Every year the elementary students at Z & T's school have the option of spending three nights away from home skiing. The kids who do not go on the ski trip still attend school, but there is not much new instruction taking place at that time. Since our kids did not participate in the ski trip, and Chinese New Year this year happened to be during the exact same time, I asked the school whether they might be interested in spending the week learning about and celebrating Chinese New Year.
The school offers a once-a-week after school Mandarin class, there is one adopted Chinese student, and a few students from Chinese families, but these are a very small minority. In Barcelona there is a considerable and growing population of mainland Chinese immigrants, but they report that the New Year is not really celebrated here. Chinese families have large meals together, but that about sums it up.
Since I have coordinated Chinese New Year celebrations for many years at the various schools which my children have attended over the years, it was not terribly difficult. The school is not one in which parents volunteer in the classroom. The teachers are very professional, warm, and creative. I met once with the head of elementary instruction and the English teacher to suggest my ideas, they made a list of necessary items, and that was that. They handled everything! What a change from the public school we were at for the last few years, which involved a large corps of parent volunteers, and months of planning! Even the cafeteria got into the act and decided to prepare a Chinese lunch for the students.
I did invest some effort creating a powerpoint to help introduce the students to Chinese New Year.
Thankfully I was able to present in English. English is a regular subject in the school, and parents are very eager to have their children exposed to more English. It was a challenge for the students to understand all that I was saying, but they were so very curious and interested in the subject, it was marvelous to see. They have not had any exposure to Chinese culture really, so it was a real treat for them.
The teachers led various art projects, such as making paper lanterns, Chinese opera masks, dragon puppets, Spring paper cuts, writing Chinese calligraphy, learning about the Chinese Zodiac, and making ribbon sticks for dancing. The children even learned to sing the song Gong Xi, Gong Xi in Mandarin. They danced with their sticks at the same time.
They also learned to say two phrases, "Xin nian kuai le" and "Gong xi fa cai" in order to receive a red envelope with a chocolate euro coin in it from the headmaster.
video of kids enjoying themselves.
The older students created a 7 meter long dragon and paraded around the patio with it.
I felt very happy to be able to share a bit of my cultural knowledge with the students, who were very attentive and sweet. Their enthusiasm was so heartwarming. In addition, a lot of parents were very appreciative, and it was a nice way to "break the ice" and feel more a part of the school community.
Barcelona likes to dress up, and during the holidays the commercial streets all over the city are full of lights. Each street has a different design, and they can be quite elaborate.
The Catalan equivalent of "Happy Holidays" is Bones Festes (think Buenas Fiestas), which when written in script can look an awful lot like Bones Testes, which made Mark giggle more than once. Imagine gigantic lighted signs everywhere reminding you to think of your private parts.
An ice-skating rink was put up in Plaza Cataluña, so naturally we had to go. We had a great time skating with friends from school.
At school, the students put together a Christmas craft fair where they brought in items to sell to parents, with the money raised going to a local children's cancer hospital. Zoe and Trevor used glittery paper to fold origami cranes, and used them to make mobiles and even earrings. They were a big hit. The school also put together a precious DVD for parents with nicely edited videos of each class singing and dancing a different holiday tune, accompanied by teachers and students on guitar and piano. Some were in English, some in Spanish, and some in Catalan.
Barcelonans are crazy for their nativity scenes, which are called Belén (in Spanish, like Bethlehem) or pessebre (in Catalan). There is a large Christmas market, La Fira de Santa Llúcia, in the square outside the cathedral, where one can purchase boughs of fir and holly, Christmas berries, Tiós de Nadal, and a plethora of miniatures, ceramic and plastic. You'll find shepherds, angels, wise men on camels, Maria, Joseph, baby Jesus, mangers, animals of every kind, washerwomen, water wheels, windmills, barns, moss, and of course, the most iconic of Catalan figures, the caganer, or the guy with his pants around his ankles squatting in the corner dropping a deuce. He is often depicted as a Catalan peasant wearing a red stocking cap called a barretina and sometimes with a red and gold 4-striped Catalan scarf, but one can also find caganers of every flavor, including Santa Claus, footballer extraordinaire Lionel Messi, King Carlos, President Obama, etc. This beloved Catalan tradition of hiding a pooping figure in one's nativity scene dates back to the 1700s and is also practiced in parts of France, Italy, and Portugal. The Church apparently tolerates this irreverent figure. I like the down-to-earth sentiment that all humans must make poo, and thus we fertilize the earth and bring humility and realism to the holy scene. All of our relations received some version of a caganer as their holiday gift this year, so I hope they see the humor in it. :)
If you read Zoe's previous post, you already know about the Tio de Nadal, or the Christmas Uncle, which is a log dressed up in a hat and blanket, which poops out gifts. During the holidays every night the kids are supposed to feed the Uncle so that he has something to poop out. Then on Nochebuena, also known as Christmas Eve, they sit on it and hit it with a stick while they sing a special song. Then they lift up the blanket to reveal their gifts.
The song goes like this:
Poop, Christmas Uncle, almonds and nut brittle!
Because this night was born our Lord
Don't poop out a herring, because it's too salty
Poop out candy, because it's the best!
Poop, Christmas Uncle!
We had the privilege of sharing that special night with some wonderful Catalan friends. After a delicious feast, and after singing the song and hitting the pooping log uncle, Carles pulled out his guitar and we sang some Christmas songs. There are Spanish and Catalan versions to many of the standard Christmas Carols we know and love, such as "Jingle Bells", "Silent Night", and "The Little Drummer Boy." But we also enjoyed hearing some traditional Catalan Christmas songs, such as "Fum, Fum, Fum" and the beautiful "El Noi De La Mare (The Son of the Mother)." And of course we had to share "Mele Kalikimaka" (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian) with our new friends. I taught them how to dance to Pearly Shells, and they did great!
We spent two days at Port Aventura, which is a theme park about an hour south near Tarragona. Eight kids from Zoe's class and their families went together, and we all had a marvelous time. Zoe declared it, "The best weekend of my life!" I have to say the Shambala roller coaster, Europe's highest coaster, was absolutely fantastic. The ride was so smooth, not at all jerky, and it really felt like we were flying. (See the white one below)
Then we rented a car and drove to the Principality of Andorra, which is a teeny weenie country in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. There we skied for three days at Granvalira, which is one of the largest skiable terrains in Southern Europe. There was no new snow, but there was enough for us to have a great time, and we were really pleased with how the kids' technique is improving. They are now making parallel turns and starting to use their edges. Or course if the terrain gets too steep it all goes out the window, but that is psychological...
After all of that celebrating, we all got sick, and passed the germs around. Mark was unable to get out of bed for two days with a high fever, chills and sweats, so he missed New Year's Eve, which the kids and I celebrated at home making a 3D puzzle of the Sagrada Familia, reading "Harry Potter", and playing Carcassone, a great game that we got for Christmas. At the stroke of midnight, the custom in Spain is to eat 12 grapes, one with each church bell peale. Zoe hates grapes so she ate raisins instead. It is more difficult to do than it sounds, in part because they do not have seedless grapes here, so you have to peel them ahead of time and spit out the seeds while you stuff them in your mouth. Once I finally got the sickness, it took me three weeks to regain my energy level, and more than a month to evict the pathogens taking up residence in my sinuses.
Our lucky duckies got the best of both worlds this year-- they received gifts from the Christmas Uncle (Tió de Nadal) on the 24th, Santa Claus (Papa Noel) on the 25th, AND the Three Wise Men (Los Reyes Magos) on January 6th. Zoe was very excited to get her own MP3 player (my old iphone) and Trev loves his roller coaster marble run with battery-driven conveyor belt.
The big deal here is on the night of the 5th, when the Three Kings arrive by sailing ship at the port of Barcelona and are met by the mayor of the city. We braved the crowds to catch a glimpse of the bearded and long-haired Gaspar, the turbaned and swarthy Balthasar, and the wise old Melchior, accompanied by sizeable retinues decked out in glittering robes. There was an elaborate parade (of course, Barcelona loves parades!) and the streets were packed to the hilt with people being pelted by candies from dancers on elaborate floats. Like they do in New Orleans, you are supposed to eat a ring-shaped cake in which is hidden a toy. Whoever finds it is the king for the day, and buys the next year's cake. One puts their shoes outside that night, and on the morning of the 6th you find the presents that the Kings have left inside of your shoes.
