Palm Sunday and Easter

I haven’t written much on this blog because not much new is going on. I have settled into a routine of going to the gym, taking care of business, working on my consulting project, riding my bike, working on my Spanish and hanging out with friends. Last week however was Palm Sunday. I started seeing these palm fauns in the stores. At first I did not recognize what they were. They aren’t green, but rather an ivory color. I think they are put in some kind of preservative. They take the leaves and weave designs into them. Sometimes they weave flowers into them. So when the fauns are complete, they look more like a vertical flower arrangement. The people in Spain buy them and put them in their homes. I was talking to someone about their significants and he told me that often the family will keep the fauns up all year. It is a sign of devotion and you get blessings from it. I guess you better choose one you really like.

For Easter, a friend brought over to the boat a traditional Spanish dish to share with me. It was similar to french toast. The bread is soaked in an egg batter and then deep-fried. Then you are supposed to sprinkle brown sugar on it and dip it in a very creamy vanilla sauce. The bread was a little oily for me and very sweet, but I did like the sauce. I asked him to send the recipe. I have to learn a little Catalonian cooking while I am here.

The Friday before Easter was a holiday, of course Easter, and the Monday after. A lot of the people left the city and took the whole week off. When there is a holiday here, everything is closed. You would starve to death looking for even a grocery store to be open. It is so different from the states where most stores would use it as an opportunity for a big blowout sale. Since it is actually illegal to have a sale this time of year, nothing special takes place. Something about sales causing unfair competition between businesses. Sales are only allowed in January and July. I think more than any other difference I see over here in Spain and Europe in general is how the economy is run. The government also makes it extremely difficult to open your own business. There are huge licensing fees to pay before you can begin which are out of reach for most people in Spain. A lot of the fees have to do with prepaying for the national health insurance and just the government red tape. You also are required to take government sponsored courses related to the kind of business you want to establish which you are required to pay for. The courses are only offered during certain times of year. So in the end, most people just take the easy way out and end up working for some company.

Partridge and Pear Trees

Most people know that the 25th of December was chosen by the church as the birth of Christ to counteract the drunken erotic Roman celebration of the winter solstice. Well things didn’t really go as planned. Instead, Christmas became a holiday of drunken brawls. It was far from a holy day. It was a day set aside for ignoring the law and even terrorizing the citizens. You all know the song about giving us some Figgie pudding. Well it goes on to say we won’t leave until we get some. And that was literally the case. If a person did not give the mob what they wanted, they would come into the wealthy homes and loot it. This went on for centuries. It was so bad, that churches closed their doors on the 25th, and good Christians stayed in doors hoping the holiday would pass without incident. Think of that Roman spring solstice we still celebrate as Mardi Gras only much worse. When the puritans landed in America, one of the first laws they passed was absolutely no celebrating of Christmas of any kind. Anyone celebrating this holiday would be jailed. Those laws stayed in place until the late 1700’s. The drunken brawls continued until the early 1800’s. Christmas as we know it is a relatively recent event.

The song 12 Days of Christmas was actually a song made as a code to worship the 12 days from Christmas to Three Kings Day. The true love is not a boyfriend, the true love is God. On the first day of Christmas God sent his Son, represented by the partridge, one of the few birds willing to die for their young. Two turtledoves represent the Old and New Testament. Three French hens represent faith, hope and charity. Can you guess what the four calling birds are? The four gospels calling Christians to repentance. Five golden rings represent the torah or first five precious books of the Old Testament. Six geese a-laying go back to the first six days of creation when the world was hatched. Seven swans a-swimming, a little more difficult. But since the swan is considered one of the most beautiful birds, they represent the seven gifts of the spirit. Eight maids a-milking. Being a milkmaid was about the lowest job one could have. Christ came for everyone even the lowest servant, and was mentioned in his very first sermon: Blessed are the poor, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst, the merciful, pure in heart and the peacemakers. Yeah that is seven. Nine ladies dancing? Also a little more difficult, but it is the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness gentleness and self control. Ten lords a-leaping. This one is probably a little easier to figure out. Lords were the judges and in charge of the law; so the Ten Commandments. Eleven pipers piping. Kind of a trick question. It represents the eleven apostles spreading the gospel message. They didn’t count Judas because of the betrayal problem. The final 12 drummers drumming relate directly to the Catholic Church doctrine of the 12 points of the Apostles Creed.

No wonder this silly song has lasted for so long. So next Christmas when you sing this carol, you can think back on when Christmas was not a holy day and Christians had to hide their devotion through a coded song with silly lyrics. And on January 6th, if you haven’t taken your tree down, take a peek and see if the three kings left you anything.

The Epiphany and Three Wise Men

When I was a little kid, I remember a few families had the tradition of decorating their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. It always seemed strange to me to do all that work only to take the tree down a few days later. For our family, the Christmas tree was the center of celebrating the whole Christmas season and really triggered the beginning of this festive season. We always put it up the day after Thanksgiving where it stayed no matter how much of a fireball it turned in to until New Years Day. Deep down, I wondered if the other parents were just looking for an exceptional bargain on a tree since they practically give them away on that night. I was also a bit confused about this whole 12 days of Christmas. It seemed to me that it should be 25 days of Christmas and start on December 1. It took me a while to figure all of this out. But I have to say; it took coming to Spain to fit the last pieces of the puzzle together.

I was at the mall this week getting some groceries at the big market there. As I walked in, there is a booth the mall set up to have your presents wrapped for you. I had seen it before Christmas, and though, wow nice idea and it seemed like a free service being offered. Well the wrapping center was busier than ever. Yeah I knew there was something called Three Kings Day, and I knew that children got presents then. In fact children in Spain usually only get a small present on Christmas Eve. Three Kings Day is when they really score.

As I was walking out of the grocery store, I see this HUGE line of kids. And there at the epicenter is a guy dressed up in a renaissance type costume. Red tights, square hat, little tunic. He was pretty young, in his 20’s and had a small Van Dyke. I was a little confused because he did not resemble any Santa I had ever seen or heard about. So I ask this guy that was trying to sell cellular phones if he spoke English and what this was all about? He tells me he speaks “just a little”. No French accent, but petty funny. So he tells me that this guy in the red velvet chair is a servant of the three kings. And he is asking the children what they want the three kings to bring them. Ahhh, I get it. And I think it makes perfect sense that a king would send his servant on such an errand and that since the three kings were the ones that brought the very first Christmas presents, they would be the ones to still be stuck with the job, not some jolly fat guy living in the north pole.

The legend goes that the Three Wise Men reached the baby Jesus on January 6th, and proclaimed him a king. That became know as the day of the Epiphany, which means to reveal or to reveal that Christ was the King of Kings. Hence, Christmas is the first day of Christmas and the Epiphany is the 12th day of Christmas culminating in a very spiritual recognition of the divinity of Christ.

Feliez Navidad

I spent Christmas morning catching up on some work I had to do. In the afternoon, the couple, Michael and Ane, in the sailboat across from me invited me to Christmas dinner. Michael is from London and owns a business providing signers for the hearing impaired. Ane is from Auckland, so I had fun exchanging and reminiscing about times in New Zealand. Another girl that is from San Francisco joined us. So we also talked about the City and what was going on in the Bay Area. The sun bathed us with warmth that is unexpected for this time of year. We sat out the back deck of their boat and shared our adventures over the past year and what the New Year had in store for all of us. Michael has a flare for cooking and made a delicious meal complete with salmon with a creamy egg sauce as the appetizer. I couldn’t stay for the entire meal because I was meeting a friend in the early afternoon. Then that evening a Swedish couple that has their boat moored on B dock had invited me to share a typical Swedish Christmas meal. We ate on a small table covered in a beautiful Christmas appliqué tablecloth hand stitched by her aunt. The evening Christmas meal started with a special toast from Sweden, really a thick sweet cracker. That is buttered and then a slice of Swedish ham that is prepared by simmering for hours in salt water, carrots, onions and special peppers. Next we had pickled heron topped with a cream and leeks. They told me traditionally it is topped by sour cream, but they could not find any here. We had another traditional Swedish dish. I forgot the name of it, but it was made with potatoes, onions and anchovies in a cream sauce. Unlike most of Europe, Sweden celebrates Christmas much like the United States, with St. Nicholas streaming across the Nordic sky dropping presents along his way on Christmas Eve. While Santa’s Reindeer might have come from the Nordic countries, St. Nicholas himself originated in Turkey. And if that is not insulting enough to Swedes, they revealed to me that Swedish meatballs also originated in Turkey. I missed being with all my family and friends during this holiday season. It is really a great time to strengthen those cords that bind us together. But maybe in it’s own way, spending Christmas with people from different parts of the world remind us all that we are all one family of God, each loving our children and hoping for their bright future. There is more in common with all of us than there are differences. I guess I count myself with John Lennon and want to imagine all the world living in peace and no he’s not the only one. I hope some day you will join us, and the world will be as one. Merry Christmas.

The Night Before Christmas and All Through The Land

Christmas eve is the main event for the season in Spain. Most people attend a religious service with their family and friends. Then head back home for a long evening of dinner and sharing. Usually just a single gift is give to the children. The streets are quiet and all of the shops closed.

Tis the Season

The holiday season is so different over here. Much more low key and just not the huge push for shopping. The 8th of December was Ascension Day. I am still not sure who ascended but rumors have Mary as the lead contender. All the stores were closed. Then Saturday something else was being celebrated because the stores were closed again. Can you imagine that happening in the States where retailers use every event as a reason for a sale? I would have known that it was The Ascension of Mary because the Virgin Mary would be selling us mattresses at unheard of discount prices. There are really very few decorations to speak of. Christmas trees are pretty rare; lights strung up are also not that common. Even the shopping malls have more of a "we gotta do something so how about a few lights" approach to decorating. I have not seen a single Santa Clause at any of the stores. How does an entire country tell Santa what to bring them for Christmas? He and his reindeers must pick up a little extra time when flying over Spain on Christmas Eve. I also have not seen a single sale in any of the stores. I am not sure, but I heard that the government regulates sales in this country and there are only a couple of times a year that stores are allowed to have sales. I actually heard that is common throughout Europe. Don't quote me on this, I will check and see if that is true. But I have to say, nothing is going on right now, and I really have not seen many sales anywhere in Europe. It just seems so foreign to us that it is hard to believe. I was at the mall just a week before Christmas. It was crowded but not really packed with shoppers. The stores were almost empty. Very few people were carrying any packages. What was crowded was the grocery store. People were pushing around huge baskets filled with lots of chocolate, cookies, nuts, fruit and Christmas food. It further confirms the feeling that Christmas is about sharing a meal with family and friends and the gifts that are exchanged are just a footnote to the festivities.
I had my first party on the boat on Saturday. I thought it would be nice to invite all the people that are living on C-dock here over for a little Christmas celebration. It was fun getting to know them better and being able to call them something more than just Hey, Hola. There is a couple from Sweden next to me that has a 10-year-old boy with them. They have 4 other grown children back in Sweden. He is really adorable. Since he is the only kid around he has to keep himself entertained. He does a good job though and is always happy. I never see him walk anywhere. He is always running from one place to the next. I made hot apple cider and trifle, baked brae and Yum Yums. I explained that these were very traditional holiday foods for our family. They all wanted the recipe for the Yum Yums and the hot cider. I was surprised none of them had had hot apple cider before. I always thought it was a traditional Swedish thing. Guess not.

A Winters Day

The last of the leaves have floated to the ground and the trees stretch their naked arms skyward, catching the last warming rays of the winter sun. December skies in Barcelona are almost always clear blue with few or no clouds. During the day it warms up and you can usually walk around in a light sweater. But when the sun sets, the temperature drops almost as fast as the sun recedes below the horizon. I better have a coat with me or I end up freezing by the time I get back to the boat. But once on the boat, my little heater keeps things warm and cozy.