Spanish Secrets: All Saints Day
Craig Briggs describes the excitement and floral profuaion as preparations are made to celebrate All Saints Day in the Galician village where he and his wife Melanie live.
A shopping trip to the nearby town of Monforte de Lemos left us in no doubt as to the importance of the forthcoming public holiday on November 1st.
Lining the streets outside the fresh-food market in the heart of the town, were flower sellers. Most were simply selling various varieties of cut flowers from plastic buckets, although some had more formal arrangements for sale.
Every florist we walked past was fully stocked with cut flowers, colourful pot plants and beautiful arrangements, of all shapes and sizes, to suit everyone’s budget.
Even the fancy goods shops, of which there are plenty, had their window displays filled with flower arrangements, both real and artificial.
The streets were cluttered with cars. Vehicles were parked on pavements and double-parked, or they had simply been abandoned, completely blocking the roads.
The seemingly senseless, but now almost compulsory hazard warning lights were flashing, alerting other road users to the laziness of less thoughtful drivers.
Which ever direction you looked or street you walked along, people were busy buying then hastily packing their cars with beautiful flower arrangements. Everyone was carrying flowers!
For those unfamiliar with the Catholic faith, every day in the calendar is a Saint’s day. So not only do the Spanish have a birthday, but everyone has a second day of celebration depending on the Saint they were named after.
However November 1st is All Saints Day, the day of remembrance of all those who are no longer with us.
The proximity of our home to the village cemetery gives us an excellent vantage point to see the intensive preparations for this important day.
For the past week a steady stream of people has been walking past the house on their pilgrimage to the cemetery. Bottles of bleach, mops, buckets, polish and dusters, accompanying the the pilgrims for the annual tomb cleaning.
On All Saints Day these same people and others carry floral tributes, some large enough to need transporting by wheelbarrow, to adorn the polished marble memorials.
With the exception of one large and extremely ornate tomb, which ocupies one corner of the walled cemetery, the tombs are all three storeys high. Rows of three- storey tombs form two metre high corridors providing narrow walkways between.
Unlike any English cemeteries I know, this place is very much a living part of the village community, and whilst many may think it wasteful, the beauty, splendour and colour of All Saints Day, is truly a sight to behold.
