Hello fellow grade 9s! Since this is the last week of
blogging, I thought I would end with doing something a little more fun and
entertaining! My blog this week will be about crazy, unique and interesting
facts that I found out about Spain throughout my time researching about it.
Every country has its own ways of celebrating, preparing for the New Year,
getting good luck, some more interesting than others. Here are a few things
that I found quite entertaining,
As you already know, Spain loves to celebrate and get
together, in my past blogs I have talked about the popular parties and festivals,
what you may not know are the more unique ones that simply are crazy!
Every year, on the last Wednesday in August in Valencia, La
Tomatina takes place. This is a celebration where many people throw tomatoes at
one another down the streets. There are so many tomatoes being thrown that
there is practically a river being created with tomato sauce! After all the throwing
and smushing everyone gathers as a community for food and more festivities!
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| La Tomatina |
Another, rather harmful day is “Goose Day”, this happens in
Lekeitio. There are several men awaiting their turn to “grab the goose”. There
is a goose hanging from a rope across the harbor, the men will drive by each
getting a turn to try to grab the goose. What the point is though, I am not
quite sure!
Lastly, some of you may know the Annual Running of the Bulls
Festival. It takes place in Pamplona. A whole bunch of wild bulls are let out
onto the streets with a bunch of men there as well. What the men must try to do
during this festival is feel the breath of the bull on them, preferably their
back, but several people is always hurt during these festivities!
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| Annual Running of the Bulls |
Spain also has some crazy tradition/superstitions. One crazy superstition or tradition you could
say is, every New Years, the people of Spain have twelve grapes. At 12:00, they
must begin to eat their grapes, eating one every hour. This is supposed to help
them have good luck for the next year; one grape is equal to one month of good
luck!
In the very small town called, Manganeses de la Polvorosa, there is a tradition that is held every year. A young man will find a goat and tie it up. He will then bring it to the top of the church tower and throw it off the roof. The people at the bottom are waiting, trying to catch the falling goat with a tarpaulin. Crazy, but true!
The last superstition/tradition is held in the town of Las Nieves. Many people will gather together, but the people that gather are the ones that had close to death experiences in the past year. The ones with the near death experience will carry a coffin containing their loved ones in it down to the cemetery. Then they all return back afterwards!
DID YOU KNOW: I am
sure that most of you have heard of the name Captain Jack Sparrow, from Pirates
of the Caribbean, he has his saying, “Savvy”, coming from the Spanish word “Sabe”
and that actually means in English did you know!
To end my final blog with a bang I thought I would share something that would give everyone a good laugh. I hope you will enjoy my crazy Spain joke that I found!
A Canadian tourist walks into a restaurant in Spain and
orders the specialty on the menu. When his specialty/dinner arrives for him, he
asks the waiter what it is exactly. “These, Senor,” replied the waiter in a unique
English Spanish accent, “are the arms of the bull that was killed in the ring
last evening.” The man swallowed hard, but in the end he thought the dish was
quite delicious! The tourist then comes back the next day and orders the same
thing as the night before. When the meal comes to his table he asks the waiter,
“These arms…are much smaller than the ones that I had eaten last night.” The
waiter then replied, “Yes Senor, you see…the bull, he does not always lose!”
Thank you for reading my blog and I hoped you had just as much fun as I did, learning about Spain!
