Can you believe it's already a whole week since the Christmas season came to an end here in the Canary Islands?

OK, for many of you, Christmas will have ended what seems like an age ago and the party will have stopped after New Year, but here, with Los Reyes (Three Kings) on the Epiphany on January 6th and their cabalgata (cavalcade) on the night of the 5th, the celebrations go on much longer. (Carnaval 2007 is just around the corner, so the lull will be short-lived. :)

Christmas and New Year, we opted to spend relatively quietly, but I won't insult your intelligence with an account of those. They go much like they do elsewhere: eat too much, watch too much TV, irrespective of what movies are being re-run for the umpteenth time ... The televised Christmas Day Concert by the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra was superior and I'd recommend trying to catch that again.

The order of service for the Cabalgata de Los Reyes that we went to watch in Garachico, was much the same as it had been in previous years. We discussed this at the time actually and decided that it has to be, because people - children especially - expect it all to be done in a certain way, at a certain time.

We prefer to get down to Garachico early, find a convenient place to park, stroll through the town and spend some quality time at pavement cafes and it's remarkable to see that only 10 minutes before the Kings arrive, there are only a few others waiting around for the show to start. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, just as the fanfare sounds their majesties' arrival, a crowd of hundreds appears.

This year, we didn't have the additional entertainment - unless you count Melchor's "blue rinse" or the typical "school nativity" like hiccup, when the shepherds' campfire got rather out of control, setting light to the wooden tripod over it and needing to be doused with soil from a nearby municipal flower pot - nor the film show, while we waited in the square for the procession to finish winding it's way around the streets of Garachico. No idea why not, but it did mean waiting around for quite a bit.

Probably while they all had "conversations", as Sheila in La Palma points out in her account of the Three Kings Parade in the capital, Santa Cruz de la Palma:

Sheila writes, "The whole procession takes hours. They start at the post office, then when they get to the 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 conversation with him."

(Waiting around, however, was not wasted time, because we met and chatted to Jane and Tony from Balearic Discovery, who were staying in Garachico at Hotel El Patio - which they thoroughly recommend - and, if you fancy tailor-made short breaks and holidays on different Spanish island, then I'm sure they can help you.)

Back in Garachico, Herod even has his own castle. In other towns, such as in Icod de Los Vinos, he has to make do with doing "no good at all" at the town hall. Bite your tongue about that being no different use than any other day! :)

And you've got to hand it to him, even if he does have evil intentions, just like Santa and the Three Kings, old Herod has a lot of mileage to cover each year.

Canarias24Horas have a nice account here, Los Reyes dejaron regalos e ilusión a su paso por Canarias, in Spanish, but with lots of pictures, about the Three Kings in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, who arrived by helicopter, camel and the shiny new tram.

Sheila also noticed that, "the shops stay open until about 1 am for people who like to leave present shopping until the last minute." The shops in Garachico, I think, had closed much earlier than that, but it is amazing how much "panic buying" is done here on January 5th - just as it is on December 24th in other parts of the world.

Canarias24Horas, again, have a report on the panic buying phenomenon and it is not just with gift buying. In the morning, we'd been in our local supermarket where there was a queue of customers and an obvious air of last minute buying to "stock up for a siege". That was Friday. The shop was going to be closed on Saturday, but reopen on the Sunday afternoon. You'd think it was going to be a month, not 36 hours!

Reading about the traditions of the Epiphany at Wikipedia, I had not realized that the ring-shaped bread or Roscón de Reyes (Crown of Kings) that we buy from the Pasteleria El Aderno in Buenavista del Norte, follows the Mexican format of containing a complete set of pottery figurines of the three magi, as well as the "unlucky bean", rather than the Spanish tradition of having just one.

Something we made time to do this year, which we had not done before, was to follow something of the route of the many Nativity or Belén displays: these take many forms, but irrespective of their religious significance, they make wonderful viewing for any kid (of any age) who likes model villages - and we've plenty more nativity photos to come.

Stamping on sandcastles ...

One curiosity amongst Canary Islands' nativities this year was that a group of 50 children were brought in to demolish the largest Nativity in Spain made of sand, on the beach of Las Canteras in Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria.

Missed the fun? Never fear, there are only 347 days until next Christmas!

Images of the Christmas season in Tenerife

Labels: Christmas

Permalink | (2) Comments | Post a Comment

 Anonymous wrote (on January 12, 2007 7:48 PM)  

So nice to see that somebody reads my blog! And I've been wanting to get in touch with you again. This is Pamela as in "Two Cats", right?

 Pamela wrote (on January 19, 2007 11:03 PM)  

Yes, Sheila, this is the same me. Down to "only" four cats, from seven. :) Only just found your blog actually, but have subscribed. Drop me an email to tucats2002 AT yahoo.co.uk