The Holiday Post: Part 2

New Year’s:

New Year's Eve came the day after we got back from Rome, and that night we went over to my grandma’s house for dinner and of course, the grapes. The twelve grapes are a New Year’s tradition in Spain. The tradition actually began in 1909, when grape growers in the south thought of it as a good way to cut down on the grape surplus that year. The tradition is to eat a grape on each of the twelve clock chimes before midnight. If you finish them all, you will have good luck in the next year. (I finished all of mine, so no worries). It is also tradition to wear something red, and to start out the New Year with a step on the right foot. Haha. I just realized that could be a pun in English. Get it? Start out on the right foot? In Spanish the pun doesn’t work because it’s just "pie derecho." Anyway…after the clock struck twelve, we all toasted with an “Italian toast” (I won’t explain…it was a very lengthy toast with several comical steps...I'm sure there's a youtube video on it somewhere) and then gave everyone the traditional dos besos and a grand “Feliz Año!”

This was by far the end of my New Year’s. At 1:30 a.m., I had arranged to meet with Nuria, David, Patricia, Mendoza, and Juanmi to go out that night. All the teenagers in Spain buy tickets in advance for discotecas on New Year’s. My group of friends began talking about which tickets to buy in early November. (It’s kind of a big deal). We stayed at the discoteca until around 6:00 a.m., and I crawled into bed sometime around 6:30. That’s Spain for you. Needless to say, I was a bit tired when we had lunch with the grandparent’s the next day.

The "Christmas Card" one of my friends photo-shopped. None of us knows what's up with the weird lights on everyone's faces, but it looks kind of cool!
Tres Reyes:

Tres Reyes is the 6th of January, and it’s traditionally the day when the three magic kings come to give gifts to all of the children in Spain. An interesting fact is that because of American influence, more and more families have also adopted the tradition of Santa Claus (Papá Noel, in Spanish), something my host dad says is a problem in Spain because many kids now expect presents both on Christmas and on Three King’s Day. My host parents told me that when they were little, they had never even heard of Santa Claus, but today it’s more common. However, the Three Kings are still much more popular than Santa Claus in Spain.

The traditional cake for Three Kings Day is called Roscón, and it’s basically a sweet bread filled with chocolate or vanilla crème. Inside, two small figurines are hidden. One is the good surprise, usually a small figure of an animal or something similar, and the person who finds it is crowned king or queen for the day. The other surprise is the haba, or bean, and the person who finds it has to pay for the Roscón. In the three Roscónes we ate this week, I didn’t find any of the surprises. Although half of a Roscón is still sitting in the fridge, and the bean has not been found, so I’d better be careful.


My family's Roscón

On the morning of the 6th, I woke up to frantic knocking on my door and Paula whispering “Paige! Regalos!” (“Paige! Presents!”). We went downstairs to find a pile of presents under the tree. I received a jogging sweatshirt and a really beautiful gray sweater from my host parents, ehem, I mean the Three Kings.

Many people comment on how awful it is that I can’t go home for the holidays this year, but honestly I consider myself lucky to get to experience these traditions with my host family. It is something that I will probably not get to do ever again in my life, and so instead of feeling sad, I feel overwhelmingly thankful.


Un beso enorme y un fuerte abrazo

Paige