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Published: February 21st 2016
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We’ve just finished Carnival season in Galicia. I’ve gained a much greater understanding of what happens during Galician ‘Carnaval’ or ‘Entroido’, but I could certainly use another year here to experience more of the diverse celebrations.
Carnival in Galicia seems to me to consist of: practical jokes and silliness; creative, time-consuming costumes and props; drinking; and inexplicably strange traditions. Different areas of Galicia have different schedules and events. I’ve heard, but I’m not sure if it’s true or could be verified, that Ourense has the oldest Carnival traditions in Spain. The province of Ourense, along with Tenerife in the Canaries, and Cadiz in Andalucia, have the most well-known celebrations in Spain.
My school is where I got the first taste of Carnival. In that region, the first Thursday of the Carnival period is generally called ‘Compadres’, and on that evening, women should dress up as men. The kids also make life-size dolls of boys, which they then burn. At my school in the staff room, the women hung up firefighter calendars with the male teachers’ faces on their bodies.
The next Thursday is ‘Comadres’, in which the kids again make dolls, this
time of the girls, then they burn those. Men go out dressed up as women. I should mention that if people are out drinking on one of these important Carnival nights without a costume, they could be dragged to a bar and forced to pay for groups of people as punishment for not dressing up. Verín is the most famous village for ‘Comadre’ celebrations. My Galician roommate went there by bus, and lost his wallet (which only had cash), his alcohol, and his cell phone. He returned home around 8am very inebriated. He went to take an oral English exam at noon, which he (incredibly) passed. He eventually got the cell phone back too. Lucky guy.
In the week before Carnival, each day everyone in school was supposed to follow the dress code:
-Monday: paint your nails (yes, boys too!)
-Tuesday: paint your nose
-Wednesday: wear two different-colored socks outside your pants
-Thursday: wear your hair in braids or a Mohawk
The steps are cumulative, so on Thursday, everyone should have had painted nails and a nose, different-colored socks, and braids. Overall, the week was vaguely reminiscent of Red Ribbon
Week at Kiski Area, but more fun because everyone was so excited for Friday’s parade (and fewer classes).
In the few weeks building up to Carnival, my elementary school students were given lots of class time to get their parade costumes ready. At my school, each class (or their class teacher) chose a theme, and they all dressed the same way for the school’s parade. The school teachers had also decided to all dress the same way—as chefs! Fitting their adopted roles, all week long, teachers brought delicious snacks to the staff room. It was a similar spread to an American Christmas dessert table. Mmm!
The parade took place on the Friday before our 5-day break for Carnival festivities. I was really impressed by the students’ costumes. Something I notice here is students being given lots of opportunities to do things manually, and given lots of time to create instead of being restricted only to book work. I don’t know if it’s just my school or a general trend.
That Friday marked the beginning of a 5-day Carnival weekend for me. Schools give varying amounts of time off, but the government
School Parade
Fifth and sixth graders were candy holiday was only the Tuesday this year. Looking back, I regret not going to some of the small towns nearby. Laza is known for its very weird events, including mud fights, flour fights, and throwing ants which have been doused with vinegar to make them angry. Xinzo de Limia (“Jean-though day Leem-ee-ya”) has traditional costumes and is another popular one.
But there are other, lesser-known towns that also continue with the old-school traditions. A friend went to one in the province of Lugo in which one person in the town dresses as a bear using bear fur and s/he has a group of ‘death’ cronies. If they corner an onlooker, the onlooker is smeared with charcoal, as my friend was. It reminds me of an experience I had on a beach in Casamance in Senegal, surrounded by dancing ‘spririts’, whose actions were so intense that it was easy to forget they were also people under the costumes.
The city of Ourense also doesn’t lack for Carnival celebrations. There is a parade on the Sunday. I dressed up to watch, as did many others. The parade probably lasted 2 hours, and it was way cooler
than any parade I had to participate in as a member of band in school. Groups from Ourense and surrounding towns, from schools, older men in bands, and even troupes that spend the entire year constructing floats, costumes, and dance routines as a hobby, all participated.
A complaint my roommate had was that almost all of the music the groups played was modern pop music, sometimes with no relation to the group’s theme. She hoped for traditional, Celtic music or something similar. An observation I had, was in contrast to my roommates’ stories about Carnival in Montevideo, that the crowd watching the parade was just that . . . watching. They sometimes yelled ‘Guapa!’ (Beautiful!) or some encouragement, and occasionally clapped, but it wasn’t like your stereotypical Latin American street dancing crowd stuff. I really loved the experience. As an introvert, watching performances and people without the impetus to participate is just my favorite.
People also go out at night in Ourense. The city puts on music and other events outside in the plazas during the 5-day period. The weather during Carnival this year was generally rainy, but I went out with my roommates
on the Monday night, which was crowded because it was a bank holiday the next day. Again, I was impressed by so many adults dressing up, but it wasn’t like adults dressed up for Halloween in the US. Costumes were often diy, but good, and sometimes even clearly expensive. For example, I saw a few women in ‘Marie Antoinette’ style dresses. It was refreshing for women not to bare lots of skin, as often happens in American Halloween. It
is the middle of February, and you often hang out outside for Carnival. Groups dressed up as well. There were New Zealand “All Blacks” rugby players, and even a choir of gospel singers who would spontaneously burst into song and dance and surround others in the crowd. Overall the atmosphere was really fun, and it was nice to see some musicians playing music in the streets.
The culmination of festivities in the city of Ourense is on the evening of Ash Wednesday—the Burial of the Sardine. I couldn’t go because I had a class, but from reading the newspaper and looking at pictures, here’s the scoop. They have a huge sculpture of a sardine. Lots of people attending
the event dress in black and mourn as if they were at a funeral. Essentially it’s that they’re mourning the end of Carnival! I don’t know if they actually bury the sardine, because as my 9 year old student pointed out “there’s not a place to bury it. There are only stones, no open grass areas”. Oh man.
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Linda Reimann
non-member comment
RE: Entroido
Hello, I found your blog on internet, great info by the way!! I'm heading to Santiago De Compestela in Feb. to visit my son, he's teaching English in Noia for a year. I will probably study Spanish while I'm there but I was wondering if seeing the Entroido festivals weekends prior to Fat Tuesday is enough to get a good feel for the Entroido in Galicia region or do you think it's a MUST to stay for Fat Tuesday? We are looking into Ourense, from your blog looks like they have a wonderful festival on Sunday the weekend prior to Fat Tuesday. Any other festivals/towns that you would not miss? Any info you have would be appreciated. Thank you!