PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS
The words “Constitution” and “Immaculate Conception” do not usually appear on the same sentence together, except if you are Spanish and are talking about one of our favorite weeks of the year. December 6 is Constitution Day and it marks the anniversary of the referendum held in 1978 to approve the Spanish Constitution to transition into democracy after Franco’s death. December 8 is Immaculate Conception Day and it celebrates the day Virgin Mary was conceived. Who does not love two holidays on the same week? Thanks to this, we usually enjoy a long weekend, which is a perfect opportunity to kick off the long holiday season and put up the Christmas tree.
ZAMBOMBAS
One of the best ways to know that it is officially Christmas season is when you start seeing Zambombas everywhere. If this is your first Christmas season in Spain, you are probably wondering what that is, so let me describe it for you: a group of people drinking, eating typical Christmas food, and singing flamenco Christmas songs. I know it sounds like heaven, but in Spain we call it zambomba. This type of gatherings is very common in this part of the country, especially in Jerez and Arcos de la Frontera. It is an old Christmas tradition dating back to the 18th century and the name comes from a friction drum, a musical instrument used during this party. This is such an important tradition that it was even added to Spain’s cultural heritage list in 2015.
LIVING NATIVITIES
A couple of weeks before Christmas, towns start offering one of the main tourist attractions during these holidays: the living nativities, or "Belén viviente" in Spanish. If you have walked around the old town of any city in the area, you will probably agree that it is the perfect setting for an event like this one. Some towns do a great job in recreating what life in Bethlehem looked like 2,000 years ago, so if you ever wished you could travel back in time, this would be a perfect opportunity to make your dream come true. The living nativity in Arcos de la Frontera is one of the most important ones in Spain. However, other towns in the Province of Cadiz are also working hard on offering a realistic experience.
CHRISTMAS LOTTERY
Another very important event happening a couple of days before Christmas is the Christmas Lottery, which takes place on December 22. This is more than just a lottery for us: even though we know it is very hard to win and it is not a huge amount of money, we all like to be part of it because it is all about sharing and showing other people that we care. When you buy your décimo (lottery ticket), you do so with important people in your life, because if you win, that means you get to share the joy with the people you love, and that is priceless (and also the reason why you never win a “huge amount of money”). The draw is a very interesting TV event watched by millions of people.
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS
When December 24 comes it feels like we have been celebrating Christmas for an entire month, but we still have twelve days left!
Christmas’ Eve: During the day, people go out, have lunch, enjoy the zambombas on the streets and maybe do some last minute grocery shopping for the big dinner. Everything closes early on this day in order to have enough time to prepare everything for the family gathering and most of the restaurants close for dinner. Spanish families get together for dinner at around 10 p.m., usually at someone’s house. Food includes seafood, turkey and other meats, cold cuts, soups and, of course, desserts. After dinner, some families like to attend Rooster’s Mass, which is a Midnight Mass, and other families stay at home and keep celebrating with turrones, Christmas songs, and drinks.
Christmas: Everybody went to bed late so if you go out during the day you will see that it is a ghost town out there! Spanish families get together for lunch at 3 p.m. Some restaurants might open, especially if they have reservations, but do not expect to see many people on the streets!
HOLY INNOCENTS' DAY / DIA DE LOS SANTOS INOCENTES
Between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, there is one day that, even though is not a holiday, is important in the Spanish culture. Spain celebrates Holy Innocents’ Day (Día de los Santos Inocentes) on December 28 in remembrance of the massacre of young male children in Bethlehem by King Herod the Great in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus. However, this is not the reason why this is such a fun day: this day is the Spanish version of April’s Fools Day. People play pranks (called inocentadas) on each other and even the media partake in this celebration with completely invented news stories.
NEW YEARS
New Year’s Eve: Families have dinner together, and then they eat the 12 grapes at midnight and toast with a glass of Cava for the New Year. Starting at 1 a.m., some people might go to a Cotillón, which is a party that lasts all night. After the Cotillón, it is breakfast time and who wouldn’t enjoy some churros with chocolate for breakfast? Oh, I almost forgot! If you want to start the New Year with good luck, you MUST wear red underwear!
THREE KINGS
We celebrate the end of the Christmas holidays with the children’s favorite day: Día de Reyes. Even though January 6 is the official holiday, children prefer January 5 because they get to enjoy the parades to celebrate that the Three Kings (Reyes Magos) are coming to town to leave gifts under the tree. During the parade, los Reyes Magos throw looooots of candies and gifts from their seats on top of the floats to the kids (and adults) watching the parade. In Spain, this event is considered an extreme sport due to the aggressiveness of some childr… sorry, parents, to get as many candies thattheyarenevergoingtoeat as possible.
January 6 is the day of the Epiphany, the day when the Three Kings arrived in Bethlehem to give their gifts to baby Jesus. Even though it has become more popular for Spaniards to receive gifts from Santa Claus on Christmas day, our tradition is to receive them from the Three Kings on January 6. Of course, we also have a typical sweet for this day, Roscón de Reyes, which is a cake that has some charms hiding inside. If you are lucky, you will find something fun and you will become the king or queen, but if you are not lucky, you will find the bean and you will have to pay for the entire cake!
FOOD
Calories do not count during the holidays so do not feel guilty if you try all the typical sweets: turrones, polvorones, pestiños, or the delicious “Roscón de Reyes” on Three Kings Day.
Another traditional sweet during the holidays is pestiños. Pilar Ruiz and her family were kind enough to share their recipe (recipe below) with the community in case you want to try to make something sweet for your Spanish Christmas.
| Date Taken: | 12.01.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.19.2022 05:39 |
| Story ID: | 435441 |
| Location: | ES |
| Web Views: | 2,309 |
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This work, Christmas in Spain: How Spaniards Celebrate Christmas & What to Do, by Alejandra Tirapu Lucero, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
