Chrismas on The Way: Spanish traditions

We continue with our Chrismas Special talking about the different spanish traditions that you will discover if you do your walk in this beautiful time of the year.

- The Three Wise Men Day / Kings Day. Even if father Santa also visits the kids of Spain, the most traditional figures of the spanish chrismas are The Three Wise Men, three kings from the east that visited baby Jesus on the 6th of January and keeps bringing presents to all the kids in Spain that same day. Melchor, Gaspar y Baltasar represent our "Santa Claus or Father Chrismas" and every spanish family is more related to this character than to the others.

- Chrismas Lottery "El gordo" (The Fatty). On the 22nd of December, the chrismas lottery initiates the festive season. The most popular lottery of the country is also one with the biggest prizes, as 70% of the money collected with the tickets goes directly to the prizes. The tradition is to buy the tickets with you family, friends, co-workers... so everyone has usually many different numbers ans a sense of community about the sharing prize.

- Day of The Holy Innocents. The 28th of December is a date that probably doesn't ring a bell on you if you are from the UK or northern european, but on mediterranean countries, this day is our April 1st. To commemorate the babies that were slaughter by Kind Herodes, Spanish people plays pranks and jokes with each other. Even the media drops a fake new to fool their audience.

- New Year's Eve. In spanish knows as "nochevieja" (Old Night), is one of the most festive nights in the country. The tradition is at the time the clock marks 12.00 in the night, eating 12 grapes, one for each bell that sounds. In big cities. some people reunite on the Main Square to have the grapes on the outside, congregating hundreds of people usualy wearing wigs and costumes. Other of the traditions is to wear red underwear to attrack with luck and love for the next year.

- Nativity Scenes. In most homes a nativity scene is part of the decoration, as this holidays are still very linked to its catholic culture. Not only people have small nativiy scenes in their decoration, but also is some places people create really big a beautifull nativity scenes with beautifull sculptures, or even living scenes.

And of course, the traditional food is also one of the essentials of the spanish Chrismas, but we will leave that for another post.

If you are interested in organising your trip to The Way of St. James in Chrismas, contact us.