are some parallels with the American Santa Claus thing. Spanish children do write letters to the Reyes, they go get their picture taken with the Reyes (or with the Cartero Real, the royal mailmen who delivers the letters to the Reyes), and they leave a little snack out for the Reyes to eat when they visit their house. Milk and cookies seemed to a popular choice, but one of my third graders told me he leaves whiskey for the kings).
Roscón de Reyes
Like most Spanish holidays, food is the center of New Year´s Eve! My host aunt´s family came over for another enormous dinner (a million appetizers, a pineapple-crab salad, stuffed peppers, and two kinds of flan for dessert! One a normal egg-flan with cookies and the other made with coffee and whiskey). By the time we finished eating dinner it was 11:30 and time to prepare for 2014!
Spain has one unique New Year´s Eve tradition that really tops anything we do in the US: grapes! According to tradition, you have to eat one grape with each chime of the clock at midnight (the most famous clock to follow is the one in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, the equivalent of New York´s Time Square for Spaniards!). Each grape will bring you one month of good luck in the New Year! The tradition began about a century ago, when there was a surplus in the grape harvest. The uvas de suerte (grapes of luck) add some excitement and entertainment to the night. As midnight approaches, everyone´s nervously counting their grapes and anxiously awaiting the clock chimes, hoping they don´t start laughing or choke on a grape and throw away a whole month of luck! I would just like to say I was a pro in my uvas debut. 2014 looks like it should be a lucky year!
Reyes
While January 2 means the holiday season is winding down in the United States, Spain is gearing up for the most important of the Christmas holiday (it sounds like an infomerical special offer, call before the new year and we´ll offer you a whole extra holiday at no extra price!). In Spain, the most important holiday is Janaury 5th and 6th, when the three kings arrived to Bethlehem bearing gifts for Jesus. This is the day when children receive presents, but it is the three kings that bring their presents, not Santa Claus.
There are some parallels with the American Santa Claus thing. Spanish children do write letters to the Reyes, they go get their picture taken with the Reyes (or with the Cartero Real, the royal mailmen who delivers the letters to the Reyes), and they leave a little snack out for the Reyes to eat when they visit their house. Milk and cookies seemed to a popular choice, but one of my third graders told me he leaves whiskey for the kings).
Roscón de Reyes
Although I didn´t get to try it, there is one typical treat eaten on January 6, the Roscón de Reyes, a cake with a surprise inside it! Whoever finds a small figure in their piece is named king for the day, while whoever finds a bean in their piece has to pay for the cake!
Cabalgata de Reyes
The most magical day of the holiday season is January 5, when the three Kings arrive to all Spanish cities in an elaborate parade. While I´m sure the parades in bigger cities are more elaborate and extravagant, I loved the Tudela one because it was just like Tudela: small but full of history and heart. An unexpected mix of traditional dance and costume, movie-themed floats, gospel singers, horses, fire jugglers, marching bands, fire trucks, and of course the three kings, it somehow worked, a sincere celebration of both the town's heritage and the magic of childhood. There were children participating in almost every piece of the parade (including a lot of my students!), even children as young as 5 years old were playing trumpets or drums in the marching band, dancing jotas, or twirling flags as part of the color guard.
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| The historical society of Tudela, dressed in traditional outfits. The banner reads "The most noble and most loyal city of Tudela" |
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| A familiar figure! |
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| The second King, Gaspar, on his carriage |
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| Gaspar bringing an early gift to one little girl |
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| The arrival of Baltasar, the third of the three Kings |
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| Delivering presents from the fire ladder to people watching from the balconies! |
Feliz navidad, feliz 2014 y feliz reyes a todos!
congratulations Hilary! I,m almost crying after reading it! good summary! I glad to know your feelings throwards Spain. Estefania
ReplyDeleteGenial,me ha encantado ver lo que ha significado la experiencia de vivir unas navidades desfe otta perspectiva.Transmite curiosidad y mucho cariño.Enhora buena! Buen trabajo.
DeleteHilary, another masterpiece of writing. I can see, hear and taste everything that you describe.
ReplyDeleteAunt Sally