The Crosses of May....La Fiesta de las Cruces de Mayo

 A colourful Springtime Festival    

Seville 1915

                                  
 The May Crosses Festival  is probably one of the most interesting festivals, not only today, but in historical terms. As legend has it, St Constantine's mother, the much-venerated St Helen, is the founder of this festival, which shows special respect for the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.
As the story goes, in the fourth century AD, St Helen went to Jerusalem in search of the cross, after her son Constantine dreamed of a cross that would help him win a battle he was losing at the time. He ordered his troops to build him a large cross, which they then carried into battle and conquered their enemy. This inspired a family conversion to Christianity and a search for the real cross, led by St Helen. She found three crosses, and to establish which one was authentic, she carried out tests to see which could perform miracles. Only one of them did, healing the sick and even bringing the dead back to life. St Helen then became a champion for the cross, urging people to continue worshiping even after her death.
And so this veneration of the cross is the motive for the May Crosses Festivals that are celebrated in so many countries.

 It´s not clear  how this festival, traditionally celebrated on 3rd May, originated in Spain, but clearly the Pagan May Day celebrations must have had some influence as that was also a festival of flowers in May.  The festivities in May certainly date back to Roman times. 

  In Andalusia you can find crosses in all of the provinces, especially in Almeria, Granada and Cordoba but this tradition spreads across all of Spain and even in some South American countries too.

 In Malaga and in Almeria the crosses are located in places around the city centre. In some larger towns there can be over 40 different ones to see. They are easy to locate as there are always people around them.
In Cádiz the crosses are celebrated with evening verbenas and often patios are decorated in flowers also in nearby El Puerto de Santa María across the water. The Cruz de Mayo of San Pedro in Huelva is notable but there are others in Huelva province such as Rociana del Condado or in Bonares. 
In Seville the festival is celebrated and in nearby Ecija where the children carry crosses along in processions.

In Cordoba,  the Crosses of May celebration is combined with the 'Cordoba Patios' competition. Usually 25 crosses take part and over 50 patios are decorated with ceramic painted plant pots and brightly coloured geraniums and spring flowers. In 2012 the festival runs from 2nd to 13th of May.

A Cordoba Patio

A Cross in Cordoba

 The crosses are usually quite big and are decorated with red or white carnations or a perhaps a mixture of flowers. They also include local ceramics, embroidered shawls, shiny copper pots, candles and anything representing the local traditions, they all adorn the area around the cross to provide an eye catching display.

You will notice that they normally include at the bottom of the display an apple with scissors sticking out of it. This is so that no one can say, it´s really nice but they could have….. The explanation behind this is that the apple is also known as ´pero´ in Granada slang which means 'but' in Spanish.  The scissors are cutting the buts out, there are no buts so people can't criticise the display.

 

 In Granada there is a real following for this festival, it used to be a local holiday until a few years ago. Last year the city had 64 crosses set up around the different squares and patios. There are also events happening for a few days before and after the 3rd of May. A competition is run by the town hall for the best cross display. There are also decorated balconies that are awarded prizes too. There are often culinary activities and of course there is dancing and singing too. The Albaicin and Realejo are both good areas to see the crosses.
Sometimes you see children dressed in typical Andalusian dress with a cross. Boys wear striped trousers, braces and a cummerband and a Cordobes hat, girls wear flamenco  dresses with flowers in their hair. They ask for money (like penny for the guy in UK on bonfire night) they say Give me a Chavico for the cross, the chavico is an old name for a small coin at the beginning of the 1900’s.

 
 In Granada city there used to be a temporary bar set up near to the Cross by each group of neighbours but a few years ago this was regulated by the authorities and drinking on the street isnt allowed now during the week of the crosses festival. There is still a busy atmosphere around the city with people having tapas and beers while walking around to see the crosses displayed around the city. Below is a video of typical dancing and singing from last years event outside the town hall.

Crosses of May Celebrations

 Other places to check out the crosses in Granada are  Armilla which is  just outside the city to the south, Baza, Almuñécar and Motril. 
In Motril which is a sea port, the festivities coincide with the Feria Chica (Little fair) and are declared of National Touristic interest.  The local band was playing in Motril centre on Friday afternoon.  Sadly today, Sunday, the sky is grey and it has been raining all day so celebrations have been washed out for this year but then, we really did need this rain.

Motril 2011

Motril 2011

 In Pinos de Valle in the Valley of Lecrin,  they celebrate a week of fiesta for the Crosses of May, they are dedicated to Santo Cristo del Zapato,  Christ Saint of the Shoe.
 The celebrations include activities for children, firework displays, bike rides and chocolate with churros. Then there is dancing in the evenings in the village square, great if you like to dance tango or the Paso doble.  On main festival day they make a huge Paella for all the neighbours probably over 1200 people and everyone has lunch together outside.

 There are processions around the village with a marching band and majorettes. Cars and tractors pulling carriages decorated with crosses and flowers make up part of the procession. The women wear  flamenco  dresses and it´s a colourful display to see, welcoming the Spanish Springtime.
Often there are firework displays to end the weeks festivities but in the daytime, to accompany the processions, there are often bangers or rockets to make sure you know that there is something going on.

Poor Man's Potatoes........

Patatas a lo Pobre     

 One of the best things about eating in Spain is the very many ways in which Spanish chefs prepare the humble potato and they taste great!

Here's a recipe for Patatas a lo Pobre (poor man's potatoes) - a tapas portion for 6 people. 

An Andalucian favourite.

Approx. Preparation Time: 

About 45 minutes

List of Ingredients: 

6 medium sized firm potatoes, peeled and sliced

2 green peppers, deseeded and sliced

10 tablespoons of olive oil for frying

2 large onions, sliced into rings

3 cloves of garlic, minced (optional)

A little finely chopped Parsley (optional)

Salt to taste

Preparation Instructions: 

In a heavy skillet,  heat 2 tablespoons of oil and fry the onions for 10 minutes, sitrring occasionally, until they are golden.    

Then add the green peppers and fry until soft. 

Add the remaining oil, allow to heat, then add the potatoes and cook for a further 15-20 minutes, until they are tender. 

Add the garlic and parsley and cook a few minutes more.

Season with salt and drain off any excess oil.

Enjoy!

Calçots Sweeten Winter Gastronomy......

“500 organic calçots were pulled from the ground today in Tarragona and have been picked up by the messenger service. The butifarras are taking the AVE from Madrid to Malaga, and will arrive on Friday. The arroz con leche will be driven down from Madrid and assembled in Malaga...” 

 The email read like the official itinerary of a royal visit. Its recipients, however, were not a bunch of photo-crazed paparazzi, but rather a gaggle of hungry gastronomes, eager for their annual taste of the Catalán delicacies that to many might as well be referred to as the Kings of scallions: calçots.

Collected from November to April, the most famous calçots are from the area of Tarragona known as Valls, which was designated with the Indication of Geographic Protection, IGP Calçot de Valls, in 1996.

 Essentially, calçots are white onion shoots that are pulled up, replanted in another area, and grown partially covered with dirt so as to leave the longer portion of the stems white and edible. Although these delicacies are enjoyed primarily in Cataluña, often at typical large gatherings of family and friends known as calçotadas, over the years their popularity as a unique gastronomic and cultural treasure has led people all over Spain to repeat this enviable tradition.

Calçots are roasted and turned over an open, wood fire, wrapped in newspaper (to help remove their charred outer layers), dipped in homemade salvitxada or Romesco sauce, and then devoured as quickly as possible with blackened fingers.

While the roasting method of the calçots is important,  it is the preparation of this pinkish-orange sauce that often distinguishes one calçotada from another.
Every family has their closely guarded secret recipe for this incredible concoction and it's impossible to get them to reveal it.

 In general, Romesco sauce consists of toasted almonds and hazelnuts, roasted tomatoes and garlic, olive oil, vinegar, parsley, salt and small nyora red peppers – all blended together with a mortar and pestle. The salvitxada differs from Romesco sauce in that it is thickened with toast that’s been rubbed with roasted garlic and dipped in vinegar.

Following the rapid and rabid consumption of these delicate and characteristically sweet onions, which are usually eaten standing up having covered ones clothing with a giant bib, the open fire is then used to grill other typical foods like white and black butifarra sausages, morcilla and lamb.

The whole process constitutes a gastronomic ritual in the true Spanish sense.
 Groups of family and friends come together with the excuse of preparing and eating a truly unique regional specialty, which is often available for only a few months of the year.
The planning is intense, the preparation exacting and accompanied by bottomless glasses of delicious red wine, the company unbeatable, with the food tasting all the better for it.

Perhaps this is what the nineteenth-century Catalán farmer, who is attributed with the discovery of calçots, had in mind.   On second thoughts, it surely was.

Salobreña & Its Camper Vans.........

The Town Council is going to approve new municipal regulations before the arrival of the summer, concerning the presence of camper vans in the town. But it doesn’t mean that they want to get rid of them, but rather find an official parking area for them.

“They don’t bother us as they are a form of tourism that interests us, but their presence has to be put into order,” said the Mayor, Gonzalo Fernández Pulido.

Now that it is Spring, the habitual, non-official parking field behind Chiringuito Bahía, already has about half a dozen camper vans parked, or better said, ‘camped.’ The difference, by the way between being parked and being camped is a subtle one: just having the steps down or even one of the main windows open, means the vehicle is camped and not merely parked.

 As for the ones parked below the castle on the said field, there is washing hanging out to dry, so there is little doubt about them being parked or camped. The said field belongs to the Town Hall, by the way.

The main thing that the Mayor wants to sort out is sewage and an electricity supply, because at the moment, it’s anybody’s guess where the toilets are emptied.
 Right now there are just a handful, but in full summer, Salobreña will be coping with a couple of hundred of these vehicles.
 Furthermore the said land is really summer parking for cars; not campers.
 The Town Hall will charge a symbolic rate for being able to park in the new camping area, giving the campers a sewage system.

Salobreña doesn’t have a private campsite. When the Seaside Gazette interviewed the previous Mayor, he pointed this out, saying that they would be over the moon if somebody actually decided to open one in the municipality.
With the new Mayor, things haven’t changed in that aspect, in fact, if a private enterprise considers setting up a campsite, the Town Hall might well provide publicly owned land, because, as the Mayor emphasises, there is a big demand for such an installation.

In the meantime, Salobreña has a completely different situation to its neighbours, Almuñécar and Motril, where camper vans are forbidden from ‘parking,’ precisely because it damages local campsites who are paying taxes to operate.

Finally, and back to the present situation, as the Spanish say, O todos Moros o Cristianos, which means, everybody gets treated the same. So, if a villager cannot pitch a tent in front of his house, then the camper van people can’t either, and that goes for barbecues, too.
Yes, you can park up, put your steps down, take out a table and chairs, but you cannot start lighting campfires, etc.
Anyway, lets see what the new municipal regulations come up with.

New York Times blames Angela Merkel for Spain's problems, while the Guardian says Andalucía is to blame......

The New York Times piece in particular has widespread coverage in the Spanish press.


An editorial in the New York Times on Friday, entitled ‘An Overdose of Pain’, in which the paper considered Spain could be the next European economy brought down by ‘German-led mismanagement of the Euro-zone crisis'.

The paper says it need not turn out that way but it surely will unless Chancellor Angela Merkel and her political allies inside and outside Germany acknowledge that no country can pay off its debts by suffocating economic growth.
 The NYT says that austerity, the one-size-fits-all cure prescribed by Ms. Merkel is not working anywhere.

The editorial has obtained wide coverage across the Spanish media this weekend.

Now comes a second article, this time written by Giles Tremlett who is the Guardian’s correspondent in Madrid. He concentrates his gaze on Andalucía with the title, ‘Eurozone crisis focuses on Andalucía, home to sun, sand and soaring deficits’, and says that senior Spanish officials have admitted they are clueless to the real size of the debt in the biggest region of all.

Tremlett claims Andalucía sells itself to British tourists as a holiday haven but it has now become the focus of worries about the Euro.

Indeed he reports that the EU inspectors from Brussels who were in Madrid on Friday have been demanding answers on how the Government intends to bring the regions under control. Antonio Beteta, the junior minister for the regions, claimed that Andalucía is cooking its books and hiding unpaid bills to cover up the debt.

Giles Tremlett notes that the Government passed a law last Thursday which would allow it take over the control of the finances in the regions which fail to stick to the austerity plan. He names the PP controlled Valencia and Castilla-La Mancha, and Cataluña as well as Andalucía as being out front with deficit and considers Rajoy may even enjoy intervening in Socialist controlled Andalucia.

The New York Times editorial is here.

The Guardian piece by Giles Tremlett is here

Iran stops oil exports to Spain......

IRAN has cut all crude oil exports to Spain as a pre-emptive measure against EU embargos – which Spain is not supporting.

“Spain is badly hit because we used to import a lot of Iranian oil,” said a foreign ministry spokesman.

The European ban, set to come into place on July 1, is an attempt to force Iran into abandoning the development of nuclear weapons and to take the EU’s request seriously to ‘come to the table and meet’.
However Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted Iran can survive up to three years without selling any of its oil.

 Motril and Melilla closer, more comfortable and less time with the new Ferry.

 
Naviera Armas announced that in late May they will change the ship 'Timanfaya Volcano', which operates the line since its inception last summer to the 'Volcano Tinamar', the best ship of its fleet with the 'Volcano Teide 'which is her twin.

Company sources have told Efe that with this change, the quality of the Motril to Melilla  will jump because the 'Volcano Tinamar' has only nine months of life compared with almost eight years of 'Timanfaya Volcano'.

In addition, the new ship has 50 percent more capacity than the vessel which currently covers this line, which has only 1,000 seats for passengers compared to the 1,500 passengers that 'Tinamar Volcano' can carry.  
It will also Triple the number of cabins, as 56 of the 'Timanfaya' will become the 137 of the new ship of the line
 It is also faster because it can sail at 26 knots compared to 23 of 'Timanfaya', which will shorten the duration of the voyage. 
 The 'Volcano Tinamar', which currently operates the line between the Canaries and Huelva and links by sea to other islands in the Canary Islands, has even escalators inside the vessel, as reported by the same sources.

From Monday it will be possible to buy tickets for travel on the different accommodations of this new ship, which will operate the line fromMotril to Melilla later next month.

Also new for this line is that passengers can book in advance their cabins and numbered seats, said the shipping company and that this news has denied the persistent rumors that have  pointed to a cancellation of the Motril -  Melilla line.

The company was keen to stress the commitment made by this route, which allowed the introduction of competition in the maritime transport of Melilla, as the 'Volcano Tinamar' is the best and the newest ship in its fleet and "is similar on a cruise ", with plenty of space and number of seats and relaxation rooms on two floors.


Motril to Morocco

No Impact At All.......

Rajoy’s new PP government had committed themselves to a reduction in the deficit, to bring it down to 5.8 per cent ( from its current 8 point heaven knows what per cent).

This represented cuts of 30 billion euros. But then Brussels went on the attack and demanded it be brought down to 5.3 per cent, meaning a further 5 billion euros slashed.

Both of these figures are way above the previously agreed-upon figure of 4.4 per cent, which means that Brussels will no doubt fine Spain in the near future.

Minister of the Economy, Luis de Guindos, when asked what this 5 billion extra would mean vis-à-vis the Spanish economy, replied, “No impact at all.”

If I had been a reporter and present I would have asked him, “Then why wasn’t the 5.3 per cent figure chosen originally?”
These dupes think we are the dupes.

Anyway, although Brussels seems to be letting Spain get away with this for now, seeing as Spain is in  recession, is heavily indebted, has the highest unemployment rate in the glorious EU and is jodido, it is still watching all from on high.

Other countries, in lieu of Spain’s treatment, are looking towards Brussels for similar fiscal leniency.

To cut a long story short, we are all doomed if we continue with the Europe only a few have actually chosen.


copied from the Seaside Gazette
April 11th

Cultural Guardia Civil..........

In Franco’s final years there was a joke kicking around about why the Guardia Civil always walked around in pairs.
The question was asked and the response was:  one who can read and write and the other to keep an eye on the dangerous intellectual.
Things have come a long way since then.

Gone are the drooping moustaches, tricornio hats & webbing and I can’t work out if they are all younger or I’m just a lot older, but the fact remains that the days when only corporals and above could read and write, are ancient history.
They look and act more like policemen and less like soldiers, which they technically still are.

Nothing could emphasise this more than the latest news concerning units stationed in the province of Granada, where they are to receive courses in Languages, Culture, History and Tourism.
They’re out to answer questions from tourists, rather than ask people questions.

Granada is being used as a guinea pig (no pun intended) and depending on how it goes here, it will be extended to other provinces.
The Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz and the Head of the provincial council, Sebastian Pérez, signed the go-ahead for the project, which comes with a 600,000-euro budget.

But it is not only the policemen out on the street,  it is the Guardia Civil posts themselves, which will house all sorts of tourist information.  
 In the old days, there was lots of tourist information stored there,  but of a different kind: ‘who are they speaking with and are they suspect communists.’
Accordingly, the 79 Guardia Civil posts dotted around the 168 municipalities within the province will be spruced up and blood stains removed.   Just joking!

Copied from the Seaside Gazette

The Port of Motril with its own resources covers the work of extension of the dock.......

Un año más, coincidiendo con la presentación del proyecto de Presupuestos Generales del Estado, se vuelve a incurrir en el error de que la administración Central sufraga con dinero público las inversiones en los puertos españoles.

“Nada más lejos de la realidad”, ha aseverado el Presidente de la dársena granadina, Ángel Díaz Sol, quien se ha referido a los 2,1 millones de euros anunciados para la prolongación del dique exterior. En ese sentido, recuerda que “la obra se contrata y paga con los recursos económicos propios que genera la actividad marítima, tal y como se contempla en el Plan de Empresa y de Inversiones aprobado por el puerto”.

El mencionado documento, previo a su ejecución, debió ser remitido y consensuado con el Organismo Publico Puertos del Estado, de ahí que la mencionada cantidad, junto a otras, aparezcan reflejadas en las cuentas del Estado, “aunque -insiste- no las sufraga el Gobierno central y sí la Autoridad Portuaria”.

A Díaz Sol le sorprende que el único proyecto con fecha de finalización (2013) al que pueda recurrir el Ministerio de Fomento y el PP en la provincia de Granada sea la prolongación del dique exterior que va a realizar la Autoridad Portuaria. En ese sentido, exige “máxima responsabilidad” para que “el Puerto no sea utilizado de forma partidista e interesada” y siga siendo uno de los motores de la economía en la zona. 

A-7 Spared.....

In the wake of the Central Government’s planned spending cuts just announced in the 2012 budget many on the coast of Granada feared that construction work on the A-7 autovia would get the chop but that no longer appears to be the case…..

The Central Government has earmarked 324m euros for the province of Granada, which is 5.4% less than the last budget under the PSOE, but on a positive note, 92.5m euros is to go on outstanding compulsory purchase orders on private land used within the autovia project, which the PSOE never got round to paying.

Another thing to take into account is that the cut in infrastructure spending on a nationwide level has been 22%, so the 5.4% that Granada took on board was nothing by comparison with other provinces in Spain.

Other projects within the province have, however, taken a hammering.  The second ring road for Granada and the high-speed train line.
The city of Granada already has a ring road and we don’t have a train down here on the coast; high-speed or otherwise, so most can live with this ‘deprival.’

Getting back to the A-7, where it passes through Granada, the Polopos-Albuñól, 15-km section, will have 704,000 euros thrown at it, leaving the better part of the ‘bill’ (183m) to be paid in 2014, thanks to the German System; i.e., you get paid when you have finished and not as you go along.

The Lobres-Guadalfeo section receives 2.2m because it is all but finished, whilst the much-awaited Almuñécar-Salobreña section (7.8 km) has 432,000 euros alotted, leaving the most of the bill (107m) for the 2013 budget.

Which brings us to the Carchuna-Castell de Ferro (10.2 km), which has an allotted budget of 342,000, and the rest put off until 2014.

The most controversial section,  the one  that sat idle for two years after hitting unexpected rock strata;   Gorgoracha-Puntalón, bypassing Motril,   has 24.8m euros allotted from the 147.2m needed. Bear in mind that this project also includes the road down to the port from the crossroads (6.2 km). This last section should also be concluded by 2014.

So, whilst the previous administration put off and put off the termination date, giving the last estimation as 2013, the new administration estimates the conclusion of all work on the A-7 within the province for 2014; one year later.

Meanwhile, in the north of the province, autovia projects have been massacred; i.e. Pinos Puente-Atarfe, (G-43) Santa Fe-Las Gabias and Calicasas-Albolote.

The high-speed train hasn’t reached Granada and won’t for a while, having lost 44% of its budget, but Motril port will get 2.2m to ‘drag’ alongside the quays and build a new one.

Tobacco smuggling creates employment in Spain, says Spanish report.....

On 2 March there was an incident in La Linea which went almost unreported: Dozens of people gathered to protest about the attitude of the Spanish authorities at the frontier with Gibraltar.

They urged that the authorities should not be so strict and that everyone should be allowed to cross from Gibraltar with a carton of cigarettes daily.

It so happens that from 1 March higher authority had instructed that stricter controls be put in place at the frontier, restricting one carton a month to be allowed through.

It so happens, adds the report in the daily El Pais, going to Gibraltar for tobacco has become during the last year a means of making a livelihood, in an area with nearly 40% unemployment.

A carton of tobacco costs in Gibraltar 25 euros when in Spain it costs 42 euros - 17 euros difference! On the other hand, to be a smuggler in the Campo area has never been regarded as a bad practice. There is a long tradition.

But nowhere in the world is such smuggling going on so visibly. Official Spanish data says that in 2009 over 11 million crossed the frontier; this went up to over 12 million the following year and to over 13 million last year. 'That additional 2 million of movements correspondend, in its majority, to persons who go to Gibraltar to buy tobacco,' the report adds.

And in the case of vehicles the increase is of half a million. The number of motorbikes crossing the frontier was 60 a minute, that represents smuggling on a big scale.

Towards the end of 2010 there was a change in circumstances in the type of smuggling, said a Spanish official. Down went the arrests of faked tobacco, which was not imported for use in Spain, and it was back to the traditional way - tobacco for Spanish consumption perhaps because the crisis and other factors has led to more people being prepared to get involved.

A spokesman for Phillip Morris said that 80% of faked cigarettes of Spanish makes hailed from China, but those involved have started to open illegal plants in the EU.

It is thought that the tobacco shops tend to exaggerate the problem to seek a lowering of Spanish duty on cigarettes.

The main problem for the Spanish authorities at present is not so much faked but illegal tobacco, the one that does not pay duty and crosses the frontier.

In a recent study, it is said that tobacco that evades duty in Spain has incrfeased from 4.2% to 9.5% in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with the previous year.

A new law has been causing problems in the Gibraltar frontier. Twice the number of cartons were reported, while the number of vehicles, generally motorcycles, went up from 989 to over 2,000 last year.

The report speaks of organisations that have acquired premises or garages near the frontier to receive those who bring the tobacco and those who buy it. Spanish customs says that there are organisations with more than 100 'employees'. The situation spreads. In Cadiz sales at tobacconists has gone down 34%. In La Linea the number of tobacconists has decreased from 9 to 3 - and those might close on a temporary basis.

A spokesman for the unemployed in La Linea said smuggling of tobacco was a way of life in times of crisis. There are families coming to La Linea from other parts of Andalucia. To eliminate the practice is to make more people suffer. 
Today, says the report, certain type of smuggling of tobacco creates employment.



Panorama Gibraltar
27-03-12

Torta Real de Motril........

  Those who know Spain will almost certainly have heard  of Motril's Royal Cake.

  It is as famous as the locally made Pale Rum and the delicious sea food.

This Spanish dessert takes its name from our town, the second largest town in the province of Granada, located near the Guadalfeo River. 

Granada was the last Muslim province to be reconquered by the Christians in 1492 and the Moorish influences are still clearly visible in the architecture and food of the region. 

The last Muslim in Iberia, Emir Muhammad XII, known as “Boabdil” to the Spanish, surrendered complete control of the Emirate of Granada, to Ferdinand II and Isabella I (“Los Reyes Católicos”) after the last battle of the Granada War on January 2nd 1492.

 “Torta Real de Motril” and many other Spanish desserts are very almondy and almonds are a rich source of vitamin E.  
They are also rich in dietary fiber, B vitamins, essential minerals and monounsaturated fat, one of the two “good” fats which potentially may lower LDL cholesterol. 
Typical of nuts and seeds, almonds also contain phytosterols, associated with cholesterol-lowering properties.


 

INGREDIENTS:

This  amount makes  two small and one medium cakes.

• 250 gr. ground almonds
• 175 gr. sugar
• 4 eggs
• Grated lemon

  

 • For icing:
• 2 egg whites
• Icing Sugar

PREPARATION:
 
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
 
In a large bowl beat the eggs and sugar, add ground almonds and lemon zest. Mix until a smooth paste. 
We take the custard cups ( you can make double quantities in a mold of 24 cm.)
This recipe uses  a medium and two small cakes.
Oil  and scatter a little flour and drop the dough in.  
Do not fill the moulds right up to the top.
Put in the oven for about 45 minutes.
  When  a skewer comes out clean, remove from the oven and let cool. 
After demoulding cover with Royal Icing,  (whisked egg whites and icing sugar).
Leave until the icing is firm.

 If preferred, just cover with sifted icing sugar and ground cinnamon. 

Delicious!

The most international ambassador available to Motril, an iconic dessert that has crossed national boundaries to get as far away as Australia and Japan thanks to new technologies, sold over the Internet by the Videras family, whose surname has five generations in their craftsmanship.
 In Motril, Videras pastry sold about twenty thousand kilos of actual cake a year, at 400 kilos a week. It is believed that this dessert is Moorish their ingredients, although it is unclear whether there are changes in the original recipe. 
The Videras family recipe dating from 1840 and until now  is secret.
 
     

Easter in Spain......

Spain is especially renowned for its Holy Week traditions.

Semana Santa, Holy Week, the last week of Lent which is the week immediately before Easter, sees its most glamorous celebrations in the region of Andalusia, particularly in Málaga, while those of Castile see the more sombre and solemn events, typified by Semana Santa at Zamora.

The Passion of Christ, or Easter Week, known in Spain as Semana Santa is without doubt the most important celebration in Spain. 
The festivities begin with the Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) and end with Lunes de Pascua (Easter Monday).
 It is a celebration of life itself and the whole country comes alive. 
The Catholic Church in Spain is passionate about Easter celebrations.

Huesca - 2008

 People carry statues of saints around on floats or wooden platforms called Tronas in and an atmosphere of mourning, which can seem quite oppressive to onlookers, and then the Easter week processions end with Easter Sunday, a day full of light and colour when church and cathedral bells are heard ringing throughout the country.

Huelva

   Everywhere, processions make their way through the streets, carrying religious icons and symbols of their faith.

In Seville alone there are over 100 of these such images.

 Semana Santa has to be experienced first hand to be fully appreciated and no words can begin to describe the emotions that flow like water, wherever you go.

If you have the opportunity to sample these festivities, one thing is sure, the images of the solemn masses and processions will stay with you forever.

A common feature in Spain is the almost general usage of the nazareno or penitential robe for some of the participants in the processions. This garment consists of a tunic, a hood with conical tip (capirote) used to conceal the face of the wearer, and a cloak.

The exact colors and forms of these robes depend on the particular procession. The robes were widely used in the medieval period for penitents, who could demonstrate their penance while still masking their identity. 

 These nazarenos carry processional candles or rough-hewn wooden crosses, may walk the city streets barefoot, and, in some places may carry shackles and chains on their feet as penance.  

Penitents aren’t meant to be recognisable, nor in any way showy about their repenance and many costaleros carry tronas blindfolded, or barefoot, or with chickpeas in their shoes. 

  Malaga City’s Semana Santa (Holy Week or Easter) officially started on Friday.  Often described as a week full of ‘passion and devotion,’ whatever one’s faith, given the chance it should be experienced at least once in a lifetime.

 Thousands of people, both locals and visitors, take to the streets in Easter to see or take part in the processions. More than 25,000 seats are placed along the official route for people to watch the procesiones (processions).
One of the favourite areas for this is the ‘Tribuna de los Pobres’ (poor people’s stand) in Calle Carreteria, where the large steps are used as seating, for free, hence the name.
Although each cofradia (brotherhood) has its own route, there is one part of Malaga which is common to all of them and is the ‘official’ route of 807 metres from the Alameda Principal, via Calle Larios to Calle Granada.
Readers planning to see the processions, are recommended to find standing space in this area, but make sure they get there early.
Many people find the encierro, when the images return to their churches, the most spectacular moment of the procession, when the figures of Christ and the Virgin meet, and despite their tiredness, the portadores (carriers) place them face to face and begin to sway to the sound of the national anthem.
Some of the figures enter Malaga Cathedral during the procession, which is also very spectacular.

As well as those carrying the ‘tronos’, some weighing up to five tonnes, there are marching bands, penitents dressed in pointed hoods which only show their eyes, local authorities and other members of the brotherhoods carrying the emblems. The colours used depend on each brotherhood.

Semana Santa has been happening in Malaga for 500 years and has accumulated a certain cultural complexity.

 A few facts: Malaga’s Brotherhoods, cofradías, have 70,000 members and growing, each is dedicated to an aspect of the Passion and their tronas can be centuries old.  The cofrades are members of the cofradías, the religious associations that care for the images of Christ and Mary that are used in the processions and that meet throughout the year for various activities and to plan the next Holy Week celebrations and events in their local area.

One of the most revered, to Our Lady of Hope (the Esperanza) weighs 5,500kg, is carried by 254 costaleros and has 110 giant candles.

The trona of Jesus the Nazarene weighs 3,000kg and needs 210 costaleros to carry it. 

 The people who carry the weight of the floats are called "costaleros" and are expected the carry these "thrones" with solemnity and grace. They use a small cushion, "costal" to protect themselves from getting sores from the wood rubbing against their skin during the long processions.

 Costaleros can carry tronas for up to eight-hour stints, though 12 hours is not unknown. 
The nazarenos wear their conspicuous pointy hats to be, well, conspicuously penitent and to show they aspire to goodness and heaven. 

Women were admitted as penitents in the 1960s.

There is high drama in the slow, carefully swaying movement of the tronas as they are carried through the streets. The costaleros are allowed stop every few minutes, even allowed a sip of water or bite of a sandwich proffered by family or friends along the way.

Everything is coordinated, everything is precise; everything has to be.

Tronas and penitents meet at strategic intersections, ceremonies and sacred songs take place at given times and it’s easy to see how a missed step could bring down a trona and its bearers and cause God knows what catastrophe.

To be alongside 254 bearers sweating, swaying and straining under the Esperanza was to look calamity in the eye, all it needed was an unruly dog or an unseen obstacle. It didn’t happen and the fact that it never does is nothing less than a Holy Week miracle.

 

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas on Palm Sunday  led the religious procession carrying the image of the Virgin of Tears and Favors through the streets of the city of his birth, Malaga.    The famous Spanish actor, wearing the white robe of his brotherhood and covered with black  capillo said that participating in the procession of Our Lady of Tears and Favors is "an overdose of identity, roots."     "This is the church where my parents were married, this is the church where I was baptized me, people who go on the throne and those in the guild are friends of mine since we were kids and were it not for the week santa, I would not see, "said Banderas.

Accompanying her husband, as is their custom, was actress Melanie Griffith, who has fully involved herself in the celebrations and traditions that each year at this time Banderas returns to Spain to take part in.  While he finalized the details before the procession, the actor said that he thoroughly enjoyed participating in Holy Week celebrations and was “very emotional because it’s been a very special year for the many activities” in which he had been involved.

Imágenes de la procesión de la Virgen de las lágrimas y los favores , el domingo de ramos en Málaga. Vemos a Antonio Banderas vestido de nazareno con la cofradía de la Iglesia de San Juan de Málaga.

La Mantilla is a traditional Spanish garment that has special roots in Andalucia. It is a unique garment that despite the passage of time and fashions, still adorning the Andalusian women on important occasions. La Mantilla is of greatest significance during the Easter holidays. In the seventeenth century began to use the lace mantillas, as seen in some female portraits by Velazquez, part of the wardrobe of some fashionable women. However, its use is not generalized to the ladies and courtesans of high status well into the eighteenth century, because until then La Mantilla was used almost exclusively by women from the "people". It was also in this century when silk cloth were replaced entirely by the lace. At Easter it was traditional for the ladies to be dressed in black wearing their best clothes: head tortoiseshell comb on which they put the black lace mantilla to accompany processions and visit churches.

Until mid-century this tradition was kept faithfully from mothers to daughters, in some houses of a certain social rank dressed all women in the family, and even had a mantilla on the bench in case guests came out. There were a few decades in which this practice seemed to decline, but today the tradition of the mantilla at Easter resumed its rise.

Malaga’s Semana Santa has to be seen to be believed. There is no other way to enjoy it, or come even close to understanding it. 

Holy Thursday is a national holiday and the only day Malaga’s shops close, though restaurants, bars and cafes are open all hours and food, especially fresh fish and pork from the pig farms in the surrounding hills, is excellent and served in large portions. Most hotels serve generous, buffet-style breakfasts that will keep you going for hours of the processions.

Viernes de Dolores Friday, March 30
Sabado de Pasion Saturday, March 31
Domingo de Ramos Palm Sunday, April 1  Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem
Lunes Santo Monday, April 2
Martes Santo Tuesday, April 3
Miercoles Santo Wednesday, April 4
Jueves Santo Thursday, April 5  The Last Supper
Viernes Santo Good Friday, April 6  The Crucifixion
Sabado de Gloria Holy/Silent Saturday, April 7
Domingo de la Resurreccion Easter Sunday, April 8

Easter Tortilla

Ingredients
 
- 1 small smoked sausage
- 40 g of butter
- 6 eggs
- salt
- pepper
- 1 clove of parsley
- 1 onion
- 100g of bacon



 Tradition dictates to climb the mountain and settle near a church for optimum preparation but that might not be necessary. 

Light a fire and beat the eggs, while the onions and bacon are frying in the pan with lots of olive oil, peel, wash and cut the vegetables in fine slices, and do the same for the botifarra and the smoked sausage in larger bits.
Throw them all in the pan when you feel the onions and bacon are fried to your convenience, and let them shimmer.
When your mixture seems appealing to you, add the eggs, and watch the pan carefully, they are fast cookers!
Do not forget that a tortilla has to be cooked on both sides, not just one!

Serve warm in a sandwich or with a light salad.

Enjoy!   and happy Semana Santa...