Two Sundays ago we were invited to a Communion Fiesta - well, to two actually, but the first accepted one took precedence and we managed a quick visit to the other.
When I was seven, way back 'in the olden days' as the kids say (thanks kids), my communion would have been with maybe a hundred other kids, actually I made it all alone as I had mumps on the big day and had to have a private service a couple of weeks after everyone else.
I think my mother suffered the most disappointment and probably thought of hiring a stand-in child.
Well back to the present, and only three kids this time, not due to illness, that's just all there were on the day - but still about 300 guests filled the immense church of San Miguel, the largest church in the Alpujarras, and worth a visit if you're passing by...........www.murtas.com
It also happened to fall on Corpus Christi, so after mass we all took part in the procession walking on rosemary, mint and rose petals around the village, in the hot sunshine.
Afterwards the party, of course, fiestas are what the Spanish do best, and we all enjoyed a feast of Jamon, cheese, snails, kid goat, prawns, you name it, it was there. Beer and wine flowed like a river in winter. Followed by the delicious meringues the village is famous for producing, http://lamurtena.es/ and no less than 10 enormous cream cakes, all made by the poor mother.
After all this and coffee we managed to slip away to the other communion party, right at the top of the village, where they proclaimed we must be starving and proceeded to lay plates of exactly the same food in front of us. Feeling like we were fattened up for sacrifice we attempted to please them, then had to dash back to the first party, right at the bottom of the village, where the hard liquor, guitars and voices were out ready to party.
And we did until 3am ish ........and suffered for it the next day!
But it was a great day, one to remember, and so nice to be included in the traditions that make this a great village in which to live.
In the picture, left to right are Manolo, Rosario, Stan, Jesús and yours truly. From the big smile on Manolos face you would never guess he had completely ruined his kitchen the night before in a house fire - but no one was hurt so the attitude is 'let's party!'
¡Gracias á Rosario y Jesus, Toñi y Diego!
When I was seven, way back 'in the olden days' as the kids say (thanks kids), my communion would have been with maybe a hundred other kids, actually I made it all alone as I had mumps on the big day and had to have a private service a couple of weeks after everyone else.
I think my mother suffered the most disappointment and probably thought of hiring a stand-in child.
Well back to the present, and only three kids this time, not due to illness, that's just all there were on the day - but still about 300 guests filled the immense church of San Miguel, the largest church in the Alpujarras, and worth a visit if you're passing by...........www.murtas.com
It also happened to fall on Corpus Christi, so after mass we all took part in the procession walking on rosemary, mint and rose petals around the village, in the hot sunshine.
Afterwards the party, of course, fiestas are what the Spanish do best, and we all enjoyed a feast of Jamon, cheese, snails, kid goat, prawns, you name it, it was there. Beer and wine flowed like a river in winter. Followed by the delicious meringues the village is famous for producing, http://lamurtena.es/ and no less than 10 enormous cream cakes, all made by the poor mother.
After all this and coffee we managed to slip away to the other communion party, right at the top of the village, where they proclaimed we must be starving and proceeded to lay plates of exactly the same food in front of us. Feeling like we were fattened up for sacrifice we attempted to please them, then had to dash back to the first party, right at the bottom of the village, where the hard liquor, guitars and voices were out ready to party.
And we did until 3am ish ........and suffered for it the next day!
But it was a great day, one to remember, and so nice to be included in the traditions that make this a great village in which to live.
¡Gracias á Rosario y Jesus, Toñi y Diego!
Hey,
ReplyDeleteJust a thought: http://www.linkexpats.com/Grenada (social networking website for expatriates in Grenada) might be interesting for you and your readers..
You might want to add it to your links page as well.
good luck
-k
That link appears to be broken? Spelling of Granada maybe? But thanks
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