This plant is a typical Christmas decoration in many countries, Spain included. This year we were given one as a present:

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It’s called “Flor de Pascua” in Spanish, or Poinsetia. It’s a plant of Mexican origin. Red top leaves are often mistaken for flowers, but they are actually bracts ( modified leaves ). Their function is attracting pollinators, that’s the reason for the bright red color.

Blooming is from November to February, so it coincides with Christmas. It became popular during the colonial period, when was used to decorate churches for Christmas.

It’s supposed I should talk about Christmas because now it’s time…but I have very little good Christmas pictures. I think Christmas is similar everywhere. Family gathering, lots of eating/giving presents…and a few people will also remember the religious sense. In Spanish, Christmas is called Navidad. In Catalan, Nadal.

What do we do for Christmas? eating lots of turrón, polvorones, mazapanes (marzipan), neules (in Catalonia)…and many other Christmas sweets. Sometimes we also sing the typical Christmas Carols. In certain places it’s more usual to celebrate the night before Christmas ( 24th of December). In others, the 25th of December is more important. The family gathers these days and have a meal together. Fish and Shellfish is widely consumed so people buy it some time before and freeze it. As Christmas approaches, prices raise and raise.

About presents, traditionally were given the 5th of January. This is the night before Epiphany. The tradition says the three magi: Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar arrive at your home’s balcony with their three camels carrying presents for all the children who behaved well that year. If not, magi leave them coal. The night of the 5th of January you have to leave your shoes outside with some food and water for the camels and magi, because they will be very tired.

Nowadays, either Santa Claus or the “Three magi day” is celebrated. It depends on the parents. In my region there is another tradition for Christmas day. You need a log and a stick. The log is covered with a warm blanket and “feed” until Christmas. That day, children hit the log with the stick while singing a characteristic song. When the song finishes they touch under the blanket and realize that the log has “shit” sweets and presents. Please don’t take the word shit here very literally ^^U. In Spanish doesn’t sound so rude, maybe because Spanish people are very used to swear…I don’t know ^^U. People who visit Spain might be surprised with it.

Now, some pictures I took quickly today.

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A view of the roofs at night…roofs are different in every country. Don’t you think?

Sunset today…the sun set at 17:26 today.

Halloween (31st of October) is approaching, but in Spain we didn’t use to celebrate it. In Spain is more traditional to celebrate the 1st of November, called “All Saints Day”. This day, people visit graveyards to offer flowers and clean the graves of their relatives. In Catalonia we also have a tradition of preparing roast chestnuts and sweet potatoes that we eat with “panellets“, a kind of little marzipan cakes with different shapes depending on the main ingredient. I hope I cant talk more about “panellets” in another post because I like them very much and I’d like to add pictures and recipes, and I should prepare them first, of course.

Returning back to the pumpkins and Halloween…It’s said that All Saints Day is the catholic version of the “Samhain“, the pagan celebration that Celtics had for the last day of the year. They believed that day the spirits of the dead could take over the bodies of the living and resurrect. To prevent this, they started decorating their houses with unpleasant objects as skulls, bones and other sinister looking things, so that the dead would get scared and avoid the houses. So, although this celebration has become popular through American culture, has in fact an European origin.

Some years ago, many Spanish people started celebrating Halloween too, so they now celebrate two holidays: Halloween and the All Saints Day. But officially only the 1st of November is a holiday in Spain.

A pumpkin field in Spain:

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I’d like to finish talking about what we do with pumpkins when it isn’t Halloween. In Valencia they prepare “buñuelos de calabaza“, a round wheat flour and pumpkin dough fried in oil, when it’s Fallas time.

In Spain is widely used (all the year) in pastries, cakes, etc… a kind of pumpkin jam known as “cabello de ángel” (”angel’s hair” because it looks like golden filaments) and which is really sweet and sticky. We also prepare pudding, creams and soups and it’s very tasty. I’ve seen it even as a pasta filling…but this is an Italian recipe.

Apart from cuisine, during years pumpkins had been used in other ways. People used to dry them and use as a float when plastic floats didn’t exist. They gathered some and tied them around their waist. The type of pumpkin used for floats is not the same of the picture. It’s a much smaller type. Dried pumpkins of this smaller type were used as containers too, making a hole at the stalk and placing a cork. A different type of pumpkin with a long stalk was used to make a funnel cutting the top of the stalk and the bottom.

Also, when saying you “bring pumpkins” (“traer calabazas”), people will understand you failed an exam. Nowadays is a little old fashioned expression.

Human towers called “castells” ( castles, in English ), are based in a great teamwork.

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This tradition comes from the North East of Spain, from a certain area near Tarragona, and it’s performed during local festivals or special meetings, for example the contest you see in these pictures. Many “colles” ( teams ) compete during a whole weekend. The towers they build get a punctuation depending on its difficulty and towers that have been loaded and unloaded get more points that the ones that have only been loaded. You may wonder what happens with the tower if it has been only loaded…well, the answer is very simple and unpleasant. They just fall down. Usually, nobody gets harmed because there is a kind of “mattress” formed by people and called “pinya” ( pine cone, the reason is obvious ). You can see it on the next pic.

This is the same castle after being loaded, the child called “anxeneta” climbs to the top and raises an arm to indicate that the castle has been loaded. Children are essential for the castle and because of the risk involving its building there has been a lot of controversy about if children should take part in a castle.

Little by little, people climb over their team members until they reach their position. People at the upper part of the castle must be rather lightweighted and people at the lower part tend to be stronger.

A closer look at the castle:

A castle almost ready for the “anxeneta” to raise an arm…

Each castle has a name depending on the number of people forming each floor and the number of floors. The children at the top are considered as three floors. The “pinya” or base doesn’t count as a floor. So, what you have in the last picture is a 4 of 8 (”4 de 8″).

There are many variations of the typical castle I’ve described here, for example there is a pillar, build by only one person each floor. Or castles that have a pillar inside, etc…

Sometimes pillars on local holidays walk and go down stairs. It’s very impressive.

A video:

Credits:
Pictures: Sabrina’s friend
Video: The respective owner at Youtube

“Mona de Pascua” is a traditional Easter cake which is eaten on Easter Monday in places like Catalonia and Valencian Community. I don’t know if “mona” is eaten in other places of Spain because there are already many types of traditional Easter pastries around the country, so they don’t need to eat more :P. For example in Balearic Islands they eat “crespells”, a star-shaped special biscuit and “robiols” a pie made of the same dough and filled with a sweet made of pumpkin and syrup or cottage cheese, among other fillings.

“Mona de Pascua” was formerly a plain cake with hard-boiled eggs which godparents gave to their godchildren as a present on Easter Sunday. There was an egg for each year-old of the child. Nowadays it’s the same but cakes are very elaborate ( for example with jam, chocolate, butter, etc… inside ) and eggs are made of chocolate or have been replaced by figures. In Catalonia even the cake has disappeared in some cases and the “mona” is only the figure, by the way very big and extremely elaborated.

This is a little example of “mona“. It hasn’t a chocolate figure because different kinds of chocolate ( plain, white, strawberry, milk… ) are spread on the top, so there is enough, LOL.

This other one has a milk-chocolate figure, a bunny.

The bottle you see in the pictures is “cava“, the Catalan version of the French “champagne“. For those who want to make a toast.

The chocolate bunny figure in detail. Yes, I guess a scantily clad chocolate bunny on the phone is a bit strange ^^U:

The typical image of Easter in Spain are the processions everywhere, but specially in Andalucía. Those people wear tunics and some of them conic hats ( the ones that are doing penance ). They belong to several brotherhoods, called “hermandades” in Spanish. Each one has its own “paso” ( or more than one) a figure generally representing a scene of the Passion of Christ. They have also a characteristic tunic design. The figure is carried around the town in procession.

You can have a look at these link, to see some pictures:

Holy Week Procession

Last week “Fallas” ended. It’s a tradition from Valencia that origined when carpenters started burning all the leftovers at the beggining of spring. “Fallas” are constructions made of cardboard and wood. The figures are called “ninots” and represent politicians, famous people, etc…but always related to current issues, and satirized.

The tradition has evolved to the point that, nowadays, “fallas” are extremely elaborated and colorful. Some of them can even reach a height of 30 meters. Artisans work all the year to have this pieces of art ready to be burnt the 19th of March, at midnight.

During “Fallas” all the town is filled with noise and smoke. People lit firecrackers and bangers everywhere and all the time ( sleeping is impossible ). Some of them are also drunken all the day ^^U.

Here you are some of the pictures my fried Asuka took last week. Enjoy!

More pictures behind the cut

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