The fiesta of San Ramón

Everyone is in their Sunday best for the midday mass and the statue of San Ramón is carried around the village leading the procession just the same as it was on Saturday 18th when it all started, (see ¡FIESTA! Day two).

The main difference is that this afternoon in the Plaza Mayor, there is paella for the whole village.

Click left on any image for a larger view.

We are sitting at tables according to our peña underneath shade from very large nets strung across the entire square - I'm still wearing my hat though!

There are at least 400 people sitting down for this meal.

When the paella is ready everyone forms a couple of orderly queues - have you spotted Margaret yet?
Although bread and wine is included with the paella with a peach for postre, other drinks and postres are provided by the peña. At one table after the meal one chap has brought his guitar and a spontaneous sing-a-long takes place.

After the meal the main square is cleared and prepared for the obligatory disco which goes on into the early hours - I heard it at 3 am still going strong!

And then, that's it until next time, this fiesta has drawn to a close, the families will say farewell to their grandparents over the weekend and return to their homes in Barcelona and Zaragoza and the village will return to being a sleepy and tranquil pueblo and we can all enjoy some peace and quiet - thank goodness that's all over!

San Ramón's eve.

I'm not quite sure why we were having another meal at the peña, but it seemed like a good idea. In the pot this evening were cooked chickens, halved, and boned, rolled and cooked shanks of pork - all just had to be heated up. These were accompanied by salad , bread and olives.

Click left on the image for a larger view.

As this was not an "official" peña meal, in other words there were no other peñas for the youngsters to attend, they came and joined their parents at ours.

It was certainly a very meaty meal!

Here's some of the youngsters, and a couple of "not so" youngsters!

It's Cultural Week - day 2

The big decision was whether to have the concierto in the church or at the village swimming pool and bar. Finally, the committee made their choice of the swimming pool - the church would have been a better venue for this occasion. There was too much backgound noise from the bar during the performance not to mention the resident cricket chirping away and the children running around.

The performers were seated over by the hedge.

The group however, played magnificently with their repertoire ranging from Bach, Handel and Shostakovich in the first part with a selection of Spanish composers in the second.

It was very dark where the players were seated - they even had
battery powered lights to read their music by.

However, everyone seemed to enjoy the performance
and the bar staff were certainly kept very busy.

It's Cultural Week - day 1 evening

It's "cultural week" in the village this week and they have shown a couple of films which we haven't been to see but this evening was a "circus" - 3 acrobats - and this was held in the Plaza Mayor, the main square...

Click left on any image for a larger view

...a young woman with a very large pole that she climbed spider(wo)man style...

a young man with a very large wheel that he rolled around in...

and another young man with incredible football and juggling skills.

Very good entertainment - bring your own seats.

It's Cultural Week - day 1 morning

Today was the last day the ermita was due to be open showing the collection of religious art and statues.

Click left on the image to see it full size.

Rather than show a picture of each piece separately, here is a
collage - is this what heaven looks like?

Margaret scrutinized each piece and made detailed notes.

¡FIESTA! day four

As usual we made our way to the Plaza Mayor just after 21.00 for dancing to the group playing there. Tonight we also had the presentation of awards to the winning football team and the draw of the raffle organised by the women's group. Then, around 22.20 we all went back to our peñas for evening meal. This evening it was cold ham, sausages, cheese, bread with tomato followed by tiramasu.



Later that night, we were told it would be at 3:00, Carlos, Rosi and Pablo's son, would be playing his guitar in the Plaza. To support him, Miguel had drawn a poster and there were various other placards. The poster was a true work of art!

¡FIESTA! day three

The womens group have an exhibition of their work during the fiesta in the ayuntamiento, town hall, and Margaret was asked to display three of her pieces she had worked on this year.

This is a Thai carving bought in Epping many years ago that Margaret had painted. It was tastfully displayed above Lola's mother-in-laws crocheted bed cover.

Click left on any image to see it full size.

The second piece was a piece of blackwork which Margaret started over thirty years ago with almost one part of the leaf pattern completed. And so, earlier this year she was able to pick it up again and complete it making up the remainder of the pattern. It is supposed to be a cushion cover but it is so good we decided to have it framed.

In our bodega is a coat of arms of the family who lived here before. This gave us the idea to produce our own coat of arms and we bought the "blank" in a local craft shop. Together we worked out the design and Margaret painted it onto the the "blank". We were so pleased with it we had it framed.

Margaret explains some of the finer points of her blackwork to our friends.

Tonights meal being prepared - it's sausage, bacon and eggs, but not as we know it!

In go the eggs...

...and for postre, (pudding), this evening we have a
speciality from Chus.

It's 1:00 am so it's time for Pablo to set off more of his rocket bombs
just to make sure the fiesta goes off literally with a bang!

¡FIESTA! Day two

The main day of the fiesta and it is in several parts kicking off with mass in the church at midday to celebrate San Ramón. Everyone is in their Sunday best even though it's Saturday and the church is packed - standing room only.

San Ramón is carried through the streets of the village.

All the ladies are in their best outfits.

At the end of the service cake is distributed from the baskets by people in traditional dress.

At 18:00 a jota group put on a display of traditional dance...

...along with music and singing...

...it's not flamenco but they do have castanets. I'm even starting to recognise some of the tunes now - next I'll be humming along!

In the evening, a pop group in the Plaza Mayor until the very early hours.

Tonights meal at the peña ia prepared by Juan Carlos. It's ribs, caracols, (snails), asparagus, artichoke hearts and potatoes - a typical dish for a cold winter day!

As it seems to be "mens night" we all lend a hand.

Just time for a quick photo though.

¡FIESTA! Day one

To celebrate 700 years of this area being part of the domain of the church of Zaragoza one of the things going on is a display of sacred art which has already been shown at 4 of the local villages. The display in the ermita de San Juan coincides with the fiesta here in the village and a talk and PowerPoint presentation by the local expert was aranged to start at 5:00pm. Because the ermita has no electricity we provided it from our house via a long extension lead. The talk was very good and we even understood parts of it as you could see what the speaker was talking about as he indicated details with his laser pointer and even acted out various acts with copious gestures. We are going to revisit the display later this week with Lola who is going to give us detailed information about each statue and painting.


Straight after the talk we made our way to the cooperativa ground where each peña* (see "¡FIESTA! minus 1" for information on the peña) were cooking sausages (chorizos) to be served in bread. Although the photo looks rather like a scene from a disaster movie, it was all very organised.

There must have been at least 200 people eating their sausage rolls and drinking.

After everyone has eaten their fill, it's off to do a round of the peñas for a drink at each. The only catch is that on the way round the village to the various peñas, the villagers who have returned to their houses throw water on the passers by, some use buckets, others hosepipes. We experienced this last year and after a while everyone is soaking - if you aren't, one of your friends who is, runs up to you and gives you a big hug. What fun!

¡FIESTA! minus 1

Last Saturday we went to the peña* to cut back the grass which had grown during the last year and sweep out the table area where we eat. Others were doing some much more serious work of replacing part of the floor which no longer existed.

*A "peña" is the name given to a group or gang of people who meet to socialise. It is also the name of the place where they meet. Our meeting place for the main fiesta is a disused dwelling which looks about to fall down which is in the original medieval village. It is on 2 levels and the access from the road is to the top level which consists of one largish room with walls on 3 sides with a lot of armchairs and sofas mostly reclaimed from the rubbish tip or "El Corte Ingles" as the locals refer to it. Below, accessed via the "garden" from the "lounge", is the eating area. We each pay €60 to the peña fund for the period of the fiesta to cover the food and drink consumed.



This morning at 9:00 am, 12 of us set off in our cars to go to Sabeco, the supermarket in Alcañiz, to do the shopping for the meals held in / for the peña over the next few days. We ended up with several shopping trolleys full of drink and food and the bill came to over €900.




In the evening 26 of us had the first meal which was sepia - cuttlefish, one of my favourites - with black rice, the "ink" from squid makes it black. It was very filling! This was followed by cheese with membrillo (quince jelly)

The name of our peña is "catacroc" which is taken from a type of drinking activity where a generous vodka and tonic is poured into a glass, you cover the top of the glass with your palm, slam the glass hard onto the table, it doesn't break but makes the tonic fizz, then swallow it in one gulp. Needless to say, the meal ended with several rounds of catacrocs!

We left the throng just after 1:00 am - this is quite early as over the course of the next few days activities such as eating and dancing go on into the very early hours. On the shopping list yesterday were several packs of bacon and a few dozen eggs - this is for the time when breakfast is the next meal having spent the night enjoying the fiesta. Last year it felt like having travelled to a different time zone in the world - I'm sure it will be the same this year but at least we are more prepared in that we have a good idea of what to expect....

Another meal with the "mujeres" of Torre del Compte

Margaret has just returned from another meal with 69 women from the village - yes there's more of them now as many are here from the cities for their holidays or at least for the weekend.

The meal was in the "hall" next to the restaurant, (bring your own chair - Lola who lives quite close to the restaurant took a chair for Margaret). The "committee" were the waitresses and entertainment...

...but even they eventually got to eat...

...then got dressed up for the entertainment in true traditional style...

...and of course, Margaret and Lola had to have a go with the wigs!

And a very good time was had by all!

My birthday BBQ

26 people have just enjoyed a sumptuous meal in our bodega. It was so good because everyone brought a dish either to go with the meat from the BBQ or as a postre after the meal as the sweet course.

The meat was cooked to perfection by Manalo in the true Spanish style of build a wood fire and cook on the ashes - none of this charcoal business for him!

Meanwhile, while the meat was cooking several friends found shelter
under the "happiness tree".

At last we can enjoy the food!

Susana and Philip take a break to pose for the camera...

...while their 2½ year old son Alex looks on from the side.

Here we are with Floyd and Beatriz...

...and Margaret with more of our friends at just after 16:45.

As you can see from the plates everyone made a really special effort with their dish and this made it a very special occasion for all to enjoy. Can't wait for the next one!