No. 14…
Fancy getting your tongue around some Spanish tongue twisters (trabalenguas)?
Pepe puso un peso en el piso del pozo. En el piso del pozo Pepe puso un peso. (Pepe put a peso on the floor of the well. On the floor of the well Pepe put a peso….it’s a bit like our ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper………’!
Here’s another:
Poquito a poquito Paquito empaca poquitas copitas en pocos paquetes. (Little by little, Paquito packs a few tiny glasses in a few packages.)
And a REALLY hard one!:
El suelo está enladrillado. ¿Quién lo desenladrillará? El desenladrillador que lo desenladrillare un buen desenladrillador será. (The ground is paved with bricks. Who will unpave it? The unpaver who unpaves it a good unpaver will be.)
No. 13…
Joe Calhoun
Valencia, on the east coast of Spain, has just finished celebrating ‘Las falles’ in honour of St Joseph, whose feast day is on 19th March. This festival lasts for five days, and concludes with a grand parade (un desfile) of large sculptures which were traditionally made out of wood (in recognition of St Joseph, a carpenter), but that are now made out of papier mache or any other combustible material. Sometimes these sculptures are up to 30 metres high! Each year a theme is decided on for the sculptures and parade, which this year was foreign presidents and other notable personalities. The final day of the celebrations is called ‘La Crema’, which is when all sculptures (which this year were around 600!) are burned at midnight. The festival is extremely popular, and involves lots of street celebrations, dancing and very loud firecrackers and fireworks.
No. 12…
Did you know – Salamanca is actually closer to the border with Portugal (118 km) than it is to Madrid (204 km).
No. 11…
Did you know – people from Salamanca are called Salmantinos, while people from Madrid are known as Madrileños.
No. 10…
It’s nearly Carnival time! Carnival is celebrated widely in Spain during the week leading up to Lent. Some believe the celebration has pagan roots, which could explain why it was banned for forty years by General Franco. Parties are held everywhere, and in Madrid there are parades and fancy dress competitions, ending with the traditional Burial of the Sardine (Entierro de la sardina) parade on Ash Wednesday. This marks the start of Lent when a cardboard sardine is carried by mourners dressed in black to the Fuente de los Pajaritos where it is buried in its coffin! It is supposed to symbolise the burying of the past, allowing society to be reborn.
No. 9…
¿Como te llamas? What’s your name? Did you know that in Spain, people have two ‘apellidos’, or surnames: their father’s surname (from his father) followed by their mother’s surname (from her father).
Take as an example the name of Juanita García Tesoro. Juanita is the name given at birth, García is the family name from her father, and Tesoro is the family name from her mother.
If Juanita García Tesoro marries Pedro Arroyo López, she doesn’t change her name. But it would be extremely common for her to add “de Arroyo” (literally, “of Arroyo”), making her name Juanita García Tesoro de Arroyo.
No. 8…
Did you know…? Coffee in most Spanish cafés is roasted with sugar, making it taste more caramelized than other coffees. It’s called Torrefacto – and this process is also used in France and Portugal.
No. 7…
Did you know…? Spain just celebrated the Feast of the Assumption on 15th August. The Feast of the Assumption is a big public holiday also known as the Virgen de la Paloma, which has been celebrated since the 18th century. In Madrid, festivities start on 11th August and finish on the 15th, with the procession of a picture of the Virgin Mary through the streets of Madrid. What would a festival without a procession be?!
No. 6…
Q: According to the Guinness Book of Records, how many letters does the longest Spanish word have?
A: 22. Superextraordinarísimo is listed as the longest Spanish word, meaning “most superextraordinary”. However, many dispute this claim, saying that the word isn’t in real use in Spanish. The two candidates for the longest word (23 letters) are in fact anticonstitucionalmente (“unconstitutionally”) and electroencefalografista (“electroencephalograph technician”) – not widely used admittedly, but it can be found in telephone directories!
No. 5…
What is the significance of the kilómetro cero (zero kilometre)? The kilómetro cero is a plaque on the ground in the Puerta del Sol, one of the most popular meeting places in Madrid. It serves as the symbolic centre of Spain, and all distances in Spain are measured from that point. Many tourists have their photo taken right by the plaque. It’s a bit like standing on the Greenwich Mean Time line in Greenwich, London.
No. 4…
Ever heard of ‘La Tomatina’? It’s a huge tomato fight festival held every year in Bunyol, south-east of Madrid, towards the coast. The next one is on 25th August so you could still go! The fight started in the 1940s and no-one really knows why. Some say it was a school food fight that got out of hand, others say that it started when tomatoes were thrown at an unpopular local politician………..
No. 3…
Did you know that Real Madrid players are known as ‘Los Merengues’ ? Not because they dance so beautifully – (merengue is the name of a dance or kind of music!), but because their white strip reminded a supporter of the dessert (merengue) we know as meringue. The nickname stuck!!
No. 2…
Q: Which Spanish city is also known as ‘Roma la chica’ (little Rome)?
A: Salamanca, around 2 hours west of Madrid, due to its beautiful buildings and the fact that the city is built on four hills (I know, Rome was built on seven, but it is LITTLE Rome!). Salamanca is also home to the oldest university in Spain.
No. 1…
To get the ball rolling, here’s some trivia about the wonderful Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Almudena in Madrid.
Q: What is it that makes this cathedral unique among all cathedrals in Spain?
A: It is the only cathedral (so far) to have been consecrated by a pope.
(However, the Archbishop of Barcelona has invited Pope Benedict to consecrate the Cathedral of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona when he visits Barcelona in November 2010.)
