Festes d'Algemesi

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On return from Canada vacation, we headed down to Algemesi, close to Valencia, where our friends Katia and Vicente invited us for the fiesta de la Madre de la Salut (Mary mother of health).  This festival last year was declared an UNESCO World Heritage event and we got to experience it in from row seats, literally.  On the Friday night when we got there, Katia arranged for us to have seats in the street through which the processions were passing, and because the streets are so narrow, there is no place to stand for tourists, unless you know someone and have reserved seats along their houses.

Just as last year in their fiesta of the bulls (which starts two weeks after this fiesta) we were overwhelmed.  The procession started at the city square, main Cathedral and City Hall, where they start with muixerangas, which are pyramids built of humans, who are dressed in colorful costumes.  Blue ones are the traditional muixerangas, where previously only men participated (that is so Spanish!) and the green ones are relatively recent alternative muixerangas which developed as a movement to include both men and women.  In fact, the green ones are much more advanced as they push the limit of height and risk.  In one of the pyramids the next day they had the child on top of the pyramid grab onto a black scarf lowered from the 4th story of a building and the greens on the balcony pulled him all the way up.  You can only imagine the crowd at that moment, truly incredible!

So on Friday night we had our seats and experienced the procession with muixerangas and dances.  After a nice Spanish dinner we went to the procession at about 10pm and the procession went till about 1:30 in the morning.

The processions start with muixerangas teams walking through the streets and building different kinds of pyramids every block.  At times multiple pyramids are built simultaneously, and some have layers of multiple rings of people on top of one another while others are a single stack of people up to 7 or 8 high with no support other than the bottom.  Typically a child climbs to the top and when there he or she stands on one foot and with hands horizontally to the sides.  And sometimes in the process they fall.... Of the entire thing tumbles... In any which way, it is a spectacle to watch and see...

Then they have special dances where men and women dance with batonettes (which are wooden sticks) and brass cymbals, which they clang against one another in a very specific pattern to their traditional music.  The dance is very intense and quite hazardous if your face or arms get out of sequence, because you can get clanged right into your face.... In fact, many men feature blistered and bleeding hands after 3 days of processions... I am sure some refreshments keep the spirits and the flesh high for the duration of the processions.

Women do same dance, though not as violent, but still with enough force and attitude to command the respect of the spectators.  Their costumes are blue (men's are red) and the hats are adorned with colorful peacock feathers.

In the midst of the processing dances there are groups of children performing theater acts to raise money for their clubs, special traditional dances with tambourines, and the Valenciano artichoke dance, where kids dance around a pole with ribbons attached to the pole.

Of course, no fiesta in Valencia would be complete without valencianas, which are men and women dressed in traditional Valenciano costumes and dancing a traditional dance with castonettes.  Definitely one of my favorite dances, as it is so graceful and Spanish, and full of emotion and feeling that is so common to the Spanish south.

And then the procession features the most special dance of men dressed as medieval white soldiers holding very long tapered sticks.  It is a very primal looking dance, maybe resembling a mating call or some very intense and emotional struggle, where at one moment the long sticks get thrown very high into the air in a hope of catching them again.  Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.  I figured it is better not to look up when they do this, as a 2 meter stick falling onto you from 4 stories high cannot be a good thing.  But all of us were fine, standing in awe of this spectacle....

And then people processed with candles in their hands... Hundreds of people, mostly women, even thought in the recent years men started to join... People make promises, not unlike our New Year's resolutions, and march to demonstrate their commitment.  We tend to eat more turkey and have an extra glass of champagne.

And the grand finale was the Mary herself.  Ushered in by several white kings with humongous candles, cities' dignitaries, the Mary float, while not as large as some of the ones we saw in Seville during Easter processions, was still very impressive, being carried by about 20 men and women of the town.  Everything goes quiet and it creates an opportunity to make a promise, say a prayer or think about those who we value and who we care about. And then it was over.

The next day we were invited to another home with balcony views of the procession, where we saw the event from a different vantage point and in daylight.  I got to see the president of the Comunitat Valenciana, standing at the main entrance of the chapel where Mary stayed overnight.  With my massive photo equipment looking like paparazzi I had no trouble getting into the middle of the famous... So took advantage and snapped away...

After the procession we went to the Casino, which is a spectacular restaurant in an old city casino building.  Lunch lasted only about 3 hours and included about 5 courses, culminating in a dessert featuring but the Mary herself in chocolate and gold!  The girls and Cath and I had an extensive discussion on how to handle the dessert without being sacrilegious: should we start with the baby Jesus' arms, Mary's crown or go for her legs... In the end we worked around the vital parts and no saints were hurt during the lunch in Algemesi.

After lunch we were packed and drove to Cullera, Katia's beach home and spent Saturday afternoon and most of next day on the beach, with about 34 degrees, more Spanish food and fun...

With another wonderful and unforgettable experience under our belt, we returned back on Sunday with anticipation of the children starting school the next day.

Summer in Canada

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On July 10^th Cathy and the girls arrived in Victoria after a fabulous flight that only took 15 hours from Barcelona to Victoria, you cannot do it faster!  Grandma and Grandpa were waiting with open arms and bouquets of flowers for the girls.  The first order of events was to celebrate Grace’s 9^th birthday on July 13^th with a bowling party with our close friends.  It was lots of fun and wonderful for Grace to be with her Canadian friends for the special occasion.  In July we went to our cabin at Cowichan Lake every weekend and were able to have our dear friends Ale, Steve, Sebastian, Daniel and Matias up for a day.  A highlight for us was going to Chemanius Theatre with mom and dad to have lunch and see “Joseph’s Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat”.  It was a wonderful production and we are still singing the songs.  The rest of the month was filled with playdates, dinners with friends, visits to the park.

On July 30^th Anatolijus arrived and we had three great dinners that first week with friends and then went to Cowichan for the long weekend and had wonderful, hot weather.  The next week Anatolijus was able to play some golf, we met our good friend Duncan for coffee who had just arrived from New York and enjoyed a lovely evening with our friends Kathreen and Bill at our old favorite Canoe Club.  We were then off to Vancouver for our traditional sushi feast with the Jenkins and then we headed to Shuswap lake for our 2 week family vacation.  This year the weather was absolutely perfect so lots of time was spent boating, swimming and relaxing.  Anatolijus and Dad did a big job rebuilding the front steps and Susan and Dad painted the deck and stairs – everything was looking spiffy!  In addition to the fish fry with the Bassermans and Lyons we also had a visit from our friends Cathy and Paul Unger who are missionaries in the Solomon Islands but are spending a furlough year in Salmon Arm.  What are the chances that friends living is Spain and the Solomons could meet in Salmon Arm?  Very high apparently, they came with their 5 children on the hottest day so it was great to all be in the water.  Anatolijus and I also spent a night away down in Naramata wine touring, we met our friends Rob and Tara and had a great time!  On our way back to Victoria we stopped in at our friends Sharon and Dan in Abbotsford for lunch and a lovely visit and made it to the ferry in time to see a spectacular west coast sunset.

We then had only three days left before returning to Spain and wondering where all the time had gone.  We feel so blessed to be able to come home to BC to so many friends and family who we love and feel so connected to.  Now we will rely on emails and skype to stay in touch as we continue our adventure in Spain!