Time for Tapas: Christmas in Madrid, Spain

Monday, December 6, 2010

Christmas in Madrid, Spain

Some of my fondest memories of Madrid are during the Christmas season.

A traditional Christmas treat is Turrón, a kind of almond candy.

The link below is for three recipes for egg yoke, hard and soft Turrón. These are the three traditional kinds.

http://www.ctspanish.com/christmas/turron.htm

The first Christmas we were in Madrid we would see people walking around with different colored wigs. They were all different lengths and colors and even children would wear them. I never really understood why they did this but the Spanish people like to celebrate and this was something that seemed to fit their unorthodox way of celebrating a religious season.

Another sight that is worth standing in line for is the “Belén” or the Nativity.
These are elaborate scenes with carved figures that can take up a whole room.

(This is the Nativity scene my mother made)

The children of Spain receive gifts on the feast of the Epiphany on January 6th. The Magi are particularly revered in Spain. It is believed that they travel through the countryside reenacting their journey to Bethlehem every year at this time. Children leave their shoes on the windowsills and fill them with straw, carrots, and barley or the horses of the Wise Men. Their favorite is Balthazar who rides a donkey and is the one believed to leave the gifts.
In Madrid on the evening of January 6th there would be a parade through the center of the city. The Three Magi, or Kings would be on one of the floats throwing candy out to the children lining the streets to see them. They would follow the Magi to the huge public square where they would go onto a huge stage and give gifts out to the children.

Since we never participated in the celebration of Christmas in a Spanish home I do not know how the average Spanish person celebrates.

Although this was not a food tapas for this update I thought since it was the Christmas season you might enjoy some insights as to how the Spanish celebrate this holiday.

Feliz Navidad and Merry Christmas!!

1 comment:

AnonymousDecember 14, 2010 at 10:38 AM
Oh Vicki, the memories you bring up of Christmas in Spain are so heartwarming to me! =)
So have you made turron yourself?? I always assumed it was impossible for the home cook to make, but you are challenging my views (rightfully so =). Thanks for sharing the link to the recipes. Yum!
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And as they say in Spain...

“True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island..to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.”

Baltasar Gracian

During our 5 years living in Madrid, Spain, I did not make many friends, but the ones I did were truly diverse and loyal. My first language exchange partner was a young student that had studied in Norway for a year under the Erasmus study program. Her English was quite good so I was a bit intimidated when trying to speak Spanish. She was very patient but at times would tell me my Spanish was "crappy", (my word), which when she said this the first time it shocked me, but then I thought she has not learned the American politeness of encouraging someone when they are trying but not using words like this if they do not see a lot of progress. However, some time did go by without meeting and when we finally did she saw how much I had improved so her remarks were much more positive. She was fun and in spite of the huge age difference, we managed to spend several hours together at each encounter and did not lack for conversation.

Another one of my friends was a Psychologist and at the beginning was bent on just doing English exercises that she would bring along from her online English course. That was fine but when it came to reading or conversation she expected me to only speak in Spanish and read these quite complicated articles in Spanish emphasizing that I did not speak loud enough like the Spanish. One day I told her I was “leading” the session and told her she was to speak to me only in English. She was always a good sport when I would turn the tables on her and did make an effort. Our encounters were quite creative. Sometimes we met at her hairdressers, or we would take walks in town where she would point out different stores and shops to me giving me their backgrounds. She once took me to the best, in her opinion, calamar sandwich place in Madrid. We both had a sandwich and sat down on a bench and had our snack and practiced, mostly Spanish. It seemed I had to speak more than she did. She was the most spiritual of my friends so we had some interesting conversations about Catholicism, saints, yoga, God and some kind of vibration and light meditation that she wanted me to learn in order to help my prayer life. This is where I drew the limits in what I was willing to try for a friend.

Almost a year went by once when we did not see each other and then one day out of the blue she called me and we picked up again where we had left off… true friendship.

My best friend is an artist, a hairdresser, a Spanish flamenco dancer and just one of the sweetest women I have ever known. She is gentle, patient, funny, and I learned so much from her about “no pasa nada”. She taught me that no mistake is too big to correct, nothing is too bad to forgive, and when we were together this past January during my visit to Madrid it was if we had never parted. I made a complete fool of myself in the cafeteria where we always met for language practice. In front of a whole room of people having coffee I tried carrying two very hot coffees from the bar to our table. My purse was hanging over my shoulder and as I walked towards the table, I felt the purse sliding down my arm and with the weight of it I knew the coffees were going to spill and spill they did. Coffee was running on the floor, over the chairs and table. With the grace of a true lady my friend had me at another table, calming me down, getting someone to clean up my mess, ordering two more coffees and before I knew it we were catching up as if nothing had ever happened.

These are just a few reasons why I loved Spain and Spanish people so much. They did not make fun of me, nor did they take themselves too seriously. When something goes wrong, “no pasa nada.”

----------------------------------

When we first went to Spain, I realized that many times when I was trying to communicate with older Spanish people they would throw a Spanish proverb at me.

I usually did not know what they were saying, but I did know it had something to do with what I was trying to say. I appreciated the fact that they felt the need to share some of their Spanish wisdom with me.

Today, I say, “Comiendo entra la gana”, which means, “Appetite comes with eating”.

I hope that in savoring these little cylinders of mashed potatoes with ham your appetite will be opened up to more of the little dishes of Spain.

Time for Tapas

Monday, December 6, 2010

Christmas in Madrid, Spain

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And as they say in Spain...

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