Denne fortælling er på Engelsk, af
hensyn til min familie i Californien, så i må bære over
med mig.
Om mit engelske så er bedre en mit
Danske skal være mig usagt, men bare det er forståelig
er det vel godt nok.
Glædelig jul og godt Nytår.
Anthony
Our
Christmas in Spain.
Each
year we have Christmas in our Finca, where we invite
those on the cost there is alone on Christmas Eve.
Normally we are 6-8 persons.
This picture is
from Christmas Eve 2007, where all our good friends was
present.
However Otto
went away this spring.
The other 3
have each found a partner, so they have their own
Christmas now.
So this year
2010 we were 4 at Christmas Eve
Traditionally
we share the meat, where one of the guest makes the Pork
roast at home and we the duck in our stone oven/kiln we
have build.
Marianne & me
makes the rest and the wine is all from our bridge
prizes.
The result is
that we are stuffed! ....But we manage a cup of Coffee
and a Cognac later.
At New Year
Eve
Normally we are
at home because of the dogs, but also because we like to
be at home.
This year we
were invited to our good friend pharmacist, Rikke
Kajus - en gammel pilletriller - who made her
traditionally 8 course
Gourmet dinner. But it was a
fantastic dinner and evening.
It was executed
with all the basic ingredients - like i a
pharmacy - at
the time of consumption.
We started at
7.30 pm in the evening with the first course and then it
came successive during the evening - the last - the
desert were about 1:00 am. We were all engage in the
preparation one way or another, as the host and several
members of the new year party had difficulty in the
precision handling & making of some of the courses.
Actually we had
to skip the smoked lam leg, as the time frame did not
fit with the amount of saw dust & fire pills available.
However we were not missing any thing. Great party!
Traditions
Each
year, on this New Year day Benalmadena hosts a St
Patrick’s Day parade through the town centre of Arroyo
de la Miel, attracting around 1,000 local Irish
residents.
But how is
Christmas celebrated in Spain. The above was the Danish
way, but the Spanish way is must more than an evening
and a coble of days with family and friends.
In Mijas Pueblo
is a little Shrine called Virgen de la Pena where the
Virgin Mary is. Every year at Christmas time bouquet of
Flowers is place at the schrine by the locals.
The story is
that she was found 500 years ago in the cave by 2 small
children, when a Engle in form of a dove told the
children about it.
You can read
the story
here
Christmas time
in Spain
We start in
Mijas, which is my town, with a picture of the pueblo in
the dusk of dawn.
As
well as in Mijas as in Spain, it is a very festivite
time at Christmas.
On Christmas
Eve, as the stars come out, tiny oil lamps are lit in
every house, and after Midnight Mass and Christmas
Dinner, streets fill with dancers and onlookers.
There is a
special Christmas dance called the Jota
and the words and music have been handed down for
hundreds of years. They dance to the sound of guitars
and castanets.
Children think
of the Three Wise Men as the gift bearers.
Tradition has
it, that they arrive on January 6th, the date the Wise
Men gave gifts to Jesus.
Last
Year, I was with some dear friends of mine in
Benalmadena Arroyo la Miel to observe the traditional
procession of the Three Kings.
That was quiet an interesting evening experience, with
one procession coming after another one,
showering the children and the adults with candy.
Shoes are
filled with straw or barley for the tired camels that
must carry their riders through the busy night. By
morning the camel food is gone and in place of the
straw/barley are presents.
Shoes also may
be placed on balconies on the night of the 6th January
in the hope that the Wise Men will fill them with gifts.
Most homes have
a manger - like cathedrals & churches - complete with
carved figures.
During the
weeks before Christmas, families gather around their
manger to sing, whilst children play tambourines and
dance.
The Spanish
especially honor the cow at Christmas because it is
thought that when Mary gave birth to Jesus the cow in
the stable breathed on the Baby Jesus to keep him warm.
Christmas
is a deeply religious holiday in Spain. The country's
patron saint is the Virgin Mary and the Christmas season
officially begins December 8, the feast of the
Immaculate Conception. It is celebrated each year in
front of the great Gothic cathedral in Seville with a
ceremony called los Seises or the "dance of
six." Oddly, the elaborate ritual dance is now
performed by not six but ten elaborately costumed boys.
It is a series of precise movements and gestures and is
said to be moving and beautiful. But let os do a
chronological order of notable Christmas events in
Spain.
Christmas in Spain
