THE DAY OF KINGS

Juhuuu... The most happiest day for all the kids in Spain is here. The day of kings - the day of new year presents. The parade of kings is in the evening of 5th of January in every city and town of Spain. It is very beatifull and splendid. The main characters are kings and the star, surrounded by other ones and animals as well. As the music bands are also participating, the atmosphere is really joyfull. Assistants of the kings are throwing small caramels in the public, and as kids come already prepeared (with small plastic bags), they can collect the sweet candies for the rest of a year.
The next morning everybody is jumping out of beds in order to get their new years presents. Usually all family and also some friends come together for a celebration. The opening presents is a very joyfull and full of expectations moment, mainly for children. It is followed by a lunch and a special big pretzel.



There are a small kings figure and a bean inside and a small tail written on additional card, whish tells the story. Everybody gets his piece, the person who gets a bean, pays the cake and a person who gets the figure, gets a crone and is a king in celebration day. Usually this day is full of joy, fun and love as families come together to celebrate this special event. This year I was the happy one who got the piece, where was a figure inside and with this a magic crone.

HUMAN TOWER

The roots of one of the most impressive Catalan traditions called Castell (in original language) are found in the end of 18th century. The main concept is - people are making tower standing one on each shoulders, the highest one is 10 people level. There are many technologies of making human towers and some of them are really complicate. The passion and perseverance of people making human towers gives huge energy to the event itself. As in complicate versions towers sometimes use to collapse, it causes pain feeling for participants, but it does not stop them to try again and again. I would say that this is a tradition which goes from one generation to another also in a meaning of family as in one team can be found both grandfather and grandson. The last person is always a child, usually 5 up to 7 years old. When he climbs up and makes a specific cross as a sign that tower is done, the demounting starts. The process demands a lot of concentration and physical effort from people participating.
Every team has a couch which consultes participants all time long making a tower and makes all decissions about mounting process, in some cases the tower can be demounted middle done if there are some errors already in a beginning. The event of building towers usually happens in a way of competition, teams from towns come together to one town (every time different). To have sucess people are excersising all year even if the season is mainly in summer and autumn time. It is a lot of fun as well and great feeling of unity.

SITGES

The arrival to live in Catalunya August 2009 involves me in a huge adventure of completely different and new life. Here I meet one of the most richest cultures I have ever seen and really a lot of traditions done all year long, which makes people to have plenty of fun and joy, and to feel and strength the roots of their nation.

We settle down in an amazing sea town called Sitges, which is cultural oasis and really inspiring place. Being so close to Mediterranean sea on a daily basis allows me to discover a lot of new about the sea and its character as well. The town is really authentic in spite of so many foreigners living here.


There are plenty of cosy restaurants, cafes and nice art galleries in the narrow streets of downtown. The arhitecture heritage of Sitges attracts a lot of my attention and makes me inspired, as well as the spirit of being old fishermen town a long time ago. All year long, except winter time, a lot of events and festivals hold a place here. The life is being celebrated here, with a lot of divercity and creativity. One of the hugest and most popular celebration is Carnival at begining of February. It is always something new to see and expirence here.