Interesting post, but inaccurate and incomplete information about Christmas in Spain. There may be variations from one region to another, but we do have general traditions (the aim of this post was to describe those, right?), the most important being the following:
- On New Year's Eve, when the clock strucks 12, we eat 12 grapes, one for each stroke of the clock, to welcome the new year. It's a very ancient tradition that started because of the excess of grapes that the harvesters had at the end of the year a couple of centuries ago. It's supposed to bring luck for the new year. - On the 5th January, the main cities in Spain have huge parades to mark the arrival of the Three Wise Men, and every child goes to see the Kings and get sweets from them. That night, while they're sleeping, children get their Christmas presents brought by the Three Wise Men. The Santa Claus tradition (what we call Papá Noel) is popular now here too, but the real Spanish tradition is to get the presents on the night of the 5th January from the Three Wise Men.
These are the real traditions common to the whole country (though regional variations exist, some mentioned above).
It's a really nice idea to post all these Christmas information of other countries, but as far as I've read on the comments, it's not very accurate. Hope you don't mind my comment, and hope we all can learn something through this.
There may be variations from one region to another, but we do have general traditions (the aim of this post was to describe those, right?), the most important being the following:
- On New Year's Eve, when the clock strucks 12, we eat 12 grapes, one for each stroke of the clock, to welcome the new year. It's a very ancient tradition that started because of the excess of grapes that the harvesters had at the end of the year a couple of centuries ago. It's supposed to bring luck for the new year.
- On the 5th January, the main cities in Spain have huge parades to mark the arrival of the Three Wise Men, and every child goes to see the Kings and get sweets from them. That night, while they're sleeping, children get their Christmas presents brought by the Three Wise Men. The Santa Claus tradition (what we call Papá Noel) is popular now here too, but the real Spanish tradition is to get the presents on the night of the 5th January from the Three Wise Men.
These are the real traditions common to the whole country (though regional variations exist, some mentioned above).
It's a really nice idea to post all these Christmas information of other countries, but as far as I've read on the comments, it's not very accurate. Hope you don't mind my comment, and hope we all can learn something through this.