When life gives you lemons, go ride Lemonade!
Feliz Navidad
A Spanish Christmas is quite different from one in the USA. It lasts longer (until
King's Day on January 6th) and has several different celebrations from what Americans
enjoy.
The town is lit up for the Holidays with overhead lights strung down the streets,
plazas and pedestrian areas. A life-
The best Belen, by far, was the one in a downtown pharmacy that was about eight feet
square with a whole village climbing a hill towards the back. The village was complete
with a potter, whose wheel actually turned, a scribe, a group of men playing cards
on a flat rooftop, fishermen at a stream with real water, a camel train at the caravansari
with the drivers around a pot boiling on the fire, the three Kings coming over the
hill on their camels and, of course, the Holy Family in the stable. There were many
other things happening in the Belen than can be described, it was a small slice of
life in a town at the birth of Christ. You could walk around two sides of it inside
the store and a third side was visible through the main display window from the outside
and all sides were peopled with figures caught in daily life. The city had a contest
for the best Belen, in several categories, and I hope this pharmacy won (we never
saw the results).
An event I have never associated with Christmas is Flamenco. Several of the bars in town had Flamenco demonstrations, known as a Zambomba, in the week before Christmas. (Bars in Spain are not like bars at home in Washington State. These are more like what we know of as a tavern. Although they do sell hard liquor, beer is the most popular drink. They are open and airy with more outdoor seating than inside.)
Christmas its self is not the big gift giving time as in the USA (Three Kings Day
is). Although the commercialization of it in America is causing some families to
give some gifts on Christmas. 
The big event in Rota for Christmas was the live Nativity. This
consisted of taking some narrow lanes, in the old town, leading from the main plaza
and converting them into torch lit paths. They let groups of about 50 people at
a time follow the path, past a market with live chickens and goats and stalls of
produce, along to the Inn, which was full and around some corners to a group of women
listening to the Angel telling of the coming event. From there one followed the
lane to the castle and saw the arrival of the Three Kings by horseback (I guess Rota
doesn't have any camels). The group followed the Kings into the castle and a confrontation
with King Herod and then outside to the stable where they presented their gifts to
the Christ child surrounded by shepherds and goat herders with real animals. The
final act at the stable was too far away for my flash to reach hence no pictures
of it.
After Christmas was New Year's Eve, a big party night. We went to an Irish pub that had American football on and watched until midnight when they changed to the countdown in Madrid. At midnight we threw confetti and streamers, blew our horns and ate our grapes (yes, "ate our grapes". I don't know the significance of the tradition but at midnight Spaniards eat 12 grapes, I suppose representing the 12 months just passed or maybe coming????)
Then we headed for the plaza to watch the bands and listen to the rock music along
with most of the rest of Rota, both young and old.
The big event for Spanish children is the Dia de Los Tres Reyes Magos (Three Kings
Day). In America we call them the Three Wise Men. This is held on January 6th and
is when they get their presents. The Three Kings are said to have returned from
the Holy Land and arrived in Spain on the sixth of January. The Three Kings are
named Melchoir, Gaspar and Baltasar. They represent the three known continents of
Europe, Africa and Asia. Each is distinct, Melchoir, the white-
On the evening of the fifth of January there is a parade of the Kings through the
town. (All the towns and cities of Spain are having parades on this day.) In Rota
the Kings Parade was led by about eight marching bands and floats of pretty girls
throwing confetti and streamers at the crowd. The leading band kept the speed at
a slow, almost funereal pace. After the pretty girls came the floats of the Kings,
each float represented a camel with the King astride it. The Kings had a bin of
candy on each side of them and threw the candy to the crowds with both hands. 
It
was unbelievable how much candy they went through just in the tiny town of Rota. The
whole country must have gone through tons and tons of the candy. Each King had a
helper whose sole job was keeping the bins full of candy. This meant emptying a
20 kilo (44 pound) sack of candy into each bin about every 3 or 4 minutes. The Kings
also threw small toys and plastic balls to the crowd. This went on for about 3 hours. The
length of the parade route through Rota far exceeded the town's ability to fill the
streets all the way along it. This was not a problem, it was an advantage for the
children, of all ages.
The children had plastic sacks from the grocery stores and would scramble for the
thrown candy until all three of the Kings were past, then they would cut across the
blocks and wait for the parade to come by again, and then do it again and again. We
watched the start of the parade, went and ate at a Chinese restaurant and then watched
it after dark halfway along the route. After dark it was more spectacular with the
lighting on the floats, but harder to take pictures. When the parade ended at the
town's plaza the Kings threw toys and candy from the balcony of the city hall. The
last part is when the children go up to the Kings and tell them what they want for
presents the next day. This is like American children going to the mall's Santa
and telling him their wishes. A good time was had by all this Christmas season,
Feliz Navidad.
On the second of January we went to Gibraltar.