Celebrating Christmas in Spain

Feliz Navidad is well known around the world as the name of one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time, written and performed by Puerto Rican singer, Jose Feliciano. "Feliz Navidad, prospero ano y felicidad" or "Happy Christmas, prosperous year and happiness" - I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart is what Christmas in Spain is all about!

In Spain, the greeting Feliz Navidad begins to be heard around the 8^th of December as the national celebration of Spain's most popular holiday begins. It is on this day that El Gordo (the Fat One), the world's biggest lottery begins its ticket sales. With 2.4 million prizes, the chances for a Spanish citizen to win one of them has good odds at a 1 in 6.4 chance. Apparently entire villages, workplaces and groups of citizens will team up to purchase one of the 200 euros tickets in hopes of becoming one of the big winners. Previous funds have reached as high as 2.1 billion euros! While it might seem odd to think of a lottery as the beginning of the Christmas season, in Spain it has become the de facto start of the Holiday Season.

Christmas in Spain has its commercial elements, but the lights, decorations and sales pitches don't begin until December. You begin to see some of the familiar trappings and decorations of lights, wreaths and yes, even Christmas trees as the Christmas fever grows. The most important center of decoration is the elaborate village or home nativity scene, or Belen, accompanied by scores of the traditional red leaved Poinsettia. While Santa Claus has begun to sneak into the Spanish celebrations in recent years, the emphasis of Christmas in Spain is the celebration of the nativity and the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas in Spain is a religious celebration with many facets stretching over an entire month that doesn't end until the arrival of The Three Kings bearing gifts on January 6^th.

The excitement builds during December for the drawing of the winning tickets for El Gordo on December 22 . On the 22^nd school children are let out of school for the beginning of their official Christmas holiday time and everyone gathers around in inns, homes and television screens with their hopeful hands clutching their lottery ticket. With all the winning that occurs, even the losers are part of the fun. Everyone is brimming with Christmas excitement by now, sharing family times together, cooking special traditional foods and preparing for that holy eve, Nochebuena or good night, on the 24^th.

Nochebuena is a sacred celebration as the Christmas Eve Mass is celebrated in cathedrals and churches throughout Spain. Entire families attend Mass together and then return home to share family feasts with traditional foods. The Nochebuena Feast doesn't begin until 10 in the evening with the feasting and partying continuing until late at night, or the next day!

And in Spain, this Christmas feast is the culmination of the year. It's definitely all about the food for Nochebuena! The feast might be started by a wide variety of tapas, or appetizers. Spaniards love their lobster as a typical first course, followed by the main course of a roast pig or lamb. The meal is the centerpeice of the celebration, often lasting up to two hours. There would be some form of soup, often a fish soup and shrimp, special cheeses with everyone saving room for the spanish sweets that are prepared only at this time of year.

These would include turron - an almond nougat, marizpan -another almond treat, polvorones - small cakes, or rosquillos de vino-small biscuits flavoured with wine and anise, and of course to wash them all down, the traditional spanish sparkling wine, Cava.While there might be small token gifts exchanged on Christmas Eve, the focus of the night is on sharing family, faith and food, glorious food!

On Christmas Day, the 25^th, the day would be spent in quieter pursuits, perhaps small social parties or a quiet soup dinner at home with just the immediate family. It is a day of contemplation and relaxation. But Christmas in Spain isn't over on Christmas Day.

The celebration continues on December 28^th with Santos Innocentes (Holy Innocents) day. It's a sort of Spanish April Fool's day that actually commemorates the day that Herod murdered innocent children in Judea. But this isn't a gloomy day, instead it is a day to play jokes with odd news stories appearing in the papers. Even entire villages and organizations stage elaborate hoaxes, all designed to see who can be fooled. Perhaps in making mockery, the Spanish citizens are mocking Herod and his attempt to harm the precious baby Jesus.

New Years Eve is called Noche Vieja (old night) and like New Year's Eves all around the world, it's a long night of partying with a unique Spanish tradition, called 12 grapes ceremony. As the clock strikes midnight, everyone participates in the 12 grapes ceremony. A family friend described it as getting your 12 grapes lined up, then with each stroke of the clock at midnight one grape is eaten. Eat fast because you have to get them all down before the clock finishes it's chiming! While the New Year has arrived, Christmas is still not over in Spain.

Where many westerners have some form of Santa bringing them gifts on Christmas Day, children in Spain have been writing special letters to three Wise Men. They're telling them how good they have been during the year and they're politely asking for special present's to be brought to them on Three King's Day, January 6^th.

Just like American Christmas Eve, the eve of Three Kings Day on January 5^th is filled with excitement as every town chooses it's unique procession to welcome the arrival of the Three Kings into their community. Sometimes the Three Kings arrive by boat along the coast or up in the mountains they come skiing down the hills. They are placed upon floats and the entire town turns out to watch the parade as the Three Kings throw the traditional caramelos (sweets) to the crowds. But the parade of the Three Kings is just the beginning, with the next day children waking up to see what the los Reyes Magos (the three kings) have brought them during the night.

Finally the month long celebration known as Christmas in Spain has ended. Someone will be richer because they won lottery prizes from El Gordo, lots of people will be plumper from consuming the vast amounts of special holiday foods, many will have rejoiced with family and friends during special feasts, children will be pleased with their gifts or not, depending upon how good they were, and many will have renewed their religious faith during the celebration of the birth of the Holy Savior.

And I wonder how many times the phrase, Feliz Navidad will have been uttered in Spanish?

Feliz Navidad and I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart.

Research Resources used:

http://www.esflamenco.com/scripts/news/ennews.asp?frmIdPagina=305

http://www.idealspain.com/pages/information/ChristmasInSpain.htm

http://www.dgreetings.com/christmas-about/christmas-in-spain.html

http://www.proper-spanish-tapas.com/christmas-in-spain.html

A personal interview with family friend who went to college in Spain

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Spain/Spanish-Christmas-Foods/

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http://spanishfood.about.com/od/drinks/a/cava.htm

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/30/TurronSpanishNougatAnda63816.shtml

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1710,145173-234198,00.html

http://spanishfood.about.com/b/2007/12/07/rosquillos-de-vino-wine-ring-cookies.htm