Spain is a very diverse country. There are cultural differences in every region, and Christmas is not an exception.

Of course, we have shared customs and traditions, but there are other Christmas traditions too that are specific  to each region. 

I got 3 people to share some of these in the podcast.

You can listen in Spanish.

Or you can continue reading a summarised version of it in English.

Christmas in the Canary Islands

We start in the Canary Islands with Marina Rodríguez, from Lengua de Babel. I must confess I didn’t know about any of the things she mentions, which are:

• A Christmas carol called ‘Lo Divino’, performed by parrandas. Parrandas are an informal kind of band. To announce the start of Christmas, they go from house to house performing ‘Lo Divino’. People give them food and drink and neighbours improvise small street parties.

• The nativity scene at Las Canteras beach in Gran Canaria. It’s made of sand and it’s huge! Around 1500m². Once Christmas is over, it gets destroyed.

• They have different Christmas foods & treats. Marina’s favourite treat is called truchas de batata. They’re sweet potato pasties and, apart from sweet potato, they also have sugar, lemon, cinnamon and anisette.

• The weather is not cold in the Canaries, so it’s common for people to go to the beach at Christmas time. But tradition dictates that you should go for a swim in the ocean on January 1.

By the way, did you know there’s a Camino in the Canaries? Maybe I’ll invite Marina some other time to talk about it. What do you think?

Christmas in Extremadura

Liliana Duarte, from Lilidiomas, is from Portugal, but she lives in Extremadura and she tells us all about Christmas foods in this region.

Extremadura is in the west of Spain, next to Portugal and the Vía de la Plata goes through it.

Extremadura is well known for producing some of the best Iberian hams so, it’s only normal that ham would be one of the main starters, together with local cheeses like Torta del casar, Ibores or La Serena. Some families may also have the Extremaduran version of gazpacho.

For the main course, roasted lamb or piglet are popular options. Although Extremadura is landlocked, some families choose to have cod or octopus, probably influenced by Portugal. All of this accompanied by local wines.

And let’s not forget dessert. Apart from the Christmas treats that are common to all Spanish regions, Extremadurans also take roscos de vino (little cakes shaped like a ring doughnut and cooked in wine), and pestiños (honey fritters).

Christmas in Murcia

Lourdes Soriano, from El aula de Lourdes, is from the region of Murcia, in the south east of Spain. That’s where Caravaca de la Cruz is, and 2024 will be a jubilee year there. But Lourdes is not talking about the Camino de Caravaca de la Cruz or the jubilee year today. She’s sharing a couple of typical Christmas treats in the region.

• Cordiales originated in the east of Spain. They’re made of almond, eggs, sugar, wafer and a filling made of pumpkin and syrup.

• Alfajores, of arabic origin, contain honey, nuts and spices.

Find out more about Marina, Lili and Lourdes.

If you want to know more about the Canary Islands and the Spanish spoken there, Marina is the person you need. Check her website La Lengua de Babel.

Lili is from Portugal and teaches European Portuguese. You’ll find her on her website or her Youtube channel.)

Lourdes Soriano is a Spanish teacher from Murcia. You can find out more about her (and her podcast) in El Aula de Lourdes. 

¡Felices Fiestas y Buen Camino!

New podcast! I was not meant to publish a new episode this week, but there’s something going on today in many Spanish towns that I thought was worth explaining. It has to do with the Carnival, or with the end of it, to be precise. In most cases it involves fish. We do things a bit differently here in Pontevedra. So no fish for us, but a bird instead.

I’m talking about el entierro de la sardina (the burial of the sardine), a celebration that typically takes places on Ash Wednesday and marks the end of the Carnival celebrations. The origin of the burial of the sardine ceremony is not clear; there are several theories. But we know for sure that it was already a very popular celebration is the 18th century.

El entierro de la sardina usually involves a parade that is kind of a mock funeral procession. Instead of colourful costumes, people wear black and the parade ends with the burning of a figure, usually a sardine.

As I mentioned before, we don’t bury sardines in Pontevedra and we don’t celebrate the end of the Carnival on Ash Wednesday either. We stretch the festivities a little longer.

If you’ve walked the Camino Portugués, you may have seen the statue of a parrot. It’s very close to the Peregrina church. That parrot is called Ravachol, and that’s who we bury at the end of the Carnival.

There used to be a pharmacy where the statue is now. The pharmacy was a meeting point for politicians, artists and scientists, among others. In 1891, Perfecto Feijoo, the pharmacist, was given a parrot, that turned out to be quite mischievous.

Ravachol used to be either in the pharmacy or outside, next to it, where he could watch people pass by. He soon became a very popular character in the city. His voculabulary was not the most polite, and he was said to be quite smart. He would call his owner if a customer entered the pharmacy or insult those who didn’t give him a sweet. And he would sing during mass times at the Peregrina church across the street…

Ravachol died in 1913, after eating too much cake soaked in wine, apparently! The people of Pontevedra were devastated, and telegrams of condolences were sent from all over Spain. They organised a wake and a funeral por Ravachol. The invitation to the funeral encouraged people to wear costumes. It was a huge event, with music bands, floats and a large crowd. In 1985, a group of people decided to re-enact Ravachol’s funeral during the Carnival. It was a great success and in a couple of years it become one of the most popular events of the Carnival in Pontevedra.

¡Buen Camino!

Once you start walking through Galicia, you’ll start seeing several new architectural elements, some of them quite frequently. They’re not exclusive to Galicia. But they are more common here.

In this post I’m goign to tell you a little bit about 3 of them. Two of them are ubiquitous. The third one, not so much. But I think it’s quite interesting, and that’s why I included it.

Hórreos

A common question I see in Camino groups from pilgrims once they enter Galicia:

‘What are these structures?’, accompanied by a picture similar to the one here. Sometimes they add a guess or two as to what these might be.

Well, they are called hórreos. And they are granaries. Not chicken coops. Not mausoleums. Granaries.

Mostly, they store maíz (corn).

You’ll see them everywhere while walking through rural Galicia, where every house used to have one. They’re also common in Asturias and the north of Portugal.

Hórreos vary slightly depending on the location. In some areas, they’re built in a combination of wood and stone. In some other places, they’re fully made of stone. They usually have a rectangular shape, although in some places, square hórreos are the norm.

What they all have in common is that they’re raised from the ground by pillars. This helps keep crops dry. On top of each pillar there is a flat stone designed to keep rodents out. That’s also why access stairs are separated from the hórreo. Their walls have slits to allow ventilation. The roofs usually have some decorative element, such as a cruz (cross), a pinnacle, a weather vane, cones (you’ll see those on the Camino del Norte), etc.

The oldest reference to an hórreo in a document dates back to 1219 and it refers to a certain hórreo in Betanzos, on the Camino Inglés. However, different versions of hórreos have been in use in Galicia since pre-Roman times. 

In the 17th-18th centuries, hórreos became common and they became also a symbol of status: the bigger the hórreo, the richer the family. In fact, some of the biggest hórreos in Galicia belong to the Church.

There are several of those in the Fisterra area, like the one pictured below, in the town of Carnota.

You can see another one on the Variante Espiritual of the Portuguese Way, next to the Poio monastery. Also on the Variante Espiritual, you should check Combarro, with the highest concentration of hórreos in Galicia.

Cruceiros

Another common element of the Galician landscape is the cruceiro (in Galician) or crucero (in Spanish). A cruceiro is a high cross, made of stone. Cruceiros can usually be found in churchyards, crossroads or ancient pagan worship sites.

There are more than 12 000 cruceiros all over Galicia. The oldest one is in Melide, next to the capilla (chapel) de San Roque, and it dates back to the 14th century. There’s another one from the same period in Neda, on the Camino Inglés.

There are several superstitions linked to cruceiros.

Some of them were built in places where a violent death had occurred. The purpose of the cruceiro was to try to save the soul of the deceased and stop it from wandering around the area and from harming passers-by.

Cruceiros also offered protection against the Santa Compaña.

The Santa Compaña is a procession of the dead (or of tormented souls) who wander through the paths after midnight, wearing hooded cloaks and holding candles. The procession is led by a living person, who is under a curse. This person is carrying a cross (sometimes a cauldron too). He or she will not remember anything in the morning, although they will feel very tired.

The only way to be free from the curse is to get another living person to carry the cross. If they can’t do this, they will feel weaker and weaker and become sick for no apparent reason. There are several ways to avoid being cursed if you encounter the Santa Compaña. One of them is to step onto the base of a cruceiro.

Cruceiros were also the chosen location to perform magical practices, like curing certain deseases or fertility issues.

In some places, babies who had died before receiving baptism were usually buried at the base of a cruceiro. 

Petos de ánimas

Peto de ánimas roughly translates as souls’ money box. This is actually the Galician name but, to be honest, I have no idea if there’s a name for them in Spanish.

They are little shrines devoted to the souls in purgatory, and they can be found at crossroads or near churches. Most of them were built in the 18th century. 

Petos de ánimas can vary a lot, but tend to have 3 common elements: 

• A base, usually made of stone.
• On top of the base goes the niche, with a stone carving depicting souls in the fire of purgatory.
• Under the niche, there’s the peto or money box where people used to leave their alms for the salvation of those souls.

Nowdays, it’s not common to leave money, but you will still see other kinds of offerings such as flores (flowers), maíz, or velas (candles).

This peto de ánimas is in Tui, on the Camino Portugués. It shows souls in the fire of purgatory, with the dove/Holy Spirit watching over them.

You can see remains of flowers and a candle that someone offered for the salvation of the souls in purgatory.

When a soul is saved and goes to Heaven thanks to your offering or prayers, they will later intercede on your behalf, so you can go into Heaven too. Keep it in mind when you’re next walking through Galicia and you see a peto de ánimas.

Today’s Spanish words

For the pronunciation of cruz, check Tarta de Santiago.

¡Buen Camino!