The Holidays Go Into Overtime in Spain

For most Americans, the holidays really end at Christmas. Sure, there is a momentary rebirth of holiday spirit on New Year’s Eve, but that hardly counts for much except for a chance to party for one night.

Here in Spain the holidays are a much more extended affair. It seems that the primary reason for this (other than the fact that Spaniards love to party) is that the Day of the Three Kings (January 6) is the primary day for giving gifts. The three kings, for those whose Bible history is rusty, are the wise men from the east that came to worship at the Christ child’s feet. I remember playing one of the three kings in a grade school pageant, wearing my bathrobe from home, a towel tied around my head to approximate Arab dress, and a fake beard. In the US, this day counts for very little unless you are really into the high-church calendar, but in Spain it is a big deal. This is a better day for gift giving than Christmas, since the wise men did bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child.

The shopping fever has been going on full blast here and the three kings are due to appear this evening (January 5) and bring the kiddies all the gifts that Santa brings on December 25 in the US. In Sahagún there will be a parade of sorts, the Cabalgata. The traditional Cabalgata involved the kings arriving on horseback or even camels if they were available, but if our Cabalgata is anything like the one we saw ten years ago, it will involve tractors pulling trailers with thrones for the kings installed. The kings will be throwing candy to the kiddies like the people do from an American parade float. The whole town will turn out for this cavalcade and the kids will be ecstatic. We have invited our new friends and neighbors, Paddy and Rebekah, to join us for the festivities.

El Día de los Tres Reyes will mark the end of the Christmas holiday. Our Spanish family, Angel, Piedad, and their two boys will return to their primary home in León and the boys will go back to school. I expect our lives to become more routine after this. We are anticipating the receipt of an edited manuscript for Elyn’s next book and then we will get down to serious publishing business for a while, unless we decide to make a trip to Catalunia to see the wonders of Barcelona and surroundings. For us retired folks, the holidays are whenever we decide to take them and a trip to Barcelona has been on our list for some time. Perhaps we will have our own extension of the holiday season. If so, expect pictures and descriptions.

New Year’s Day with Family

Elyn and I were invited to the New Year’s Day dinner with our Spanish family, the Luna/Tovars. This gave us yet another opportunity to view family life in a closely-knit Spanish family.

The center of this family gathering was Piedad, Angel, and their two children. It was held in their home here in Sahagún. Angel is a highly successful civil engineer whose business involves planning and building bridges and roads in this region. Piedad is director of the Department of Translation at the University of León, a department that does translations of articles and other documents from Spanish to other European languages. Her specialty is translation into French. The two children, Alvaro, age 15, and Marcos, age 13, are exceptional in very different ways. Alvaro is an athlete and loves European football (soccer), while Marcos is a gifted flute player and actor. Arrayed around this central family were grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, more distant relatives, and the two Americans.

Elyn became an adopted member of the Luna/Tovar family in 1982, when she spent a year here researching her dissertation on the Camino de Santiago, which passes through the center of town. When we lived for a year here in 1997, we were taken in as members of the family.

The people at this dinner ranged in age from the ninety-nine-year-old father of Angel to thirteen-year-old Marcos. The age range will increase early this year when María, the daughter of Piedad’s brother, Pedro, will give birth to a little girl. These people see each other nearly every week since Angel and Piedad return to Sahagún most weekends from their primary home in León. The family is the center of most of these people’s lives, unlike most Americans, who live far from family and center their attention on friends of their own age.

Angel is interested in keeping the “old ways” alive. He planned and built the house and surrounding walled garden area. He raises an extensive garden, keeps chickens in the back area, makes his own wine, and butchers a pig to make his own ham and chorizo. He has his own traditional kitchen with wood-burning oven in the lower area of the house, next to wine cellar. Piedad, on the other hand, has her own thoroughly modern kitchen on the floor above. Angel prepared most of the New Year’s dinner. He cooked chicken from his own chicken coop, steamed clams, and sautéed gambas, which are large shrimp, cooked with their heads on. In the modern kitchen above, Piedad prepared the salad with greens from their own garden. Other family members provided side dishes and desserts, including a beautiful traditional flan prepared by one of the aunts.

My impression of these family dinners is that everyone talks at once and there are multiple topics of conversation. I feel totally confused both by the din and the speech, which is filled with colloquialisms and the overlapping topics, which shift rapidly from topics of the day to stories of ‘the olden days.’ My very limited Spanish totally deserts me and I hardly recognize a word.

The food is of amazing quality, as is most of the food we experience here. These people live well and eat well. They are happy with their life in a small pueblo and interested in expanding their horizons to include the wider world. They are looking forward with great anticipation to the Obama administration and interested in what we have to say about conditions in the USA. They prize their traditional way of life while being thoroughly modern in their thinking. We truly like these people and are grateful to be considered members of their extended family.

The Grapes of the New Year

We were invited to spend New Year’s Eve with our American friends Paddy and Rebekah in nearby Moritinos. We had a good evening of conversation and sharing stories of our lives. As midnight approached, Rebekah suggested that we go back to Sahagún to join the locals in the Spanish traditional way of passing the midnight hour. In Spain, it is a tradition that one eats one grape for each time the bell tolls at midnight. Rebekah had laid in a good supply of grapes and we piled into their car to join the teaming crowds of New Year celebrants here in our new hometown.

Imagine our surprise when we discovered the main plaza (el plaza major) completely deserted—not one soul in sight. Surely, they must all be in the bars. But no, the bars were all closed. We walked around town not seeing anyone and ended up at the ancient city gate that is part of the ruined monastery from the ninth century. Finding no one, we decided to await the bells and observe the tradition among ourselves. Right on time, the bells tolled and we laughingly tried to keep up with eating twelve grapes in the space of twelve seconds. Rebekah took pictures to record the event and we wished each other Feliz Año Nuevo with hugs, handshakes, and kisses. Just as we finished, we began to hear the explosions of fireworks around town and the sound of many voices coming out into the streets. The party was just beginning! (To see the photos, go to http://moratinoslife.blogspot.com/ where you can read Rebekah's account.)

We are foreigners with imperfect understanding of our adopted culture. It appears that New Year’s Eve is a family affair here in Sahagún, and the party begins after midnight. This is in keeping with what we have observed in previous visits to Spain. There is a tradition called transnochar, which means to party all night. The matriarch of our Spanish family says that the more you sleep, the less you live. Spaniards will party all night, eat some breakfast, and go to work. Being foreigners and unaccustomed to Spanish culture, we had Rebekah and Paddy take us to our apartment where we drifted off to sleep accompanied by the sounds of fireworks and parties. Happy New Year everyone!

Why Sahagún?

Darlene has asked why Sahagún and perhaps others are also wondering why we find ourselves in a very small town in rural Spain. Here is our answer.

Elyn first lived in Sahagún in 1982, when she was doing research for her dissertation on the Camino de Santiago (a pilgrimage route across northern Spain). She spent a year here with her young son, Jesse, who attended the local school. A local family, the Luna/Tovars, became good friends and they more or less took Elyn in as a member of their family. In 1997, when we decided to return to Spain we chose Sahagún because of this family.

Everything here is made easy because of the friendship of the Luna/Tovars. The son of the family, Pedro, is vice president of one of the local banks so all financial matters work quite smoothly. The daughter of the family, Piedad, took us to the local officials and helped with processing our visas and application for residency. Paca, the matriarch of the family and Piedad worked to find us housing and we find ourselves after only two days in a nice three bedroom apartment which costs us very little money.

When we arrived in Sahagún, Pace cried tears of joy to see her “Elynita.” The warmth and love this family shows us daily makes Sahagún an attractive place to live, in spite of the lack of cultural life like we find in Santa Fe.

Sahagún has other advantages, including a major train line that gets us very quickly to Madrid, León, or into France. Since we are senior citizens, we are eligible for the senior 40% discount on most train fares. The regional capital, León is only an hour away by train. Anything we need can be found there.

Almost no one speaks English, so my Spanish is bound to improve here. Overall, we find ourselves happily settled here and we plan to travel from here to other European destinations from time to time.