CULTURE SPAIN
Well, here we are again – at the start of August and already into the ‘fiesta season’! This, for anyone living here, is the time when the endurance of anyone living in Spain will be tested to the limit as ‘Spanish culture’ explodes onto the streets of almost every village and town.
However, before joining in, you need to ask yourselves some questions, such as: can you really party like the Spanish and are you in sufficiently good condition to spend a whole week (or more) with almost no sleep? Are you prepared to hear music that will vary from the heaviest possible metal through to sublime jazz and haunting regional classics? Are you ready to see incredible displays of fireworks rocketing around you and then the stunning sight of every member of a whole village silently carrying lit candles and following religious effigies around their pueblo? Will your sense of humour stand seeing some pretty wacky sights?
Or, like most people who come to Spain – will you miss out on ‘living’ Spanish culture and remain on the beaches and within anaemic, internationalised tourist zones?
Certainly, for me, the big surprise (and the even bigger delight!) to living in Spain has come from daily Spanish culture and this finds its apogee, in many ways, during village and small town fiestas. These, of course, have nothing to do with the high culture of Spain as represented by the Prado, Picasso, Velásquez or examples of ancient (and modern!) Spanish architecture. However, they have everything to do with real life and the way the Spanish live now and celebrate their lives.
Sadly, to many people, Spain’s culture is only about clichés – Flamenco, bull fighting and straw donkeys – when really nothing could be further from the truth. This complicated and fascinating country has a depth that goes far beyond popular North European caricatures. Indeed, the overt demonstration of Spanish culture provided by the August fiestas is notable for its significant regional variations, its subtleties and (outside of Andalusia) complete lack of Flamenco and straw donkeys!
There are, of course, fiestas throughout the year but August tends to be the most popular month for the week long village fiestas. They will be happening around you and, for Heaven’s sake, do not miss them – if you have the remotest interest in Spain and its culture.
If that sounds santimonious or ‘high-blown’ then just go to one village fiesta and see what it is all about. You will be enchanted by the sheer joie de vivre and charmed by an extraordinary display of community spirit and the often beautiful continuance of ancient local traditions. You will experience an environment that is light years away from the UK and other North European countries and find that any previously held trite clichés about Spanish culture are nothing more than crude absurdities!
As for me, well, I cannot wait for my village fiesta (in Barx). It starts in a week’s time and every year answers any doubts I may harbour about why I am living here.
However, I shall certainly need to call upon all my physical reserves. In a week’s time fireworks will wake us at 0800 hours with processions and entertainments continuing throughout each day for a week. Firework displays will occur at 2300 hours with live bands then starting to play at 0100 hours! Astonishingly, the disco will commence at 0300 hours!
So, if you do not hear from me for a while then take it for granted that I will be tottering around with a sore head and half asleep – all ‘fiesta-d’ out!
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- CULTURE SPAIN
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- SPANISH CULTURE
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- Barx Fiesta