Carnival
Time
Carnival,
originally a Spring pagan rite later incorporated by the
Church as a farewell to meat party before the Lenten Fast, has
a special significance in a country with such deep outdoor
festive roots as Spain. Not as famous or televised as Rio,
Venice and New Orleans, Carnival time in Spain is, together
with Easter and Christmas, one of its main popular
festivities, celebrated nationwide with street parades,
costume balls, beauty pageants and bank holidays.
As in almost
every other part of the world, Las fiestas de Carnaval
in Spain depend on the liturgical calender, usually taking
place sometime between February 5th and March 4th and centred
around the week before Ash Wednesday.On the mainland, the
Andalusian city of Cádiz hosts the most popular urban
Shrovetide celebrations. Year after year, thousands of
Spaniards head to the Southern capital to embrace days of
music, wine drinking an laugh listening to the murgas
or charangas, groups of witty locals who make fun of
politicians and VIP's and review the prior year's happenings.
But if
there's a Spring fiesta of non-stop excesses
Brazilian-style, that one is in the port of Tenerife, in the
Canary Islands, where Carnival has a tropical flare of wild
rhythms, elaborated costumes and half-nude dancing in the
streets.
Hundreds of
villages and towns all around the nation celebrate Carnival in
a less flamboyant and internationalized way, according to
ancient traditions in which the presence of nature and animal
elements is significant, specially in the Northern region of
Galicia. The Antroido of Xinzo de Limia, Verin and Laza
are among the most interesting and photogenic. |