GANDIA IN AUGUST - EVERYONE'S AT THE BEACH!
After living in Spain permanently for the past seven years, I would still say that one of the oddest experiences for me tends to be life in Spain during August! This may seem a strange statement – but you have to appreciate how very different August is in Spain, as opposed to (say) the UK.
Obviously, August in Spain is hot – often very hot, indeed. However, July is often much the same and June days can consistently edge around the late 20 degrees. Clearly, that is very different from Northern Europe. However, it does not fully explain the different feeling to Spain during August when, well – everything just…stops.
Of course, in Northen Europe things slow down in August, as people take their holidays and decision makers tend to go absent. Life is a little slower, certainly, but essentially everything continues.
In Spain, however, August feels similar to a UK Xmas period!
As the last two weeks in August approach, there is almost a sense of desperation to rest and forget all about work. Certainly, the sustained heat of June and July takes a toll upon the Spanish as much as any North European – and by August you can feel everyone’s fatigue and the real ‘need’ to have a holiday.
Indeed, the first couple of weeks of August are rather like the equ ivalent weeks in December in the UK, where everyone is starting to ‘wind down’. The idea of holidays is ‘in the air’ and the normally frenetic pace of working life becomes ever more difficult to sustain. Gradually, like a mechanical clock winding down, there is an inevitability that everything work related will cease to function – whether you like it or not.
Recognising this, by the middle of August, most Spanish businesses are working only up until 14.00 hrs – or not at all. Towns and cities become almost ghostly -whilst the vast Spanish coastline, by comparison, ‘buzzes’.
The holiday atmosphere is further exaggerated by the number of village fiestas that occur in August. This, as I have stated before, is the fiesta season with fiestas lasting, in many cases, a full week (more or less like a UK Xmas period)! As you can imagine, these fiestas (at nearly a week long) are a sustained party and tremendous fun. However, no-one, without the stamina of a fighting bull, could even consider working either during or immediately afterwards!
The beginning of September in Spain resembles January in the UK. There is a certain ennui as people return to work again and initially this happens rather sluggishly as momentum is slow to get going. However, by mid September life in Spain returns pretty much to normal – and continues unabated until the following August.
So, what happens at Xmas you may ask?
Well, actually, not much! It tends to be a bit of a ‘damp squib’. Xmas day is a public holiday but there is no Boxing Day (although the 6th January, ‘Three Kings’ is a public holiday).
The truth is that, when you look at the reality of life in Spain and the overall culture of Spain, August is the climax of the year in much the same way as Xmas in the UK. At least, that is the way it seems – and, to an Anglo-Saxon, it feels a bit odd…
