There are certain foods which are also mainly eaten around the Christmas/ New Year period as well, just like at home. As food is a very important part of our experience here we fully participate in everything we can!
We knew before we got here that Epiphany or Three Kings (6th January) was the day that the Spanish children receive their presents, but we now understand why.......
....The three kings brought Jesus their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, so thats the day 3 people dress as kings in each village/town/community etc and parade through the streets collecting the children to give them their presents in the local square/town hall/meeting place. Some towns use horses to parade the kings, others use flat bed vans or lorries, one for the kings and another for the presents.
If the children have been naughty they get charcoal. There is also a special cake which is eaten on 6th January called 'Roscon de Reyes'. It is shaped like a very large donut with a hole in the middle where a crown is placed and somewhere in the cake (which is filled with cream) is a miniature model of the three kings. If you receive this in your portion you are supposed to have good luck throughout the year.
Buildings and apartments have models of the Kings' Pages climbing up the outside with sacks on their backs to deliver presents to the people inside.
They look very lifelike as the Pages are all made from black material and the sacks are in bright red.
Uvas......another tradition on Nochevieja-New Year's eve is to eat a grape at every toll of the bell. They actually sell tins of 12 grapes which have been de-pipped and skinned......of course we bought some!
Polvorones are a sweet biscuit which explodes in your mouth, polvo means dust, (and that's what they taste like) why these are eaten at this time of year we haven't found out yet, but it's not worth it. It's like having a mouthful of sand!
Resaca is the spanish word for hangover.....I wonder how I found that out!!!!!
Traditionally many people suffer from a resaca on New Years day as I did this year. It's the worst I've had in a long time and I've decided that it was all because of the grapes I ate at midnight!
We saw the New Year in with the rest of our street. Having had a BBQ in the street at lunch time we continued to drink moderately through to 1.30 the next morning. We celebrated Spanish New Year at 12 (and ate our grapes) and then sang Auld Lang Syne at 1.00 as Big Ben tolled midnight in the UK. The grapes put me over the limit. Here is a picture taken of Peter and myself just after midnight.
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