The Museum of Engraving, located in Marbella’s historic city centre, has opened registration for the workshop ‘Drypoint on acetate and methacrylate’ to be conducted next Saturday, March 20th, from 10.30. The Marbella Town Hall announced it in a recent press statement.

Organised through the municipal delegation of Culture and Higher Education, this activity is targeted to all interested in acquiring new skills, fun and artistic knowledge. It is also mentioned that families with children from 3 years old (children under 7 years must be accompanied by an adult).

Professional artist Ana Ortiz Alonso, who holds a Fine Arts Degree specializing in sculpture from the University of Granada in 2002 will taught the basics of various art forms. Today his works spans several branches of art, including painting, drawing, pottery, art and prints, besides his interest in various artistic techniques like chalcographic techniques.

All participants will perform their own works and may take them home. The workshop also supports and promotes works using acetate and methacrylate through the technique of drypoint.

Key information

To facilitate the management of this project, interested persons must complete an application form and pay a fee of 8 € per person. This should be addressed to the headquarters of the Museum of Contemporary Spanish Engravings until Friday March 19 at 14.00.

For more information please contact in the telephone number: 952 76 57 41 or e-mail at mjmontanes@mgec.es

You may well see all over Andalucía new streets and urbanisations called 28 Febrero. This is the “Dia of Andalucía” and is a holiday all over Andalucia. The history of Andaluz autonomy dates back to the beginning of the last century. In 1918 Blas Infante, the founder of modern Andalucían nationalism, drew up a charter for Andalucía and the current flag and coat of arms were adopted.

In 1936 Blas Infante wrote a separate statute of autonomy for Andalucía and it was approved by parliament in June of that year. However the civil war intervened and Infante was assassinated in August. Incidentally, Blas Infante was a local lad from Casares near Manilva and his home there is now a museum.

Andalucía was not recognised as an autonomous region in the new post Franco constitution of 1978 but there was a referendum vote on the 28th of February 1980 which achieved the overwhelming majority needed for an autonomous government- but the Andaluces still had to wait two more years for their autonomy to be ratified. The statute was again reformed in May of this year.

Spain actually has seventeen autonomous regions. They each have their own parliament, president, government, administration and Supreme Court. Obviously, they all have their own flag and capital city, Andalucia’s flag is known as the “Bandera Blanca y Verde” and is the basic subject of the Andaluz anthem (Himno de Andalucía).

Seville is the Capital City and a very beautiful one too! Regional parliament elections are held in Andalucía every four years and the current president, Manuel Chaves is from the socialist PSOE party. He enjoys a very high level of support from the Andaluz public.

Andalucía has 8 provinces (Cadiz, Almeria, Málaga, Huelva, Seville, Jaén, Granada and Córdoba). These provinces have responsibilities in all areas including health and education. However there is a centralised curriculum for all schools and the SAS (Servicio Andaluz de Salud) is also centrally organised as well to make best use of resources. Incidentally, the SAS is a fantastic health service and has a higher ranking in the league tables than the UK!

As an autonomous region of Spain Andalucía is of great importance. Over 22 million tourists arrive each year and contribute greatly to the national coffers. An ever growing population due to immigration from the more Northern EU states means that the traditional problem of population loss is being reversed and the working population is expanding too. Finally, the Andaluz lifestyle is one of the healthiest in Spain with women expected to live to 82 and men to 75.

So what happens on the Dia de Andalucia? The children at primary school spend several days preparing flags and learning the anthem, perhaps even preparing a play. The last day of school before the holiday they may well have a national breakfast of hot chocolate and a tostado (well as close to Andaluz as there is) and spend the morning playing friendly matches of all sorts of games and singing the anthem. A fun day!

Inevitably, Town Halls all over Andalucia also celebrate with official acts and presentations. This is the day when many towns name their “hijos predilecto”, people who have performed services for the area. Celebrations also occur in Seville and Manuel Chaves, the President makes an address.

Children in Spain are, without doubt, some of the most indulged in the world when it comes to Christmas! Tradition dictates that presents are given when the Three Kings arrive from the East–the evening of the 5th of January, but with the effect of globalisation some Spanish children have realised that Father Christmas can be persuaded to visit on December 24th as well! Thus their poor long suffering parents have to cough up for a selection of gifts twice. However, not all parents give in and the Three Kings still reign in the majority of households.

Spanish Christmas celebrations are rather different from those of the UK. Noche Buena (Christmas eve) is a big family celebration with a huge meal (prawns definitely compulsory). The kids then go out to a disco or party but Christmas Day itself is a fairly low key rest day. Noche Vieja (New Years Eve) is another big do with family meals, the 12 grapes at midnight, and then the party or disco. But the eve of the Three Kings (Reyes Magos ) is the big night.

The kings themselves Baltasar, Melchor and Gaspar, arrive in villages and towns all over Spain around mid evening. They arrive on highly decorated floats and travel through the streets throwing out great handfuls of sweets to the waiting children (Cabalgata de Reyes). Some well organised children arrive for the parade with several plastic bags and go home with them full! The three Kings parade is normally accompanied by one or more Marching or Town bands.

It’s a big family occasion and after the parade all will go home to put out the refreshment for the Kings and the camels, as we do for Santa and the reindeers. The children also put their shoes outside their bedroom door to indicate where they are. Then the long wait for the next morning to see if they have been good enough to get the items on their Three Kings “wish list” which is normally written at school earlier in December. If you haven’t been good you get a piece of coal instead! Presents should be put in the shoes but they tend to be too big and far too numerous!

Well, that’s the theory, but nowadays, I suspect, the majority of presents are opened as soon as the children return from the parade. On the day of the 6th the streets are often very quiet initially and then fill up with children on new bikes, anxious parents alongside, children on skates and skateboards, boys on mini motorbikes and quads, little girls pushing dolly prams and mothers smelling of the inevitable new perfume-the almost obligatory present for Spanish Mums!

The advertising pressure on Spanish families is intensive at this time of year. Not only do the ads start in November, as in England, but they continue right up to about 9 o’clock on the evening of the Three Kings. By the time you have seen 7 million dolly ads and 8 million perfume ads it’s amazing that anyone wants to buy anything!

Later on in the day families will eat the traditional Roscoe de Reyes, a sort of big candied fruit and cream filled doughnut, and the next day the kids are back at school, having only had one day to play with their new toys. Poor things!

Throughout history Spaniards have been a people of great faith and pride. For most countries, the days (and significance) of Holy Week has been whittled down to one day, Easter. However, in Spain this week has an entirely different essence and importance here in Spain, known as Semana Santa. It is celebrated throughout the country with great intensity. Semana Santa is the one time of the year when the Spanish love of colour, joy and noisy celebration is tempered with a touch of solemnity.

The Semana Santa festivities are a national celebration of passion and life, most towns and cities mark them with a week long festival of solemn religious acts and huge colourful processions to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lavish floats with life size statues of Jesus and Mary take to the incense filled streets accompanied by eerily dressed penitents and marching bands playing haunting melodies.

The solemn processions are followed by enthusiastic outpourings of joy and it is impossible not to be affected by it. Crowds anxiously await on the streets to catch a glimpse of these candlelit and flower covered floats carried upon the shoulders of men walking in synch side by side for as many as 5 hours. Nowhere is the grandiosity and the religious spirit of Semana Santa more perfectly captured than in Andalucia.

This time of year is deeply rooted in Spanish culture and is celebrated throughout Spain with great enthusiasm and pride. However, Andalucia and particularly Seville and Malaga have the most spectacular Semana Santa processions as well as the most attended. People come from all over the world to witness this marvel. Smaller pueblos such as Ronda (in Malaga) also have beautiful processions that are more intimate and just as impressive. The smaller scale of the town makes it much more accessible to visitors to be a part of the daily processions and to feel the unique significance of these events. Further North in such places as Barcelona, Semana Santa is celebrated with less religious fervour and may only have processions on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

To truly feel the essence of Holy Week, Andalucia is the place to be, a once in a life time experience.

The history of the present day traditions of Semana Santa originate from the medieval ‘Reconquista’ (re-conquest) of Southern Spain of the Moors by the Christian kings of the north. Hermandades (brotherhoods) were formed during the re-conquest to rescue injured soldiers from the battlefields and to bury the dead. The hermandades were first organised according to medieval membership of a professional guild and, by the 16th century, the tradition of processions to symbolise the journey of Christ to Calvary was firmly established.

Palm Sunday begins the traditional eight day celebration in honour of Christ’s Passion, each day progressing to a climax of grief and emerging to a triumphant end of joy on Easter. The most intense and meaningful days take place on the madrugada (midnight) of Maundy Thursday to Good Friday. In Seville and Malaga, approximately 50 processions pass through the streets during this week.

It is quite a sight to behold as the huge floats (tronos or pasos) carrying statues of Jesus and Virgin Mary leave the church carried on the shoulders of men walking rhythmically in synch to the haunting drum beats of the marching band. The float of Jesus always goes first with the Virgin Mary following close behind on a second float. Each day the elaborate floats with Jesus and Virgin Mary are taken out from a different church, each one depicting a specific scene from the passion.

The floats leave the church and slowly make their way through the crowded streets of devotees to the main town cathedral (tribuna) and then gracefully turn around and makes its way back to the parish church. The round trip journey of each procession ranges from 5 hours to 12 hours. The structure of the floats also adds to the intrigue and majesty of the event, they are truly immense in size and the weight of each is tremendous.

In Seville, typically you will see the largest and most elaborate floats of all the Semana Santa processions in Spain. These floats sit on a structure of large pillars which are visible to the public as are the shoulder bearers called Orguillelo (those carrying the Christ float) and the men carrying the Virgin Mary are called the Quadrillo. The largest of the floats require as many as 200 men to carry them. Imagine the difficulty of manoeuvring this through the streets, turning corners, stopping and starting again alongside 200 others who are literally side by side and front to back for hours at a time, wow!

The smaller floats are (a mere) 1,000 – 2,000 kilos and are carried by some 30-40 men. The smaller floats usually cover the underneath structure of the float with a long skirt of drapery under which the shoulder-bearers carry the float, unable to see the road ahead. These are called Costaleros. This group is led by one person in front and two behind which call out directions to the Costaleros.

When the procession starts each individual person is bearing the weight of 35-40 kilos, however after 4-5 hours walking on cobble stone streets (some participants choosing to do this journey barefoot), the weight increases to 50-55 kilos per person as exhaustion sets in. There are always extra people on standby to enter as people drop out to rest.

You may ask why men choose to do this year after year, the pain and suffering is clear and often misunderstood. Each person has their own reason to participate but in general, it is a way for the individual to get in touch again with their own spirituality and God. Aside from being a meaningful religious act, in Spain it is considered a great honour to participate in the Holy Week processions, a highly revered Spanish tradition.

The men carrying the floats belong to particular brotherhoods. It is the brotherhoods (Cofradias/Hermandad) that give Semana Santa celebrations their unique appeal. Each church parish has its own brotherhood. People usually join the brotherhood of their neighbourhood church or the membership is passed down from generation to generation, father to son. Thus, as a member you may choose to participate as a shoulder-bearer in the procession.

The Brotherhoods are responsible for organising the processions which include the floats and shoulder bearers. Also participating and adding a different sense of mystery and intensity to this event are the hooded penitents (also members of the brotherhoods) walking alongside the floats, called nazarenos or penitents. They wear full length robes in rich colours of royal blue and purple and pointed hats with veils which completely cover their face. The purpose of the veil is to provide privacy and anonymity to the penitent (can be men, women and children). These individuals have made special requests of God and wish to demonstrate to him through their participation their deep belief and need.

Women are also part of these brotherhoods, through the association of family (parents, husbands, etc). It is the women who care for and attend to the statues of Jesus and Virgin Mary in the Church throughout the year. They also have the responsibility of preparing and decorating the floats to take to the streets during Holy Week. For the obvious reason of the sheer weight of the floats, women traditionally have not been able to carry these huge floats. However, nowadays certain villages have made smaller floats to accommodate the women’s desire to participate in this meaningful ritual as the men do.

Imagine the dramatic scene of the beautifully adorned statue of the Virgin Mary lit with hundreds of candles leaving through huge wooden doors of the centuries old church, the silence of the crowd as they await her entrance into the street and the penitents in their forbidding robes and hats……. then, suddenly, the air is split by a human voice, singing a plaintive lament. This is a saeta, a tragic song commiserating with the suffering of the Virgin, a highly important traditional element in Spain’s Holy Week. With only a terse snare drum tapping time, the song is slow and mournful to begin with and then builds to a powerful climax. Not just anyone can sing at the processions, it is a prestigious honour bestowed upon singers proving their ability. True to the spirit of flamenco music, saetas must be improvised on the spot, and must not be supported by any musical instrument other than a drum. Often you will see (or only just hear) the saetas sung from a balcony of a house or church overlooking the procession.

Traditionally, the presence and participation of the Spanish gypsies in Andalucia during Semana Santa is in full force. This is a very significant and meaningful time for the gypsies. You will often hear them calling out “guapa!” to the float of Virgin Mary as they go up and touch the float, showing their devotion. They are famous for the intensity of emotion which they generate by their demonstration of devotion.

Whatever you do, wherever you are, make sure you don’t miss out on the spectacle and the religious passion of the processions. Each town and city has its own interpretation of what Semana Santa means, and each one is certain to be unforgettable.

The average Spaniard spends far more time in cafes and bars during the week than their counterparts in the UK. It’s not just because the coffee and the food and drinks are cheaper and definitely nicer, but also because it’s altogether a friendlier home from home experience.

It’s no big deal going out for a coffee or coke at your local bar it’s just like popping into the neighbours or another family member’s house. Friendship and warmth are guaranteed and if you want to sit in a corner nursing one solitary drink you will be treated with respect and certainly not moved on! Oh dear where does England go wrong?

Spanish men start off in the cafes before breakfast, at about half past seven if they are manual workers and a bit later if they are white collar workers. There’s just time for a coffee and a chat before heading off to work. And Spain being Spain, this is often accompanied by the odd cigarette or two! (Remember bars only have to have a no-smoking area if they have over 100 square metres of floor and this rules out most local top-of-the-road type bars).

Breakfast in Spain on a working day is at ten o’clock on the dot. In every city, town and village you can see hordes of people leaving the workplace and heading for their favourite bar. This time its coffee and a tostado, the latter often served with olive oil, tomatoes and garlic or with zurrapa (red or white lard with bits of meat in it-quite tasty actually). Bars are very busy until 10.30, so service can be a bit slow for the tourists! Not that you will be unwelcome you just have to bide your time.

At lunchtime, from two o’clock onwards, bars are very busy again. If home is nearby people will go home but the delicious and very cheap “menu del dia “attracts a lot of workers, especially construction workers who need feeding up. Tables will be preset and each group of guys from one site or another has their own table. Hands are washed first but working clothes are acceptable! Before the return to work in the afternoon bars are again full of the noise of the expresso machines as people top up on their caffeine to last them until early evening.

Work over, everyone hits the bars again with their workmates to have another coffee, or this time, a beer and a tapas. The noise level is phenomenal as people relax and look forward to the evening ahead and go over the day’s activity. Yet again, after supper lots of men wander up to their local café for yet another coffee or beer. Have you got the idea yet? The cafes are a major social institution!

Well what about the non working part of society? Where do they fit in? Old men are the backbone of café society; they head up to a favourite bar often before breakfast and quite often can be seen still sitting in the same seat at 8 o’clock at night. Not drinking very much you understand but chatting with friends ,playing dominoes or cards and watching the world go by. It’s a much livelier alternative to the OAP day centre! No-one disturbs them and often not a word will be said by a group of old men for hours –they have said it all.

Young mothers too, are regulars in cafes and bars, meeting with groups of friends when the children are at school. Older retired ladies are not often seen in bars but certainly don’t miss out on the frequent family Sunday lunches at local restaurants or during ferias and fiestas!
It’s a home from home-get familiar with your local bar!