Spanish views from a small town

This being summer, despite the weather, festivals are going on all over the place. Or, they would be, if it weren't for Covid. Today is the feast day of the Virxe dos Milagros , or the Virgin of Miracles over in the next parish of O Araño, my father's parish and where cousins of mine live. It's also the pilgrimage of the Vikings across the Ulla River in Catoira. The Virgin of Miracles is another manifestation of the Virgin Mary. There are a few places that celebrate that aspect of her, the biggest in our region being the festival at the Sanctuary in Baños de Molgas, Ourense, at the beginning of September. The name, Virxe dos Milagros , can refer to different aspects of the Virgin. One is because she's simply who she is, the Mother of God, another is the aspect of the Virgin of Guadalupe, with the miracle of her statue being found, or the appearance of her image on the cape of an Indian in Mexico. Another has the feast day at the end of November, and refers to the miracu...

Tomorrow is the fifteenth of August. Most of southern Europe and some of central and northern Europe will be on holiday. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary was once very important in the calendar year. Now it's nice to have a day off in the middle of summer. Many, many parishes all over Spain are celebrating their feast day this weekend, ours included. Generally, our feast day is on the second Sunday in August and this year it almost coincides with the Assumption. We celebrate Saint Mary, and Saint Roche, and Saint Anne, each its own day, so our festival runs from the Friday to the Sunday.  And, now that the tradition of sitting to a Sunday-cum-feastday dinner has been complied with, most of us are complying with the traditional nap after dinner to help digestion. So, most of us, cats included, are sleeping it off in the cool house or in the outside shade. Even the amount of traffic on the road slacks at this hour. Some have already been sleeping all morning, only getting up to si...

From the month of March to the month of October, with a few scattered dates in the winter months, every parish and town celebrates their patron saint. The first notice of the celebration as you drive through the area is lights hanging over the road, generally spelling out "Boas Festas" (Happy Festival). If the celebration is going on in a more secluded area, there will be lights shaped like an arrow, showing visitors to a lane that will wind among fields and farmhouses to the open area where people gather in the evening. Because a festival is not a festival without music.  Once upon a time, the feast day was celebrated by going to a special Mass, and then dancing to the bagpipes in the afternoon. By the time sunset came darkening the world, the last song would be played, the last dance would be danced, and people would retire to their homes, to rest before the work the next day would bring. Things have changed. Mass is still celebrated, but not all attend. There may be bagp...