Pass the Potatoes
Tonight is Christmas Eve, tomorrow Christmas Day. After having endured elections this past Sunday and lottery disappointment on Tuesday, between yesterday and today many have endured Christmas travel. Airports are filled with greetings, shouts, tears and laughter as people arrive home from wherever life has taken them. Roads are filled with drivers criscrossing the country, and sometimes various countries, to get home in time for Christmas Eve dinner. 'Tis the season for reunions.
Spain, and particularly our region of Galicia, is a country of emigrants. History has always been brutal with the lowest classes, which have always had to find a way up by leaving their homes. In the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth, most went across the ocean to North and South America. From the 60's onwards, people began to migrate to the rest of western Europe. And now you can find a Spanish emigrant in almost every country of the world. Except at Christmas. Because a few days before Christmas planes flying to Spain have almost every seat filled with an emigrant coming home to family. There are some who can only come once every few years, but others with a more generous employer try to come every year. Those who can't, call. Or send online chat messages. Or emails. Or talk on Skype. Aside from New Year's Eve, today is the day with the most telephone and electronic traffic in the year. So much so that there are moments you simply can't get a connection.
So, tonight everything will close early, bars included, so families can sit down together around a table as full as possible of good foods and Christmas goodies. Families will come together and maybe collect up to twenty people. Tables will be set out in dining rooms, kitchens, and connecting hallways. Stories will be passed and repassed along with the potatoes. Children will fall asleep on couches as adults crack open walnuts and eat one last polvorón. Outside a stillness will reign as everyone is inside, enjoying family.
Merry Christmas, and to all a good night.
Spain, and particularly our region of Galicia, is a country of emigrants. History has always been brutal with the lowest classes, which have always had to find a way up by leaving their homes. In the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth, most went across the ocean to North and South America. From the 60's onwards, people began to migrate to the rest of western Europe. And now you can find a Spanish emigrant in almost every country of the world. Except at Christmas. Because a few days before Christmas planes flying to Spain have almost every seat filled with an emigrant coming home to family. There are some who can only come once every few years, but others with a more generous employer try to come every year. Those who can't, call. Or send online chat messages. Or emails. Or talk on Skype. Aside from New Year's Eve, today is the day with the most telephone and electronic traffic in the year. So much so that there are moments you simply can't get a connection.
So, tonight everything will close early, bars included, so families can sit down together around a table as full as possible of good foods and Christmas goodies. Families will come together and maybe collect up to twenty people. Tables will be set out in dining rooms, kitchens, and connecting hallways. Stories will be passed and repassed along with the potatoes. Children will fall asleep on couches as adults crack open walnuts and eat one last polvorón. Outside a stillness will reign as everyone is inside, enjoying family.
Merry Christmas, and to all a good night.
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