Felices Fiestas!

As Brad and I pack for our Christmas and New Year in central Europe, I am thinking of everyone who reads this blog. Whatever holidays you’re celebrating and however you’re celebrating them . . . I’m sending love your way. Brad and I feel very much loved this Christmas. Many friends and family have gotten in touch to wish us well. In lieu of a Christmas tree this year, we have cards (sent from loved ones) taped to a wall. Love them!

Our beautiful cards

Sevilla has prepared us for Christmas in a delightful way. The lights all over the city, the Belén market, Spanish Christmas carols. Last night, Brad and I passed by a department store with a little platform set up outside. No, it wasn’t for Santa. On the decorated platform, seated on a gilded throne, was one of the Reyes! More specifically, it was Balthazar. Children bring letters detailing their gift wishes to the Reyes. Also on the platform was a cheerful red and gold mailbox for the children’s letters.

The Reyes (kings) climbing up someone’s balcony to bring gifts

We’ve been readying ourselves for freezing temps (and possibly snow!) at our Christmas destination. The trip will be romantic, but we’ll miss our dear ones very much. Let me give everyone in our extended families a special shout out. We are in Pamplico, Hannah, Spartanburg, Campbellsville and Cookeville in spirit. Merry Christmas!

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is giv’n;
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heav’n.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.

A festive view of the Giralda

“Canta conmigo, es Navidad”

Melanie and Brad with nochebuenas in the background (nochebuenas are poinsettias; Noche Buena is Christmas Eve)

Our friend Melanie came to visit. We acted like fools all week. The end.

Melanie is our dear friend from UCLA. She worked hard all quarter (even brought bluebooks to grade) and I’m glad she treated herself to a week in Sevilla before Christmas. Having Melanie here gave us a great excuse to take excursions to Itálica and Huelva, and to discover all the harbingers of Christmas in Sevilla.

We didn’t stray far from Sevilla, but we went to a couple of spots we’ve been wanting to see. Itálica, just a few miles north of Sevilla, is a site of impressive Roman ruins. Did you know that Itálica was the 3rd largest city in the Roman Empire? Yeah, neither did I! The ruins at Itálica include some brightly colored mosaic floors, parts of the city walls, the baths and a huge amphitheater.

Mosaic floors
Amphitheater
Inside the amphitheater; pretend I’m a tiger and Melanie’s a Roman slave – it’s just like the movie Gladiator!
We thought a trip to the beach might be fun in mid-December, so we hopped on a train to Huelva (a town west of Sevilla), then hopped on a bus to Punta Umbría. Oh, you haven’t heard of Punta Umbría? I’m surprised. It’s a tiny beach town on the Atlantic and, in the winter, home to about 200 inhabitants. It seemed like that anyway. The day was also a bit cold, windy and drizzly, so, needless to say, we were probably the only tourists to stop by the tourism office that day. But, we saw the beach, we saw boats and we ate some incredible seafood at a place where the waiter referred to us as “familia.” On our bus ride back to Huelva, we saw dozens of wild flamingos standing in the marshes.

We sure had the beach all to ourselves!

Sevilla also had some adventures in store for us of course. We had memorable interchanges with Pablo, Tito and Sylvie – wait staff at some of the local spots we ate. Tito felt it necessary to give me a grammar and diction lesson every time he came by our table. I finally asked if they served a tapa called “¿Por qué no te calles?” (Why don’t you shut up?) No, I wasn’t being rude – many restaurants recently created a tapa by this name because that’s the question King Juan Carlos asked of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. That sound bite has been broadcast countless times in Spain and people get quite a kick out of it.

Melanie was in Sevilla just in time for some school choir finals – performed outside of our local department store. Four choirs performed traditional Christmas songs for a crowd made up of their school friends, their parents, siblings . . . and the three of us. If hearing children sing Christmas songs doesn’t get you in the holiday spirit, your heart is made of icicles.

I wanted this choir to win, but they were the 1st runners up

The Christmas Belén bonanza in southern Spain gets out of control. We saw Beléns everywhere! Here are some special Belén moments:

A cart full of shrimp, hams, etc. in a Belén scene. Just like the Peruvians dress Mary and Joseph in bowler hats and make the stable out of an ear of corn, the Spanish put all things Spanish in their Nativity scenes. The Jewish community of Bethlehem was probably not eating pork and shellfish, but that doesn’t mean those foods won't be in your Belén.

I don’t know if flamingos (or mallards) were there in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, but they live in southern Spain, and therefore are available for purchase to include in your Belén.

Adviento

Advent is such a beautiful time in the Christian faith. For me, the essence of Advent is “waiting.” As a Christian, some of my most meaningful encounters with the holy happen at a time when I’m waiting. Waiting for clarity, waiting for guidance, assurance, comfort.

Experiencing a special season like Advent in a different way is one of the cool things about living in another country for a while. Brad and I went to mass on Sunday and I surprised myself by understanding most of the text from the hymns. Part of one hymn is below.

Vamos a preparar el camino del Señor.
Vamos a construir la ciudad de nuestro Dios.
Vendra el Señor con la aurora,
El brillara en la mañana, pregonara la verdad.
Vendra el Señor con su fuerza,
El rompera las cadenas,
El nos dara la libertad . . .

My rudimentary translation of the Spanish:

Let’s prepare a way for the Lord.
Let’s construct a city for our God.
The Lord will come at dawn,
He will shine in the morning; He will proclaim the truth.
The Lord will come with strength,
He will break the chains,
He will give us freedom . . .

Belén, Turrón y Papá Noél

On a big department store in Sevilla

Christmastime is here! Or, as the 5-foot tall motion-sensor singing/dancing Mexican-Norwegian Santa Claus that Mom gave us would say, “Navidad . . . Navidad . . . Hoy es Navidad.” (Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells.) Downtown Sevilla is filled with lights, store windows are decorated, and that feeling of anticipation is in the air. Advent in Spain feels much different from Advent in the U.S. – mainly because, here, it’s not such a season of frenzied, desperate shopping. (For me, Christmas shopping always feels frenzied – you can imagine the mall parking lot traffic in L.A.)

A view of the main pedestrian/shopping street in Sevilla; in the foreground, you see a man roasting chestnuts
The Ayuntamiento (City Hall)
A window display

From what I can tell, the hottest item to buy in Sevilla this season (and every season I bet) is a Belén. That’s Spanish for “Bethlehem” and it’s what they call a nativity scene or creche. There’s a big Belén market set up for the entire month in one of the big plazas downtown. The market is made up of vendor stalls all selling little figures, little rustic-looking buildings, miniature fruit, bread, mini fried fish. At this market, you can find things that you never dreamed were in Bethlehem – much less in the stable with baby Jesus. Notably: waterfalls, peacocks, pigs being slaughtered, a barefooted man crushing grapes in a big barrel for wine, windmills . . .

Items for sale at the market – check out the miniature cat catching mouse (bottom left corner)
A vendor/realtor; "We've got your basic stable - 2 sticks holding up some brush - and we've got a studio, the 2-bedroom condo and the condo with stable addition. Now, if you ask me, your best value is going to be the split-level with covered patio."

Our dinky little Nativity scenes in the U.S. have nothing on the Nativity scenes here.
This . . .
. . . Versus this. (When there's a waterfall, it's simply no contest)

Papá Noél (Santa Claus) is a part of Christmas in Spain, but I’m not sure if he’s just a character that they borrowed from the U.S. They’ve seen all our dumb Christmas movies, so they know how American movie families celebrate the holidays. The “Reyes” (Kings, a.k.a. the three wise men) put gifts in the shoes of Spanish children on Epiphany, which is 12 days after Christmas (the real Twelve Days of Christmas). In the Christian calendar, Epiphany is the day the Magi arrived in Bethlehem.

The Adoration of the Magi by Diego Velazquez

It’s surprising how familiar many of the Christmas decorations look here. At one of my favorite stores, Casa, the following items are on sale: reindeer candle holders, snowman nightlights, stockings, Santa Claus Advent calendars and (ick) pillows embroidered with “Merry Christmas.” I know that many of our Christmas traditions, like putting a tree inside one’s house, come from pagan cultures of ancient Germany. And, of course St. Nicholas and the reindeer come from Lapland or somewhere. But, so much has become tackified and commercial. Don’t get me wrong, I miss my special tacky decorations at home. Mostly I will miss the ritual of hanging all our beautiful, funny and meaningful Christmas tree ornaments.

Turrón, a sweet confection made mostly of crushed almonds, is a special Christmas tradition in Spain

The most important part of Christmas is something we luckily won’t have to miss out on in Europe. Spiked eggnog!!! Just kidding. I’m talking about church of course – the reason for the season, etc. We plan to attend many services and sacred music performances. I imagine that Christmas Eve will be mysterious and holy no matter what language the hymns are in.