A Spanish Christmas

So before I took off for my random travels to different European locations (and also inbetween trips), I had a couple different Christmas experiences here in Sagunto, including the ESDES Christmas party, the girls' dorm Christmas party, and the church Christmas concert.

The ESDES party took place on Nov. 30 in the hall of the Theology/ESDES building. We "celebrated" all the different dates that the Spaniards observe as a part of the holiday. We started with a "lottery." Every year, on Dec. 22, the Spanish national lottery has its biggest drawing. This lottery is such a big deal that they start selling tickets for it in August. Crazy, huh? Well, we had our lottery and I actually won! Woot woot! Unfortunately, my prize was a box of coconut turrón and since I'm not a fan of coconut, I ended up giving it to one of my professors sitting nearby who expressed an interest in it since he loves coconut but never gets any at home because his wife doesn't like it.

Next, we celebrated Christmas Eve (Nochebuena) by singing "Silent Night" in Spanish. For Christmas morning, we all opened up our gifts. We had drawn names and were supposed to buy small gifts for under 5 euro. I ended up receiving a candy-filled cup from Belros, probably the biggest Spanish candy chain company, and a little stuffed animal ordament.

After that, we celebrated New Year's Eve (Nochevieja) with bubbly and eating grapes and confetti. The Spanish tradition for Nochevieja, especially in Madrid, is to eat twelve grapes at midnight, one at each bong of the clock in the main square. If you manage to eat all twelve with the right timing, you supposedly have good luck for the coming year.

The last holiday that the Spaniards celebrate as a part of the Navidad season is Epiphany or "Dia de los Reyes" - Jan.6. In most houses, this day is actually a bigger event than Christmas and the kids get just as many, if not more, gifts than on Dec. 25.

And that was the ESDES Christmas party. Cheers!

A couple days later, on Dec. 3, we had the dorm party. For this, there was food and birthday cake for all the birthdays between August and December

and a white elephant gift exchange.

Only two of the ESDES students stayed for the gift exchange and I'm glad to say that I was one of them. It was actually quite fun watching the girls ooo and ahhh over every gift as it was unwrapped and fight over the stuffed animals. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of opening a new gift rather than just choosing an already unwrapped gift and so I ended up with candy coal and a lollipop, that of course no one wanted and therefore didn't steal from me.

Bah. Oh well, I still had fun socializing with all the dorm girls, even if they were highschoolers.

We had our last day of classes on Dec. 6 and then on the 10th I left for Paris. Yes, there is a post coming soon about that trip. But I returned back to Sagunto on the night of the 13th so that I could be here for one last rehearsal and the concert on Saturday night the 15th. Although some people told me I should just skip and use the time for traveling instead, I'm really glad I stuck with my commitment and came back for the concert. Not only was it a chance to rest and recuperate and eat/sleep for free, the concert was a blast.

The concert wasn't just the orchestra; the primary/secondary choir and the bachiller/theology/community choir both performed as well.

Also, a church member and his son performed with the orchestra director in a trumpet/trombone/percussion trio. The kid had to only be about 5 or 6 and yet he demonstrated AMAZING rhythm and musical skill on his little drums and cowbell. He was SOO cute! I've got a picture of him but I wish I had a video as well.

The last song on the program was Silent Night and first just a two violins, the piano and a cello accompanied the choir. Then the entire orchestra played while the congregation joined in the singing. It's such a pretty arrangement that I arranged with a friend beforehand to have her videotape it. And now you have the option of listening to either the choir version (which is prettier) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OUQPKijYWM or the congregation version (where you can see me playing the flute). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9VB-9kpbBM Take your pick.

One other thing pertaining to Christmas: Union sent all of us carepackages and I have to show you the customs slip. It's so entertaining. The package contents listed and package value marked are totally not correct.

Much more was included and it was worth a LOT more than they say. But whatever. I got my package and it made me very happy. Many thanks to everyone who contributed!

And thus ended my Spanish Christmas festivities.