The Galician Culture III - living it to the fullest
Galicia, the charming region in the north of Spain, has a lot to discover... part III to give an insight about how I celebrated and enjoyed it....
During my 6 month experience as a volunteer near Santiago de Compostela, I enjoyed my vida galega as much as I could. I wrote about traditional music, tasty foodstuff and Galician customs and folkways.
Everybody knows Spanish people like to do fiesta and so also the Galicians. It seems they just chosse a topic in order to celebrate it: cheese, wine, tapas, music & film festivals, art and handcraft ferries and mercadillos, little markets. If you search on the internet you will find a lot of different festas & feiras. Galicians are proud about their products so you will find a lot of traditonal food and drinks on every event.
In the first 11 days of November the Galicians celebrate magosto, kind of fair where you can eat lots of chestnuts on the street or in the bars and feel the spirit of autumn.
But they also celebrate the same festive days as the rest of Europe but different. Children get more presents on the 6th of January los reyes than on Christmas. Everyone is waiting for the big procession in their town to catch some sweets and see the Three Kings live ;)
In february when the Galician Carnival entroido starts everybody is dressing up from small to big. If you want so see crazy rituals you should visit the towns Verín, Laza and Xinzo de Limia to see the special costumes such as Cigarrón and Peliqueiros (warning they can hit you).
To see and live the medieval spirit it takes place once a year in Bayona (south of Galicia) the fiesta de la arribada, where people dress up as in the Middle Age and the whole town is setback to the year 1493 when Martín Alonso Pinzón the sailor of the ship pinta, that discovered America together with Cristóbal Colón, came back to Bayona.
... it was never boring because every week there was another traditional event.
The next big event will bee the fieste del apóstol Santiago dedicated to the apostel and patron of the city, Saint Santiago. This festival combines religion, tradition and big fiesta, on the 24th of July there will be an impressive firework.