Father Christmas has been visiting Spain for a few years now, but Spanish children still get the bulk of their presents on January 6th, when the three kings visit baby Jesus. They also come through most Spanish towns the evening before, and we went to see them in Santa Cruz de la Palma. Well, we saw the begining of it. The whole procession takes hours.
They start at the post office, then when they get to teh Plaza España, they have a conversation, find they're all off to visit the same baby, and decide to travel on together. Then at the Plaza Alemeda, they find King Herod's court, and have a converation with him. Of course he says he wants to see the baby too, and asks them to come back and tell him where they find the baby. Then they carry on to the ravine outside town, and find Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in a cave. Luckily for us, you get a great view of the inside of the cave from down on the road. The kings give their presents, and then an angel above the cave warns them not to go back to Herod because he means the baby no good at all.
And then they light the bonfire and set off the fireworks. And the shops stay open until about 1 am for people who like to leave present shopping until the last minute.
I got an iron.
I'm not as upset as I might be, because a) it's a very good iron, and it might even allow me to get the wretched ironing done and out of the way faster, and b) Father Christmas very kindly brought me a scanner than will take negatives and slides and c) I plan to treat myself to a good digital camera in the sales.
1 comment:
Couldn't resist borrowing a couple of (credited) quotes from your account of the Kings for mine about their antics, here in Garachico. They do like to spin it out a bit, don't they? :)
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