Early December is one of the times of year in the Spanish calendar
when the word 'puente' or bridge acquires a special significance.
For big city dwellers it's a signal to jump into the car and, whatever
the weather, head for the coast, the country, the mountains, anywhere
that's not big city. Because this 'puente' is the time when Spaniards
bridge the gap between a national holiday and a weekend by taking
the day or days in between off work, rather as we do in the UK with
longest 'puente' in the Spanish calendar is the one that spans two
national holidays on the 6th and 8th of December. The first of these
dates is a reminder of recent history. As part of the process of
the democritisation of Spain following Franco's death in 1975, a
new constitution was drawn up and presented for referendum. On the
6th December 1978, it received a vote in favour of 88%, although
only a little under 59% of the electorate actually voted. Since
then, the day has been a national holiday.
new constitution officially recognized various fundamental rights,
as well as introducing far-reaching measures for devolving central
power to 'autonomous communities'. These acquired self-government
via regional parliaments, court systems and statutes of autonomy.
Since then, further powers have been added, and now each autonomous
community can legislate regarding its own education and health policies.
The new constitution has only been altered once since it was ratified,
and that was following the signing of the Maastricht treaty in February
1992. It then became possible for nationals of all EEC states to
vote, and stand for office in, local municipal elections.
second date of the 'puente', the 8th of December, is the Catholic
feast of the Immaculate Conception, 'La Inmaculada Concepción'.
A common fallacy is that the name refers to the conception of Jesus
in his mother's womb. It in fact refers to an article of faith in
the Catholic Church stating that, by a special dispensation from
God, the Blessed Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment
she was conceived. This was proclaimed as dogma by Pope Pius IX
on the 8th December, 1854.
was the dogma based upon? As with several other doctrines, it comes
from close textual analysis of the Bible, backed up by theological
debate, rather than any explicit statement to be found in the Bible.
Various sections of Genesis, Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus and the Song
of Songs are used to illustrate the dogma. Basically they portray
the Virgin Mary as a second Eve, the Mother of the Redeemer, and
the enemy of the serpent.
Only a continuous state of grace could adequately explain this enmity
between Mary and Satan, and the Angel Gabriel seems to confirm this
when he hails her as 'full of grace', a slightly watered-down translation
of the original Greek meaning that she was possessed of a 'singular
abundance of grace'. Such a state, it was argued, could only be
a manifestation of a supernatural state of the soul in union with
to say, there have been dissenting voices over the centuries, among
them St Thomas Aquinas, but useful confirmation of the dogma came
just four years after Pope Pius's declaration, when the Virgin Mary
started to appear at the grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes. During
her sixteenth apparition she finally revealed to Bernadette, 'I
am the Immaculate Conception'. The idea is now firmly established,
and anybody you know called Inmaculada, Inma, Concepción,
Concha, Conchi or Conchita will celebrate their 'onomástico'
or name day on the 8th December.
interesting celebration of the day takes place in Seville, where
the Virgin is much revered. On the afternoon of the 8th, and for
the following week, the Seises, a small group of specially-trained
choirboys, whose history dates back centuries, will sing and dance
in their traditional costume before the enormous retablo in the
Cathedral. At the same time, over in the wine-growing regions of
Murcia, in the town of Yecla, the feast is celebrated in deafening
fashion, by hundreds of shots, fired for hours on end, from old-fashioned
handguns called arquebuses. It has been a fiesta since 1692 and
commemorates a great, bloodless victory over the invading French
troops and the people's gratitude to the Virgin for her hand in
if you should be passing one of the many convents around Andalucía,
it's worth poking your head in to see if the nuns there sell pastries
or cakes, particularly at this time of year when such sweetmeats
are very popular Christmas fare. If you take the plunge and decide
to buy some, you should know that the nuns, whether face to face
or invisible behind the revolving drum called a 'torno' which is
used for payment and delivery of the goodies, will greet you by
saying 'Ave María Purísima', 'Hail Mary the Most Pure'.
which you should respond, 'Sin pecado concebida', 'conceived without
sin', thus playing your small part in the tradition we remember
at this time of year, as well as displaying exemplary manners.