It’s The Holiday Season

Passeig de Gracia: Major Shopping Street in Barcelona

So sorry for the delay in posting a new blog but we’re still adjusting to our new Spanish schedule and it’s taken more getting used to than one would think.

We’ve “officially” entered the holiday season in Spain, at least I think we have. They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, obviously. Yet, they do celebrate Black Friday. It’s a bit strange but I suppose retailers needed a day to mark the start of Christmas shopping and they took their cue from American businesses (and British ones, too, from what I understand). In fact, Black Friday here sometimes lasts an entire week for some stores so I guess it’s quite a big deal. It seems bizarre, though to see Black Friday posters, banners, balloons, and streamers hanging throughout the shopping districts with no connection to Thanksgiving or even Christmas. However, we have gotten some good deals on sorely needed winter clothes that we never needed in Arizona.

Next on the holiday agenda is Constitution Day, December 6th and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on the eighth. Constitution Day is a national holiday which commemorates the day Spanish voters approved the current post-Franco constitution in 1978. It’s odd seeing the Immaculate Conception celebrated as a national holiday, though. As a Catholic school kid, we always had the day off since it was a Holy Day of Obligation. That meant we had to attend Mass that day otherwise it we committed a mortal sin for which we’d surely burn in hell. Usually my mother would take us all to church then afterward, we’d pile in the station wagon to go Christmas tree shopping. This was back in the day when live trees were de rigueur and no one put their tree up before Thanksgiving. It made the day special but it was a holiday only for us Catholics. The poor public school kids had to suffer with it being a regularly-scheduled school day. Here in Spain, that appears to be different. In fact, Friday is also the first day of Hanukkah, so more celebration is in store (and maybe we’ll find some place that sells sufganiyot, aka Hanukkah donuts!) Most everyone seems to have an extended stretch of time off from Wednesday until Sunday. Some refer to this as an “aqueduct.” They do take their time off seriously here in Spain. We’ve noticed that even grocery stores are closed. I suppose we’ll be eating out since we did plan to go shopping today.

After this week, there’s a lull until Christmas, then Saint Stephen’s Day (the 26th, a holiday in Catalonia), New Year’s, and finally the Feast of the Epiphany or Three Kings on January 6th. There’s so much to look forward to: food, lights, Christmas markets. This should be a unique Christmas time experience for us.