Flamenco
Flamenco is a form of song, dance and guitar music commonly associated with the Andalusian Gypsies of southern Spain. The roots of flamenco, though somewhat mysterious, seem to lie in the Roman migration from Rajasthan (in northwest India) to Spain between the 9th and 14th centuries. These migrants brought with them musical instruments, such as tambourines, bells, and wooden castanets and an extensive repertoire of songs and dances. In Spain they encountered the rich cultures of the Jews and the Moors. Centuries of cultural intermingling produced the unique art form known as flamenco.
Today the popular, romantic image of singing and dancing gypsies, together with swaggering bullfighters is unreal. But flamenco does occupy an important place in Spanish culture, particularly in the culture of Andalusia: not simply preserved folklore, but rather a vibrant and important art of song and dance. It is certainly true that some flamenco has been commercialised and turned into a sanitised spectacle that
sometimes bears little relation to the raw vigour of the real thing.
The problem for the spectator is where to see and hear the real thing. To find cante jondo (deep song), which is the authentic, heart-rending sound of flamenco or its other pure forms, there is a need to enquire if there is a pena flamenca (a flamenco club) or un bar donde se canta flamenco (a bar where flamenco is sung). More commercial tablao flamenco (flamenco show) is available in many of the larger Andalusian cities such as Seville. Cordoba, Granada and coastal tourist resorts.
In the south during the late spring and summer there are local ferias (festivals) where it is possible to experience a version of flamenco called the sevillana. Even in the smallest villages groups of people can be found, many in costume, singing and clapping to the rhythm, while the dancers wind themselves around each other in what can only be described as a controlled and highly stylised dance.
Gypsy women also practise fortune telling and reading Tarot cards. Tarot cards are popular in Spain with card readers advertising in newspapers and on notices in shop windows in many Spanish towns. Several TV stations feature women spreading out a Tarot deck on a table covered with an elaborate cloth and speaking to callers who have problems with their life, families, children, neighbours, business or career. The aura of mystery and power may be one reason why fortune telling has always appealed to gypsy women but more likely it is a relatively simple way of earning money that does not require literacy or formal education.
Fiestas
Fiestas celebrate a national religious occasion or a local thanksgiving where towns and cities come to a stop as men, women and children dress up to enjoy themselves, aided by a plentiful supply of food, wine and laughter. Processions with music start the evening; dancing and singing follow. Fireworks close the evening with a loud colourful bang. Each
fiesta has its own distinctive character – sounds, colours, flavours, smells, costumes, rituals and a typical dish. There are celebrations for the
dead and the living. Some
fiestas appease the forces of nature. Others drive out evil spirits. Often they are based on historical events or include medieval or ancient customs. There is always a
fiesta somewhere. They can last for a day, a week or a fortnight.
Perhaps the best-known
fiesta is the one in celebration of the re-conquest of the Moors by the Christians held at Alcoy near Alicante, but also replicated in many other Spanish towns in that region. Throughout the world there are many colourful processions, but few can compare with the medieval pageantry which is accompanied by the music of brass instruments and loud kettle drums, as the marchers slowly sway rhythmically in the early darkness of a summer’s evening.
Light, fire and gunpowder are key elements in
fiestas.
Las Fallas in Valencia are unparalleled
fiestas of fire signifying renovation, spring-cleaning and a change in season. Huge caricatures of politicians, film stars, comic strip personalities, full of satire and humour, are erected in the streets and then, to the accompaniment of a firework display, at midnight they are set on fire. The following day plans are made for next year’s figures. For one week in March the province of Valencia turns into a giant carnival giving in to its most primal urges and celebrating the secret of fire. As a pagan ritual originating in ancient Mediterranean culture and brought to Spain in remote times, this is arguably one of the most colourful and exciting festivals.
La desperta occurs every morning during
Fallas week and consists of hand-thrown bangers and rockets. Just when you think that particular bit of morning madness has died down, the first of hundreds of bands start parading through the streets playing their hearts out in a repertoire of
pasodoble and marches.
The noisiest part of
Fallas week by far is the
mascieta; a pyrotechnical display of sound beyond comparison. Most neighbourhoods set off a
mascieta around midday but just once in a lifetime one should experience the 2 o’clock
mascieta set off in Valencia in the Town Hall Square. Every day during the
Fallas, nearby offices are temporarily deserted, birds disappear and thousands of people jam tightly into the streets near the
town hall so that movement is impossible. Then, in a matter of minutes up to one hundred kilos of gunpowder are exploded.
The
mascieta is only a prelude to further fireworks displays that are staged at every conceivable opportunity. Each individual town competes in the grand fireworks stakes and many are spectacular. However, the most famous night of fireworks,
Nit De Foc is held along the ancient riverbed of Valencia’s Tuna River. On that night an extraordinary display called a
castillo (castle) is performed in which 2,500 kilos of pyrotechnical material are ignited. This produces not only a lot of sound, but also carefully choreographed flashing lights that explode in the shapes of sparkling flowers, enormous palm trees and dozens of other colourful contrivances that shimmer and glisten across the black March sky.
The culmination of the
Fallas celebration is difficult to understand. An entire year’s work, for thousands of people, costing hundreds of thousands of euros is deliberately devoured by flames in one evening. But that is missing the point. The
Fallas were created to be burned this way, to wash away winter worries in a tribute to spring. When the effigies begin to disappear in flames all the satirical meaning they represent are purged.