Life in Galicia

Halloween - Hotly discussed in the UK as disguises may lead children astray and frighten the elderly we just high jacked this for a party (Fiesta). If you’re interested, the origin goes back to Celtic times when it was belived that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass .

The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the “lighter half” of the year and beginning of the “darker half”, and is sometimes regarded as the “Celtic New Year”.  All Saints Day was moved by the Church ten centuries ago from its original date in May to deflect public attention from pagan autumn festivals.

For about a week we had a “family” of straw men (& women) living in one of our bodegas and every time I went in there I thought someone had actually moved in.

Just before 7pm we started to light the place up for a “magic” night and the 3 F’s (Friends, food & fire).

Our fantastic neighbours Carmen and Pepe had agreed to light their bread oven so we could finish all the prepared food just in time when all the guests had arrived and started to feel peckish after the first drinks.

Whilst Barbara with the help of friends struggled to get it all organised, it looked very much as if the party had truely started.

The alpendre, only recently cleared with the help of our friends (Pantones), looked like a well visited outside restaurant.

Although we recently had the usual Galician rain (3 inches in a couple of hours) fire is a constant hazard in the now fairly wooded areas here in rural Galicia.

There is a central number for the province of Lugo where one should call and ask for a permission. They take note of the exact location and ask what you intend to burn. As it is autumn burning of cuttings are OK and one receives a permit number and a date range of a week. As we have quite some fire spotters around us and I think it is great that they can react fast to actual fires I really don’t mind this little procedure.

The 3rd F was not just provided by a bonfire but the lighting of a Queimada.

 We loudly read the “Conxuro” in English and Gallego, specifically the powerful and moving end of it.

Forces of air, earth, sea and fire, I make this call to you:
if it be true that you have more power then man, here and now, make the spirits of the friends who have departed share this quiemada with us

Now cleansed and in a good mood the singing started.

 It will take us some more years to fully understand these songs and hopefully join in.

A big thank you to all our friends, neighbours and acquaintances who all helped to make this a “magical night”.

Martin

Larger and more pictures -> Slideshow Halloween Mer Sober Ribeira Sacra <- mejor y mas fotos

PS It started to rain the next morning!

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 7:17 pm and is filed under Events, Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.