{"id":505,"date":"2019-11-05T08:18:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T08:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=505"},"modified":"2019-11-05T08:18:19","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T08:18:19","slug":"arts-culture-custom-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2019\/11\/05\/arts-culture-custom-church\/","title":{"rendered":"ARTS, CULTURE, CUSTOM & CHURCH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CHESTNUTS AND OLD SPANISH CUSTOMS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Saints Day in Spain (Todos\nLos Santos) takes place on November 1st. It is a very important national public\nholiday throughout Spain, when people, from all over the country, return to\ntheir town or village to lay flowers on the graves of deceased relatives. There\nare few religious days that mean quite so much to the ordinary people of Spain\nas this solemn festival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find ourselves now living in a\ncountry that makes a special day for such commemoration reminds us of some\nmatters we perhaps took for granted in the UK. There will be those who might\nsuggest we should be mindful, every day, of those we have lost, not simply on a\ndesignated date. They would be right, perhaps, but the world is a busy place\nand time seems to accelerate as Time Goes By and to take a day to somehow allow\ntime to stand still can do no harm. Spain is certainly not the only country to\ncommemorate the deceased in this way, as we know from our son who lives in\nSouth Korea that his newly adopted home country does the same, though over\nthere each family commemorates the date of the anniversary of the death of\nfamily members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spanish consider themselves\nfortunate in having two birthdays each year, rather like the British queen.\nThey have their customary birthday to commemorate the day they were born but\nthey also celebrate on the day of their personal patron saint. For most people\ntheir patron saint will be the one after whom they were named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
commemorating lost loved ones<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

However, on November 1st each\nyear, the Feast Of All Saints is held and this particular public holiday\ncentres around remembering dead family members. Most people will visit the\ngraves of relatives and decorate them with elaborate floral displays. Roads\naround cemeteries will be crammed with traffic, flower sellers line the streets\nand, in many places, additional public transport services are organised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although this might sound\nover-commercialised and hectic it is actually, for most people, a day of high\nemotion. The Eucharist, or Mass, will often be performed in the cemetery\nseveral times during the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In common with many festivals\nthroughout the country there are a number of special gastronomic dishes which\nare associated with All Saints\u2019 Day. Chief amongst these is the tradition of\neating roasted chestnuts, casta\u00f1as, alongside small almond cakes, pannellets.\nThe chestnut element of the tradition comes from the legend of Maria La\nCasta\u00f1ada, a chestnut seller, about whom there are many stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a compelling affinity between the chestnut and the tradition of\nremembering the dead. It is not surprising that we remember the dead in Autumn,\na season in which in many climates, nature seems to fade and die before our\neyes. There are many traditions connected with this time of year in Spain described\nin literary works such El Estudiante de Salamanca<\/em> by Jos\u00e9 de Espronceda. to purely\ngastronomic ones which brings us to the pleasant aspect of this time of year in\nSpain, the celebration of \u00b4La Casta\u00f1era\u00b4<\/strong>.<\/strong>
\n
\nIn olden days, “la casta\u00f1ada”\nwas celebrated after the family evening meal, in much the same way as were the\ncustomary and ancient funeral meals. After the usual family supper, chestnuts\nwere roasted in the open hearth, and accompanied by a sweet, white wine.
\n
\nThis custom of eating chestnuts (which\nis the typical seasonal fruit together with dried fruits such as almonds, hazel\nnuts), goes hand-in-hand with eating sweet potato el boniato<\/em>. At these\ngatherings stories are often told about the semi-fictitious chestnut seller, “la\ncasta\u00f1era”<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, there are even on-line stories posted about her, with one story teller\nrecalling that Autumn in Barcelona sees the ice-cream vendors of summer ceding\nground to stalls selling food more appropriate for the season. In the city\u00b4s market places you\nwill likely find a woman sitting next to an open fire, roasting chestnuts, rememberingin\nre-creation of the character known as \u201cMaria – La Casta\u00f1era\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a short summary of that story\nI found on-line. Of course there are many others, but all of them are about a\nnice and quite old woman selling chestnuts.
\n
\n\u201cMaria was a woman who always sold chestnuts as\nevening fell, but one night she stumbled because of her long skirt and all of\nthe chestnuts she had collected fell on the floor. Unfortunately she couldn\u2019t\nfind any of them again and so she got very angry, but then the goblins of the\nforest came to assure their help. And in the evening they came with lots of\nchestnuts and everyone was happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nstory about La Casta\u00f1ada explains that Catalans once celebrated this festival on\nthe night before All Hallow\u2019s Day as the men rang the church bells to honour\nthe dead. As it was very long and hard work the men ate chestnuts because they\nare a great source of energy and helped them to keep them warm. Often, family\nand friends came to support the men and so the evenings ended in a big\nget-together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading\nthe story was the first time I ever heard of this special celebration of All Souls\u00b4\nEve, but it is a variation which I like very much. As Halloween has already\ninvaded big parts of Europe, in Catalonia they still stick to their tradition\nto celebrate “La Casta\u00f1ada”.
\n
\n“La\nCasta\u00f1ada,” just like Halloween, finds its roots in an old funeral rite to\nremember the dead and is celebrated after the family evening dinner on the 31st<\/sup>\nof October. After dinner the family either buys chestnuts at one of the stalls mentioned\nin the stories or they roast them at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this time of the year you will\nalso see in the shops, huesos de santo \u2013 the saint\u2019s bones \u2013 which have\nmarzipan, eggs and sugar syrup and bu\u00f1uelos de viento \u2013 puffs of wind \u2013 which\nare doughnuts liberally sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. In Catalonia in\nparticular it is also quite usual to eat sweet potatoes, el boniato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in the 10th century All\nSaints\u2019 Day was celebrated on May 13th but Popes Gregory III and IV moved it to\nits present date because they wanted to neutralise the pagan festival, the\nforerunner of Halloween, that was held at that time of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strangely, though, the adaptation\nthroughout Europe of \u00b4American style Halloween\u00b4 trick or treat celebrations has\nbecome quite prevalent across Lanzarote over the past four or five years. Good\nparenting was certainly evident this year when parents phoned ahead to warn us\ntheir children would be calling. When they did so the costume and make up were\nof the high quality of Strictly Come Dancing\u00b4s Halloween Shows and even the\naccompanying adult looked pretty scary, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m very curious about how this relatively\nnew phenomenon will develop over the next generation or two of young parents. Whilst\nI\u2019m sure it is going to be become another great annual celebration with\ndelicious food items, it will be fascinating to see how its links with All\nSaints\u00b4 Day are strengthened and mythologised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ancient Gaels believed that\nthis time of the year, sometimes thought of as the Celtic New Year, was when\nthe boundaries between the living and the dead disappeared so the Church linked\nthis with All Saints\u2019 Day. Initially, the time was a period of fasting as well\nas the holding of vigils. What began as a time of remembrance of the Christian\nmartyrs evolved into the present custom of remembering all the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The celebrations surrounding All\nSaints\u2019 Day are especially notable in the C\u00e1diz province of Andaluc\u00eda. In C\u00e1diz\nitself Tosantos will involve a colourful street market, processions and many\nchildren\u2019s activities and will begin a few days before November 1st. In\nvillages and towns throughout the province candle lit processions, roast\nchestnuts and, very often, anise liqueurs characterise the feast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the All Saints\u2019 traditions\nacross Spain is the performing of the play Don Juan Tenorio, written by Jos\u00e9\nZorrilla. The final act of this portrayal of Don Juan\u2019s choice between\nsalvation or hell is set in a cemetery with the legendary lover lamenting over\nhis betrayal of his dead lover. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jose Zorillo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Don Juan Tenorio. a religious-fantasy drama in two parts, is\na play<\/a>\nwritten in 1844 by Jos\u00e9 Zorrilla<\/a>. It is the more romantic of the two principal\nSpanish-language literary interpretations of the legend<\/a> of Don Juan<\/a>. The other dates from 1630 and is <\/em>The Trickster Of Seville And The Guest Of Stone, which is\nattributed to Tirso de Molina<\/a>. Don Juan Tenorio\u00b4s reputation owes a great deal to this earlier version, as\nrecognized by Zorrilla himself in 1880 in his Memories Of The Old Times,\nalthough the author, surely accidentally rather than on purpose, curiously\nconfuses de Molina with another writer of the same era, Agust\u00edn Moreto<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There may be times when it is\neasy to forget how catholic Spain can be, though it seems to us as newcomers\nthat the Church is more involved in the community and is perhaps more loved by\nits parishioners than we found to be the case in the industrial North West of\nthe UK.  So, All Saints\u2019 Day serves here\nas a powerful reminder of the importance of religion, and of the family, even\nin the modern age. Furthermore, in the four years we have lived on this island,\nwe have learned how often the (catholic) Church and the arts are seen walking\nthe same path to commemorate Christ and The Saints and to preserve island\ncustoms and culture. For\ninstance, small orchestras often accompany services in which an icon of the\nsaint is carried around the church as scores of people follow its procession in\nhomage. Those\nattend such commemorative services can then step outside and wander round a\nfairground, or take a seat in the church square to sit and listen to a choir\nconcert or Spanish folk lore music and dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bright lights and fairground\nrides and song and dance somehow do not detract from the reverence of\nremembering the dead, honouring the Saints or thanking God. Even the most\nsolemn aspects of religion are always accompanied by a sense of gratitude and\nenjoyment of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHESTNUTS AND OLD SPANISH CUSTOMS All Saints Day in Spain (Todos Los Santos) takes place on November 1st. It is a very important national public holiday throughout Spain, when people, from all over the country, return to their town or village to lay flowers on the graves of deceased relatives. There are few religious days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}