Fiesta de la Candelaría

Monday (Feb 2) is the Festival of the Candelaria, which was started as a religious festival, but no one can seem to explain it....(I haven't really been able to figure it out online either). Last time I celebrated it was in Bolivia in 2007. People got really drunk and had a parade through the streets. It was a ton of fun and there was live music all night long.

Here in Spain, they make a big bonfire. On Friday night we went to a (slightly early) celebration at Erika's school. They built a huge bonfire and people stood around eating round wreaths of bread with salted cod and drinking. Children ran around the fire throwing empty cans into the flames, which us Americans thought was unsafe and probably bad for the environment, but the Spanish parents didn't seem to mind.

Apparently, Cecilia's school will be celebrating on February 2nd and they will be burning toys. They might be burning "dangerous toys," but she's not really sure. Anyway, so we went to the bonfire and stood around for a little while. It was actually a really nice night, as compared to the lousy weather we've been having.

While at the school we saw tons of teachers from our schools and, in typical Priego fashion, everyone seemed to know everyone else. Sole, the 1st and 2nd grade science teacher at my school, knew Vicente, our landlord and the 5th grade homeroom teacher at Cecilia's school. Evan and Christine's landlord is Erika's principal....and so on and so on....

It was nice to be outside, but then it started to get really windy, so we wandered back home just before the rain began. Saturday it was nice out, then it was dark and hailed, then it rained for a while, then it was sunny and beautiful again.