christmas

Christmas time is not only about holidays, nativity scenes, lottery and Christmas carols in Catalonia. One of the highlights of this time is the traditional never-ending family gatherings in which a lunch can easily finish when half of Europe is already having dinner. Several dishes are most likely to be found in Catalan homes on these days.

Christmas Day

Meat and vegetable broth is the top dish for December 25. Large pasta shells are also typically found in this traditional dish. After the broth, some special meat dish is coming, which is usually some bird, including rooster, chicken and duck. A nibble including sausages usually precedes the broth, and as a dessert, nougat, shortbread cookies and neules, some other kind of biscuits.

Boxing Day

Despite so much eating on December 25, a new family lunch is also typical in the following day, Sant Esteve or Saint Stephen, which is a bank holiday in the country. As people have already cooked enough, the most popular lunch on December 26 is the leftovers of the day before. But in style. The meat left from Christmas Day becomes handmade cannelloni in several households. In fact, Catalans will have eaten more than 4 million cannelloni this Christmas, according to the Catalan Federation of Butchers.

New Year’s

Some families also gather for New Year’s Day, although some others rather not do it as the effects of the New Year’s Eve celebrations are sometimes too much to be able to sit down at a table for several hours the day after. Anyway, what most Catalans certainly do at midnight is eating twelve grapes as the bells chime twelve times. 

Increase in Christmas food sales

Mercabarna's fish and seafood wholesalers expect to an increase of approximately 2% in Christmas sales. Specifically, they calculate to sell some 7,200 tons of fish and seafood and 90,000 tons of fruits and vegetables.

According to the president of the Fish Wholesalers Association, Leandro Serra, this increase is due to some recovery of the domestic market and to the fact that this year both Christmas’ Day and New Year’s Day are on Monday.

Sant Egidi lunch

Some people have no home where to have lunch on December 25. That is why the community of Sant Egidi, in Barcelona, organizes a Christmas lunch. This year, around 1,300 people took part in the lunch.

Food drive

Several initiatives such as this one need some food to be possible. Catalonia’s holiday food drive, the Gran Recapte, was held on December 1 and 2 with a record 27,000 volunteers. It began right as markets and supermarkets opened their doors to shoppers, with 2,700 drop-off points throughout the country. More than 4,000 tons of food were collected in two days. 

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Logs that poo presents, men with 365 noses, and cakes with hidden surprises, Christmas in Catalonia has many of its own unique traditions. These include 'Caga Tió' - a log that brings edible goodies  to children; live nativity scenes featuring 'El Caganer' - a humorous hidden figure to bring good luck, and 'El Tortell de Reis' a cake that can turn you into a King. While the Santa-led celebration on the 25^th is becoming increasingly important due to marketing and globalisation, in Catalonia traditionally the biggest day (when children receive presents) is the 6^th of January, which is the 'Dia de Reis' (Day of the Kings), when kids wake up and discover presents brought by the Three Wise Men. The night before, the Three Kings parade around the main cities and towns, forming a big colourful and festive procession.

All towns in Catalonia welcome the arrival of the Three Wise Men on the 5th of January. Children and parents gather on the streets throughout the country to greet the Kings from the East in an enormous display of colour, sweets and presents that cannot fail to delight everyone. The Three Wise Men often travel by camel, but they have also been known to visit some towns using floats, classic cars, boats or even helicopters! Catalan children are very excited that night, because this is the “magical night” on which they traditionally receive their big Christmas presents – although some also get presents from other magic figures such as Santa or the very Catalan tradition of the ‘caga tió’ on the 24th of December.

Hoteliers around Catalonia faced a difficult Christmas tourist season with occupancy rates that were below 50% in some areas. The only exceptions could be found in areas where snow attracted skiers, such as Val d’Aran and adjacent counties. In those areas there was an occupancy rate of between 70% and 85%. Rural tourism suffered its poorest results and does not forecast a recovery for 2012.

The night of January 5th is the most important and magical nights of the year for thousands of children in Catalonia. It is when the Three Wise Men –or the Three Kings in Catalan– bring presents. Traditionally in Catalonia, presents are not delivered by Santa Claus on the evening of December 24th, but instead on the evening of January 5th by the Three Kings who arrive in all Catalan towns. Parades are organised to welcome them. Afterwards, when the children are sleeping, they enter through the window or balcony and leave presents for every family member.

Just like every Christmas, traditional Living Nativity Scenes around Catalonia are on show, this year with an expected increase of attendance despite cuts in public subsidies. Towns are unwilling to let budget cuts affect them and they have combined imagination, volunteer work and citizen involvement to maintain the tradition.

The wine sector foresees an increase of cava and wine consumption in Spain and Catalonia, as well as in the foreign market, during the upcoming Christmas holidays. The price adjustment, one of the measures used to fight the financial crisis, will help to sell one million more bottles compared to the same period last year, however producers predict purchases to be last minute.