Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spanish/Galician Life - The Local Has a go at explaining why throughout Spain the effigy of a sardine is immolated and (symbolically) interred at the end of Carnaval: : The sardine represents the past, and its burial signifies forgetting it, the long winter months and facing the future with renewed hope and optimism. What is buried will, it is hoped, resurface in a positive way in the future. The burial is often accompanied by a sardine themed parade of some description, usually involving a mock funeral procession on Ash Wednesday. Music, dancing, beer, wine and tapas are enjoyed in the street as a final blow-out before Lent, and in some regions local men even crossdress and follow the cortege in stockings, dresses and wigs. Figures of sardines are burnt to represent the symbolic destruction of all the hedonism and vice enjoyed during the Carnival period, and as a precursor to the forthcoming moderation of Lent. The tradition also has pagan undertones, as procession floats are often named and styled after mythological Roman figures like Apollo and Neptune.
- All very valid comment in respect of Pontevedra city's celebration, except that in our case the large effigy is of a parrot. And the cortege and immolation take place after Ash Wednesday. The following Saturday, in fact - eight days after the start of Carnaval. So the hedonism continues here well into Lent. Perhaps something to do with the Galician weather. Or its Celtic history. Perhaps.
- And here is said parrot - Ravachol - being used this year to lampoon the local mayor and his dreadful railings on the modernised O Burgo bridge you're heard so much about here:-
As to why we have a parrot instead of a sardine, it's best not to ask. The suggestion is that sometime in the 19th century the sardine gave was to a - possibly foul-mouthed - parrot which used to sit near the door of a local pharmacy.
- In what might turn out to be a major advance in consumer protection, a court has ruled that the company which earns a fortune from our local (AP9) toll highway must reimburse drivers who were forced to pay the full toll when there were months of huge jams on the Rande bridge, as it was being widened. The judge noted that the company had failed to give any warnings or information to its customers, which is (or has been to date) pretty standard practice in Spain. I say it might be an advance because this was the judgement of a Pontevedra court and there's every prospect of a reversal in either the region or national courts. But we could well have a definitive answer by, say, 2030. By which time, of course, several claimants will have passed or gone into liquidation.
Nutters Corner
- You'll all remember this (ex)chap. Who seemed determined to go out this way.
Shysters Corner
- Here's the infamous Paula White, 'spiritual' counsellor to Fart: I literally went to the Throne Room of God. There was a mist that was coming off the water and I didn’t see God’s face clearly, but I saw the face of God … I knew it was the face of God. Ms White is clearly unaware that 'the throne room' is a British euphemism for 'the wash room'. Which is a US euphemism for 'the toilet'. I have this image of God abluting as Ms White approached him.
Spanish
- I knew the Spanish prayed to possibly a hundred virgins - actually all the same one but with different labels - but I'd never heard until yesterday of La virgen del puño. 'The virgin of the fist'. So. . . Un devoto de la virgen del puño. Tight-fisted. Pencil-shy. Skinflint. Mean.
- La tarde: The afternoon and evening. Which I discovered last night goes up to around 9pm. So it's wrong, I'm told, to say Buenos noches when taking your leave of someone at 20.59. You live and learn, as I said the other day.
Finally . . .
- Yesterday's weather between Pontevedra and Caldas de Reis was just abut the best one could have on a camino - a strong sun with a cool wind. Today's weather is rather different, but at least I'll get to wear my rain cape for only the second time in 10 years.
- Here's a 'pilgrim' indulging in a foot-dunking ritual in a hot spring (caldas) upon arrival at his destination yesterday evening:-
No comments:
Post a Comment