Holidays in Sevilla

I have spent the holidays in an apartment in Sevilla. Christmas was
great
with all of the Belens and carolers. New Years was a blast with the grapes
and yesterday was Three Kings Day and the cake and parade. Holidays here
are much different than they are at home.

The main thing here that the Sevillans do for Christmas is set up
huge numbers of Belens, or nativity scenes. Belen is Bethlehem in
Spanish. The province that we are in is famous for it's Bethlehem scenes
which are set up all over the town. When we went around looking at
Bethlehems there would sometimes be carolers standing around singing in
Spanish. Usually kids don't get presents on this day.

New Years was great! There is a tradition where as the bells ring in
the New Year, you eat 12 grapes (one with each clang of the bell) that
represent the months of the year. I wonder how no one has choked on the
grapes yet. We had been seeing little packages of white grapes in the
store and people were showing up the the Plaza Nueva with these packs of
grapes - there were hoardes of people from many countries. People drink
Spanish fizzy wine and throw 6ft ribbons that zing all over and get
tangled up. The crowd was so loud that we couldn't hear the bells for
when to eat the grapes. There were fireworks and everyone was yelling.
After we got back Mom and I stayed up watching Dr. Zhivago until 1:30 am.
I think it was the first real New Years Party I have ever been to.

On Three Kings Day there was a huge parade and when I could see the
whole road all of it was people. There were floats and marching bands and
everyone in Seville must have been there. The floats in the parade barely
fit by the people and it
was like a shock wave how it completely closed around the float and then
open back up around the next people that came. The candy was totally
different because it was all hard stuff and no gum or smarties or any
thing but hard
stuff that you can buy for three cents at the store and you had to bash
and
smash you way to get anything. CARAMELO CARAMELO PORFAVOR CARAMELO means
candy candy please candy so every person watching was shouting. The
floats had all of
the differrent styles. One was even Harry Potter. I didn't think they had
that book over here or at least it wouldn't be as famous. There is also a
special cake that is meant to be eaten on the holiday and it has a little
tiny pottery painted king inside the cake and who ever gets the king get
good luck for the rest of the year. I got the king in my piece!!

Over all the holidays have many differences between the U.S. and
Spain, and there are some similarities like what days they celebrate. The
people over here celebrate the holidays differently also. On New Years
there are grapes that resemble months that you
eat one per dong of the clock. Christmas isn't as much for Santa as is
for Christmas. And Three King's Day is a really big holiday here.