¡Carnaval!

"Carnival, that explosion of color, music and celebration which takes place just before Lent..." has been one of the craziest weekends here by far.Carnaval is a week-long tradition here in Spain. We learned about the history of it in my Basque Culture class. Some of its origins are traced back to the pagan festivals which were held by the Romans to celebrate the end of the harsh winter and welcome in the Spring, but now the celebrations have been incorporated into the calendar of the Catholic Church as a festivity before Lent begins, so generally the celebrations take place in the week before Ash Wednesday. We were also told that the Carnaval celebrations in Spain were prohibited during the forty years of the Franco era (Francisco Franco was the head of the Spanish dictatorship for over 35 years) and were not restored until after the General’s death in 1975. Just in case anyone was wondering! ;)

Last Thursday the celebrations began. Unfortunately, as a close-minded American, I did not know Thursday and Friday were not the nights to dress up. My friends and I went out Thursday night in full costume: Kate and I were a Cowgirl and Indian and Kelly and Nina were an Angel and Devil. We met up with our other friends Michelle and Lizzie who dressed up like cats and we made our way to an Erasmus Party, these parties for international students all over Spain. There were not as many costumes as we expected, but I did find some fellow Indians and got a picture! We did some dancing and mingling, Lizzie lost her camera at one point so I really need to be careful with my things when I go out.... And Night #1 of Carnaval came to an end.

During the day on Friday a group of us went into Casco Viejo to eat some pintxos (tiny sandwiches that are in all the bars around here) and came across a small carnaval celebration with some rides and food stands. A few of us got giant cotton candy on a stick and some churros. So delicious. Friday night was a bit more interesting… Kate and I switched costumes with Nina and Kelly so now I was the angel (obviously). We had planned to go to another Erasmus Party called the “French Kiss” party (I think it had that name because of Valentine’s Day…) but somehow we got the location wrong. We showed up at a club that was closed and found out the actual location was all the way on the other side of the city. Instead of going back to find the other party my friends and I waited around to go into the club we showed up at originally. Bad idea. After opening at midnight my friends and I were there with a total of ten other people. I’m all for non-crowded hang outs… but dancing around in an empty club is just awkward. And the others weren’t dressed up! So another night of useless costumes came to an end.

Saturday finally rolled around… And my friends and I had plans to go to the city parade later that day. Kate had other plans though. She joined a conversation exchange group called “Tandem” where she gets assigned a Spanish buddy. She was put with a younger girl named Olga who also attends the University of Deusto. They only really got to exchange contact info, but when the weekend rolled around Olga invited Kate to come out to her town and celebrate Carnaval with her and her friends! Definitely out of any of our comfort zones, but she agreed and headed out around the same time we went to the parade. The parade was really fun and interesting. Unfortunately it was sleeting and so cold I couldn’t feel my feet, but there were all kinds of fun floats and traditional dancers. Groups of costumes like PacMan or Zombies who danced to “Thriller” would walk by and throw candy to the little kids and everyone was dressed up for this event (but not us... of course). A lot of the floats were very strange and we couldn’t always decipher them since the announcer was speaking Euskarra. One had a vagina on a throne, and another was depicting what I think was a brothel, and another was poking fun at the Armed Forces so instead of it saying “Fuerzas Armadas” it said “Fuerzas Mamadas” which Santi explained meant, “Strong Blowjobs” uh…. They had floats to poke fun at places they didn’t like too. Spain, France, United States for examples. But we had the ideal spot at the parade because we were at the very end, where each group performed and the judges would tally up to choose the winners for the best costumes, dancers, musicians and singing groups. We liked the Bolivian Dancers, traditional drummers, and Thriller performance the best.

Since we had seen so many ridiculous costumes at parade earlier… Star Wars and Viking families, a group of ducks, a guy dressed as a fat cheerleader, Avatar, a girl actually wheeling an entire bed around with her… We knew we wouldn’t stick out like sore thumbs this night! But we were out of costumes… We could have repeated like Kelly and her cowgirl costume, but Nina and I went and bought masquerade masks and boas last minute. We headed to Casco Viejo where we heard a lot of the action was taking place and found tons of other people. The streets and metros were packed with costumes. I took a picture with a cow for Libby, there were a group of Tetris blocks, a mariachi band, a pregnant man, butterflies, clowns, and painters, anything you can think of. We came across an outdoor concert too, but we had no idea who was playing so we all headed to a club we were pretty familiar with called DaVinci. Once again the place was too packed to move, so I opted to head home with a few friends, but Saturday was the most fun of all the nights by far.

Kate made it back in one piece the next day. She actually had a lot of fun, but said she had to speak Spanish almost the entire time! She said Olga and her friends hand-made their clown costumes and it was awkward at first, but they all ended up getting along really well. What an experience… I don’t know if I could do something like that…

It’s only Monday, but I think I am done with my Carnaval experience. It really ends with the Entierro de la Sardina (the Burial of the Sardine) on Ash Wednesday, which signals the end of Carnaval all over Spain. A gigantic fake sardine is paraded through the streets, usually followed by a funeral procession of mourners dressed up as priests or nuns. I don't think my friends and I will be going to this, mainly because we don't know where it is... But it just goes to show there are still some pretty weird traditions around here.