Friday Smiles 2022: Week 50

My week really starts last Friday just after I posted week 49, because while Chris stayed at home to watch the football, I walked over to our little theatre to watch the local choirs singing carols. There were five choirs there from Huércal-Overa, Almanzora, Vera, Garrucha and of course Los Gallardos. This is an annual event when each choir sings around three carols, and then they all come on stage to sing one together. (It is much better since the theatre opened and we have a proper stage). Each choir is given a plaque to commemorate their involvement. Here are the five choirs. Huércal- Overa was the largest and most professional group, while Almanzora was a very small group including two children. Our village choir are the ones in dark pink dresses with mint green accessories.

Spanish carols or villancicos as they are called here, are always sung with gusto and include clapping, shouts, tambourines,and 'Olés'. I don't think I have ever heard one sung gently! But that makes for a noisy and joyful concert which I enjoyed.

As I left the theatre the village Christmas lights had come on and this one shines at each entrance road to the village. It does, of course, translate as Happy Christmas.

Then as I passed the plaza I took a quick photo of the tree and snowman all lit up, that I described in last week's post.

On Saturday there were some very odd goings on in the village. We heard a lot of the annoying loud rockets going off that we use for fiestas, but we had not heard of any fiestas occuring around here this weekend. Later we heard music and singing and curiosity got the better of me, so I had to go over to the plaza where I thought it was coming from, to investigate. 

It turned out to be a celebration by our Equadorian neighbours. A large group of them live, mostly in one area, at the top of our village. They are friendly enough and we pass the time of day when we see them, but they mainly stick together and follow their own traditions. At weekends others arrive from surrounding villages and they have been given the use of the old football pitch in the rambla, to play games, dance, have barbeques and generally party together.

But Saturday was obviously a special day and from seeing their flag I knew it was the day of the Niño de Insinche. I knew nothing about this so I googled it, and this is a short version of what I learned. It has at some time been translated so the wording is a little odd. Copied and pasted from Google.

"In one of the provinces of the central area of the country, exactly in Cotopaxi, in the Pujilí canton, (This is in Equador), in the Isinche Grande Hacienda 3 kilometers from said canton, one of the most miraculous children is located, which moves the faith of many parishioners   

“It is said that at the beginning of the 18th century, a mule carrying a large bale of wool lay down and did not want to continue on its way. The muleteer removed the bundle from the animal and uncovered it. He was surprised when he found a carved wooden figure of the Child; That same night, the owner of the farm had a dream in which the image of Jesus appeared to him and told him that he wanted to remain in the place and to build a temple for him. This celebration lasts 3 days , on the first day (January 6) the Pase del Niño de Isinche takes place;  On the second day the mass is celebrated where the loas begin to be proclaimed by the kings and arches of flowers are set up where the image passes.

Finally comes the third day that is known as Homework Day. In this activity all the protagonists of the Child's Pass participate, the Mayordomo who is in charge of distributing the tasks to the foremen; When this task is concluded, they start distributing fruits, candies and bread.

There is a peculiar belief that with the passage of time the child grows and grows, a sample of this is all the clothes he has and that do not fit him. It is said that the child is very playful and mischievous because he loves to play in the middle of the countryside." 

So I am now a little wiser but not much! I guess this was all three days rolled into one and they were all having a great time. I know from previous Equadorian festivals, that their costumes can be a bit 'odd' and often quite ugly, and Saturday was no exception. I took some random photos and have made a collage to give you some idea of what it was like. There was singing and dancing on the plaza and it was all very noisy and chaotic, but they were loving it. We could still hear the music quite late at night, but everything was cleared away by morning.

On Sunday I went to church. It was a grey day and this was the view looking over the Cabreras which were shrouded in low cloud.

On Tuesday I had a day in the kitchen and made 6 and a half dozen mince pies. I am hoping I will be allowed to sell some of them at church to raise some much needed funds.

One morning I went outside the back door because I could hear the birds chattering and as I expected, they were mostly starlings. Of course many took flight as soon as I opened the door, but if you look closely at the trees, every tiny branch and twig has a bird perched on it. You wouldn't think the tree tops were strong enough to hold their body weight, but apparently they are.

On Wednesday my sewing group had their Christmas lunch. We went to a local hostel and they had it all set up so nicely for us. We had a beautiful meal with very good company, and everyone had a good time (Including our obligatory rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas which never quite comes out right!). Of course I forgot to take photos so these two were very last minute, when we had done justice to the food and most of the wine, and we had just been handed an after dinner mint, which most of us had not tasted for many years.

Several weeks ago I showed you some cute nativity buttons and you all liked them and wanted to see what I did with them. Well this is what I made. I actually made six of them, and as some travelled to UK I couldn't show them until I knew they had reached their destination and been opened. For scale, they measure about 8cm, (3") across the base.

I spent the last two afternoons video chatting with my son Ben and my sister Jean. It is always good to catch up with everyone now and then, and we always end up chatting for a couple of hours each time.

And finally I have a group of sky photos all taken on the same evening. We have had very high winds so the clouds are broken up making for lots of lovely colours in the sky. On this night it was very dramatic, and I did my best to catch that on camera. I can, of course see a face in at least one of these, but I will leave it up to you to spot if you want to.

So now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles. I am sorry this is a rather lengthy post. I had another little outing this evening (Thursday), but I am saving that for next week as I think I have rambled on for long enough for this time.