we had father's day in spain. dia de padres, el 19 de marzo. porque, you may ask? after all, our american version is in june, and is a hallmark holiday, so you would think what with being an international corporation they would want some consistency. well, it turns out that the 19th of march is fathers day because it is the day of San Jose. i, in my american religious naivete, asked the (clearly stupid) question, "who is san jose? what did he do?" the response i was met with was a mixture of horror, condescension, and general "you know, maria, jose and baby jesus. he fathered jesus christ isn't that enough?"
well excuse me, how am i supposed to know that joseph and jose are one and the same, or that he gets his own holiday just for fathering jesus?
this day is especially cool, not at all because it's fathers day (a day that the corte ingles takes advantage of by requiring their consumers to buy ties for their fathers), but because it is Las Fallas de Valencia.
apparently, they spend the WHOLE year building floats and facades (like wash u's thurtene times 75). i mean, HUGE beautiful lifesize buildings, statues, all sorts of crazy stuff. there is a parade, a competition, all sorts of fabulous costumes, but the best part is when it turns into SPANISH BURNING MAN. there is a museum in valencia and the winning facade from each year is saved, whilst all the rest are burnt to the ground. starting at 1 in the morning, they literally light the world's largest bonfire. I happened to be coming home from celebrating jamie's 30th and arrived just as the clock struck 1. of course, this celebration is televised, and they literally showed the burning facades for an hour....this is on par with the burning of atlanta in "gone with the wind"...i mean, some serious fuego. the best part is they also set off fireworks and rockets so its NOISY and crazy and the tv keeps panning to these adorable spanish girls all decked out in gold costumes sobbing and crying while everything is burning. apparently this is supposed to be jesus' dad's day, but i'm pretty sure the catholic church just took a pagan spring festivus (burning of the old to ring in the new) and pretended it was a religious day.
actually, it turns out that some of the most celebrated festivals in spain were around long before isabella and frederico came and kicked out all the jews, muslims, minorities and forced their religion on those poor spaniards and gitanos. carnival, for example, definitely has bacchanalian roots (i mean, celebrating the pleasures of life is not really following in the catholic tradition). and the burning of an entire facade city seems much more fitting with the spring equinox than anything joseph did (i mean, it was a virgin birth, so what did he really contribute?). not to mention the running of the bulls and the plethora of animal festivals that generally take place in the north of spain during the winter months...all sorts of sacrificing and/or blessing of animals. although infused with religious symbolism the roots of such ceremonies seem to predate the arrival of the catholic kings.
which brings me to my favorite spanish paradox. in a country that is dominated by one religion--a religion that in general is pretty strict and regulated--there still exist a vast array of very old traditions and ceremonies that are more closely related to the celebrating of the seasons, harvest, sun, and general pleasures of life. it's quite a duality to live everyday, but it's a comfort to know that when catholicism arrived in spain it didn't completely take over the thousands of years of history predating it....oh spain, you are so simple and yet so deeply complex....i will miss you (only two more weeks, eek!)
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