Spain

Hi
Just returned from a fantastic weekend in Spain. Thought i would write this blog on some of the differences between Spain and the UK. (not just that it was 20 degrees and I got sun burn in February!).

Firstly they are suffering with the economic downturn in fact it is often reported they are suffering more but they don't seem to let it effect their daily life and things that are important. Firstly they call it "la crisis" that has a much better ring than credit crunch!

Secondly, families and celebrating everything still remains. In the small town we visit they celebrated Christmas, then three kings. Whilst we were out there it was a gastronomic festival, this meant all the families coming out, joining up with friends in the main square and having a paella cook-off. It actually seemed to be more about friendship and fellowship than the cooking, lots of people around big pans sharing food, drink and laughter then the whole town sitting down at big tables eating and drinking and the compulsory display of fireworks. This is the same every year.

They have a celebration called falles, they celebrate Easter, they celebrate moors and Christians, they celebrate a trade fair, each little part of the town also has a celebration and invites everyone else to it. They have street parties for weddings, funerals, christenings etc. At election time each political party organises a fiesta and it was explained to us that it is no coincidence the one who organises the best event often gets elected. If for some strange reason nothing is going on in your village or town one weekend its not an issue just travel to the next town they will surely be celebrating something.

Every thing involves the whole family you will see young children out dancing in the streets to the small hours of the morning. Everyone looks forward to dressing up and taking part. No age group misses out and they want to be part of the tradition.

It made me think, this is a big industry in Spain, people are employed to clean up afterwards, companies hire tables and chairs, shops hire costumes plus the knock on to the food and drink industries. Rather than us ploughing money into things that none of us see the benefit of why not put money into every town having several street parties a year. At least we would all see the benefit, everyone would hopefully have fun and fellowship, other industries and work would grow out of it. Looking at some of the people on Saturday the worse thing that might happen is people would forget their troubles with the amount drink consumed -but that's another issue altogether!