Madrid Transformed into a City of Lights
My friend who visited Madrid for the holidays a year ago told me that they had amazing and tasteful holiday decorations, so I was eagerly anticipating the spectacle as the holidays approached. The first sneak peek I got was when these weird amoeba-like strands appeared on Gran Via one day.
It was several weeks before they'd actually be lit, but every day new strange holiday things started to appear in different parts of the city. Finally, one day in early December, They lit up the Gran Via series of lights... WOW!
The next day, I showed up to Plaza de Castilla, where I spend several hours a week waiting for buses to the outskirts to teach my students. When I emerged from the subway, I looked up and saw the most beautiful star of lights hanging between the Puerta de Europa skyscrapers. The buildings were built at an angle, so it looks like the star is drawing them together :)
There are literally thousands of people passing through this area every hour, and everyone seemed to just stop under the star and gaze upward in amazement. Here's a closer picture I captured with the zoom on my camera.
And then on the other side of the plaza, they have this huge and amazing Christmas tree of lights.
During the next several weeks, the mystery of Christmas in Madrid unfolded for me, along with dazzling lights, festivals of fire, Nativity scenes and depictions of the Three Magic Kings.
Three Kings Light Show at El Corte Ingles
Three Kings Light Show - Detail
The Spanish tradition is for the three magic kings (known as the three wise men in the U.S.) to bring gifts to Spanish children on January 6th as they ride through on their camels. This site gives a good expanded overview of Spanish Christmas traditions. Father Noel (known as Santa Claus in the U.S.) is becoming increasingly popular in Spain, as he brings the gifts a few days earlier, giving the kids more play time before they have to return to school in early January.
The other popular tradition for Spaniards is a depiction of the nativity scene, known as a Belen (literally, Bethlehem). There was a competition between churches and public buildings this year in Madrid for the best Belen, but unfortunately I was only able to see a few of the entrants. Here's a scene from the Belen at Barajas airport that was really nice. There are coins in the sand to give you an idea of scale.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, there was a festival to kickoff the Christmas festivities in the Plaza de Oriente near the Opera and the Royal Palace. There were beautiful displays of fire throughout the plaza.
There were also live musicians and performers in different nooks and crannies of the park. I caught this DJ near the Royal Palace who was remixing traditional classical Christmas music into a strange sort of holiday dance mix.
In the background was the Christmas tree for the Royal Palace. Kind of psychedelic, don't you think?
Even the fountain at Plaza de Cibeles got a little extra flair for the holidays...
Plaza del Sol was also aglow with lights. Here's the series going down Calle Mayor away from the plaza...
But, I think my favorites were the spirals leading up to the Puerta de Alcala and the Nativity scene in monument passageways.
After a month of looking at all of this beauty and spectacle, I still couldn't get enough. The city spends 3.5 million Euros (approximately $4.5 million) on their Christmas extravaganza each year. I think it's worth every centimo.
My friend who visited Madrid for the holidays a year ago told me that they had amazing and tasteful holiday decorations, so I was eagerly anticipating the spectacle as the holidays approached. The first sneak peek I got was when these weird amoeba-like strands appeared on Gran Via one day.
It was several weeks before they'd actually be lit, but every day new strange holiday things started to appear in different parts of the city. Finally, one day in early December, They lit up the Gran Via series of lights... WOW!
The next day, I showed up to Plaza de Castilla, where I spend several hours a week waiting for buses to the outskirts to teach my students. When I emerged from the subway, I looked up and saw the most beautiful star of lights hanging between the Puerta de Europa skyscrapers. The buildings were built at an angle, so it looks like the star is drawing them together :)
There are literally thousands of people passing through this area every hour, and everyone seemed to just stop under the star and gaze upward in amazement. Here's a closer picture I captured with the zoom on my camera.
And then on the other side of the plaza, they have this huge and amazing Christmas tree of lights.
During the next several weeks, the mystery of Christmas in Madrid unfolded for me, along with dazzling lights, festivals of fire, Nativity scenes and depictions of the Three Magic Kings.
The Spanish tradition is for the three magic kings (known as the three wise men in the U.S.) to bring gifts to Spanish children on January 6th as they ride through on their camels. This site gives a good expanded overview of Spanish Christmas traditions. Father Noel (known as Santa Claus in the U.S.) is becoming increasingly popular in Spain, as he brings the gifts a few days earlier, giving the kids more play time before they have to return to school in early January.
The other popular tradition for Spaniards is a depiction of the nativity scene, known as a Belen (literally, Bethlehem). There was a competition between churches and public buildings this year in Madrid for the best Belen, but unfortunately I was only able to see a few of the entrants. Here's a scene from the Belen at Barajas airport that was really nice. There are coins in the sand to give you an idea of scale.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, there was a festival to kickoff the Christmas festivities in the Plaza de Oriente near the Opera and the Royal Palace. There were beautiful displays of fire throughout the plaza.
There were also live musicians and performers in different nooks and crannies of the park. I caught this DJ near the Royal Palace who was remixing traditional classical Christmas music into a strange sort of holiday dance mix.
In the background was the Christmas tree for the Royal Palace. Kind of psychedelic, don't you think?
Even the fountain at Plaza de Cibeles got a little extra flair for the holidays...
Plaza del Sol was also aglow with lights. Here's the series going down Calle Mayor away from the plaza...
But, I think my favorites were the spirals leading up to the Puerta de Alcala and the Nativity scene in monument passageways.
After a month of looking at all of this beauty and spectacle, I still couldn't get enough. The city spends 3.5 million Euros (approximately $4.5 million) on their Christmas extravaganza each year. I think it's worth every centimo.
posted by Chromest*r at 9:59 PM
1 Comments:
Jeff,
I'm speechless and so inspired by your trip to espana(sorry no tilde on my keyboard). PLEASE KEEP WRITING AND SHARING!!!!!!! AND HURRY HOME, SF MISSES YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Salute,
Michael Wangeman
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