Tres Reyes Magos

Like in all the Catholic countries, religion is an important part of Christmas Celebrations in Spain. Churches are filled with people and ceremonies are held almost every evening.
The most important ceremony, Misa de Gallo , is held at midnight on Christmas Eve,  Noche Buena.

here is a little christmas chapel we found in Mijas Village

Along the church ceremonies, a Christmas Play is also very popular;
"Nacimiento", the story of how Jesus baby was born.
Kids like to dress up as figures from bible.

The most important decoration at homes is Christmas Creche, Pesebre. It is a collection of miniature figures, things and happenings on Christmas Eve around baby Jesus and Josef and Maria. Angels, animals and the 3 wise men. These creches can be huge and amazingly beautiful as they have been collected and re-built and re-painted for decades within the family.
The biggest ones are called "Belen" ( Betlehem) or "Portal de Belen" ( the gate of Betlehem )

All cities have also their Belens on display, usually by the church or town hall. These are huge collections. People travels around to go see the most beautiful ones.

here is a Belen we found on a window in Fuengirola.

All the Christams Festivities ends on Epiphany, 6th of Jan ,with a Big Bang on ;

          TRES REYES MAGOS


= the tree wise men also called as 3 KINGS;
Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.
There are variations of the origin what  kings represent. Some historians say they represent Persia, India and Arabia. Some historians take wider view and say they are from Europe, Asia and Africa.

This is the time of Christmas that is made for children and fun. Every village and city helds a parade on the evening of the 5th Jan, with 3 kings walking around with their helpers, throwing candy for kids.
This is very old tradition, first parade was held 1886.

It is also a tradition to eat a cake during this time; Roscon de Reyes.
It is a round cake that is baked with several surprises inside, such as porcelain figure. The one that finds that figure, is blessed with good luck and gets to wear a crown. There is also a bean inside. The one who gets the bean, is supposed to pay for the cake....
 There are different variations of the cake, with chocolate filling, or cream, or candies..

Then during the night, magic happens..  Kings run from house to house and leave presents.

Tres Reyes Magos -  is a very important family day,
everyone gathers up together with their loved ones, enjoys a big meal and exchanges gifts.

Another Catholic Christmas is over...

but not yet.... Im going cake hunting and all the presents are still unwrapped!

Sun is Heaven or is Heaven Sun?

Weatherman. That dude we all know, the dude that makes us happy or sad. Whats it going to be tomorrow?? We all talk about it and its no different here in Spain either.

Weather is everything.

It has been interesting to see what means "winter" down here in Andalucia. Especially for a family like us, because of our roots, we know winter as supercold, dark, loads of snow- and very long.

Now after few months, I think this southern spanish winter is like  Finnish May and June. Its sometimes chilly, sometimes rainy but mostly warm, gentle and sunny.
And most important- no snow. Snow has never been our cup of tea... we all hated it.  Temperatures during daytime never gets ( yet) under +10 and nightime never under +5. Usually its something between +12-18.

BUT!

It does rain, this year especially, it has rained loads. All the northern snowstorms that shut down airports and caused chaos; came here as rain and thunder.
(Reminds me of the years I lived in Holland :D)
This huge amount of rain that we have got, has caused a great deal of problems. Andalucian infrastructure is not made for heavy rain. What we have seen in the news, big cities like Sevilla, Granada, Gordoba have been in serious danger:  people have lost their homes because of the waterdamages and floads, streets are shut down and schools closed.  Canary Islands have been also pretty bad hit. - Going to be a big bill to repair all that.


so... weather is everything!

Then comes days like today.. Sunny and warm, just amazingly beautiful. You forget all about rain that might have happened couple days ago. Streets are full of people, smiling, laughing, enjoying "la vida".

Sundays here are family days. On summertime, everyone goes to beach. Everyone! and for the entire day. You can see families sitting by the beach still at 9pm in the evening. I find this a  lovely tradition. They have chairs and parasols and tables and many baskets of food with them.
 - a real family day!

Now when its winter, everyone still goes to the beach. Walks around the paseo, (=beach-road  that is many kilometres ) , with no rush anywhere.. enjoys long lunches in the restaurants, sleeps on the beach, reads a book, just sits and chats with friends and family, might pop in to a street market or just do nada - or  goes to playparks to see friends.
All life here is outdoors with other people.
And we love that!

Today was amazingly beautiful day gain.. .

Here is some feelings of our Sunny Sunday in Fuengirola, 2nd Jan 2011;

NOW! This IS playpark! 

That is FUENGIROLA Folks!

SUN IS HEAVEN!