From Mussels to Vikings

Pick a date on the calendar. Now, choose your poison. Today you have mussels in Rianxo, Albariño wine in Cambados, German sausages and beer in Sanxenxo, sardines in Teis, tortilla in Laro (Silleda), bonito in Burela, peppers in Arnoia, razor clams in Fisterra, horse mackerel in Chaín (Gondomar), roast pork ribs on a spit in San Clemente (Caldas de Reis), roast ham in Mondaríz, and octopus in O Carballiño. Apart from that, if you're not hungry, you have various different traditional, religious festivals that turn into musical nights in tons of different parishes. Then there is a medieval fair in Ferrol, the Cultural Week that ends today in Zas, a beach party in Ézaro, a motorcycle concentration in Vilagarcía, and the disembarkment of the Vikings in Catoira. And I know I'm missing stuff from the list, such as the book fair in A Coruña which I think is this week. 

August is the month on which Spaniards have traditionally gone on vacation. There are still factories that turn things down to a minimum this month, and send most of their workers home, at least for a week or two. This is also the month in which most festivals are concentrated, many centering around the celebration of the Virgin Mary (the Assumption is the 15th) and San Roque (August 16th). Though, I think each month has a celebration of a different moniker of the Virgin! In July it was o Carme, in August a Virxe, in September os Dolores, and os Milagros in either August or September, depending on location. 

But the gastronomic celebrations are relatively recent, the oldest beginning in the middle of the twentieth century, such as the Albariño wine in Cambados. Here, the tons of glass from all the bottles consumed could probably cover the Sears building in Chicago. There are private buses that ferry people in the late afternoon and pick them up the next morning, and there are also concerts to help wear off the effects. And, also because Tráfico knows very well that the private, designated drivers are only human, and might indulge in a glass or two, "just to check out the vintage," there are plenty of controls all around the town. A friend of my husband's drove one of those buses down, and then drove back his boss's car and was stopped a couple of times and got a breathalyzer test each time. He was lucky he doesn't drink.

Apart from the wine, in our area there are also mussels in Rianxo, from the bateas, the mussel farms in the middle of our estuary. In Rianxo we also had the famous xouba de Rianxo last month, our emblematic sardine. In what was my father's native parish, Araño, there are Masses all morning today dedicated to the Virxe dos Milagros, the Virgin of Miracles. They're not in the church, but rather in an open-air shrine just down the hill. My mother-in-law and my daughter went to the first Mass this morning to avoid the crowds. (My daughter went for the walk, and took a book with her for the Mass; the walk with her grandmother is her tradition, not the Mass!) Today looks like a warm day (finally!), and the last Mass at one, the most popular, will probably have a few faints from the hot sun. 

One nearby festival I would have liked to participate in when I was young, and now would be content to watch from the bridge above, is the disembarkment of the Vikings in Catoira, just by the towers originally built to keep them out. The festival is a recreation of historical facts. Around the year 850, the Vikings, hearing of the riches of Jakobsland, sailed up the estuary of Arousa, continued up the river Ulla, and attacked Iria Flavia, just north of Padron and a few kilometers south of Santiago. After that, King Alfonso III of Asturias ordered the remains of the Roman castellum Honesti (Torres do Oeste, now) rebuilt and fortified, to protect the entrance to the Ulla. In the following two or three centuries, they helped repel further Norman and even Sarracen attacks. After the threat died away, and the Catholic Monarchs concentrated power in the Castiles, the towers fell into ruin and its stones were used in neighboring constructions. Now, there are only the remains of two towers and a chapel dedicated to Saint James, or Santiago. 

From Wikipedia.

The festival was first thought up in 1960 and celebrated in 1961. Since then it has become one of the most iconic festivals of Galicia. During the year, the replica Viking boats or drakkars, sit peacefully in the river, looking a little out of place in these southern lands. Today, they take on life, and become two raging monsters hell bent on pillage and destruction. In the morning, a medieval fair is set up by the towers, with mussels and local wine handed out at midday. Later in the afternoon, the reconstruction takes place, with the drakkars arriving by sea and the frightening devils jumping off the boats and attacking the local populace, which defend themselves well. Blood is replaced by red wine, and everyone ends up spattered and showered by it. After the fight is over, fraternization takes place, and everyone goes to eat and drink. The celebration continues on into the early hours of the next morning. The place is now overrun with spectators and participants, and the two-lane bridge above the towers, which connects the province of A Coruña with that of Pontevedra, is stuffed with onlookers, leaving little room to the cars.  

Next week will be our parish's turn, with festival on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Along with about five hundred other parishes whose patron saint is the Virgin Mary or San Roque. If anyone is bored, they can just come to Galicia and hop from celebration to celebration.