[FR] L’Epiphanie (Rois Mages) en Espagne
[available here in english]
La plupart des pays termine tôt les célébrations de fin d’années, et quelques jours après le nouvel An, tout le monde est déjà retourné à la routine, qu’il s’agisse des cours ou du travail. Mais ici, en Espagne les choses sont un peu différentes.
Trois dates importées sont célébrées en Espagne durant les fêtes de fin d’année (en France par exemple nous n’en célébrons réellement que deux):
- Le réveillon de Noël et Noël (Nochebuena et Navidad): 24 et 25 décembre
- Le réveillon du Nouvel An et le jour du Nouvel An (Nochevieja et Año Nuevo): 31 décembre et 1er janvier (un peu plus sur la célébration du Réveillon dans un autre article)
- L’Epiphanie (Epifania / El Dia de los Reyes): 5 et 6 janvier
Le 6 janvier est férié en Espagne en l’honneur des 3 rois Mages. Vous savez, ces trois personnes qui sont arrivées de l’Est pour rendre visite à Jésus après sa naissance, apportant avec eux de l’or, de l’encens et de la myrrhe.
Reyes Magos
Tradionnellement, en Espagne les Rois Mages apportent des cadeaux aux enfants le 5 Janvier (donc, la veille de l’Epiphanie) durant leur sommeil; et le matin suivant les enfants ouvrent les cadeaux. Comme pour la tradition de Noël, s’ils n’ont pas été sages, ils ne recevront rien à part… du charbon, qui est symbolisé la plupart du temps par un bonbon de couleur charbon.
Les adultes reçoivent également, mais d’importance moindre.
Roscon de Reyes
Roscon de Reyes
Dans la tradition, dans ce dessert on cache une fève (une vraie fève, je parle ici du légume); et une fève (comme en France) représentant l’un des trois Rois Mages. La personne qui trouve le légume doit payer le dessert l’année suivante, tandis que la personne qui trouve la figure est couronnée.
Cabalgata de los Reyes
L’autre moment important de cette date est la Cabalgata de los Reyes (lien en espagnol). Il s’agit d’une grande parade de chars allant de Nuevos Ministerios jusqu’à la place de Cibeles (la place la plus importante de Madrid – un peu comme la place de la Concorde ou la place de l’Etoile à Paris ou la Place Royale à Bruxelles). Elle a lieu le 5 janvier au soir.
Sans grande surprise le long du parcours il y a plein d’enfants et leurs familles. Cette année, la parade célébrait l’Année internationale pour le rapprochement des cultures, et utilisa comme thème récurrent le classique de Jules Vernes « Le tour du monde en 80 jours« . Ce chemin à travers les continents incluait la dance du dragon, une manière d’honorer le partenariat spécial en 2010 entre Madrid et Shanghai.
Cabalgata de los Reyes
A la fin du défilé, les trois Mages (Melchior, Gaspard et Balthasar) arrivent sur leur char et tout le monde les applaudit. Ils montent ensuite sur la petite scène installée où des exhibitions de cirque avaient lieu pendant le défilé, et délivrent un message de paix à la foule (évidemment retransmis à la télévision).
Un feu d’artifice final vient clore le défilé et la fête de très belle manière, et les hauts-parleurs entonnent « And so this is Christmas », de John Lennon. Les enfants rentrent et vont dormir, car les trois Rois Mages sont sur le point de passer et de laisser quelques cadeaux….
Ici vous pouvez trouver une vidéo d’une télévision espagnole faisant la promotion de leur retransmission.
Nicolas.
[disponible ici en français]
While many countries are probably done with the end of year celebrations, and thus many people are already back to work/school, here in Spain things work differently.
Spain celebrate three important dates (when we for example in France celebrate only two):
- Christmas: 24/25 of December
- New Year’s Eve / New Year: 31st/1st of January (more on this soon)
- The Day of the Kings (El Dia de los Reyes): 5th/6th of January
The Day of the Kings is in celebration of the Three Wise Men (or Three Kings, or Magi) – in french, Rois Mages; in spanish, Los Reyes Magos. Remember the story: the three kings are the three person said to have come from the East to visit Jesus after his birth, bringing gifts (gold, incense and myrrh) with themselves.
Reyes Magos
Here in Spain, the Kings are commonly said to bring the presents to kids on the 5th of January (i.e. on the eve of Epiphany) while they are sleeping, and the morning after they open them. Well, like for Christmas, if they haven’t been good kids, they don’t receive anything but carbon… which is usually symbolized by a sweet with a carbon color.
Adults also receive gifts, but not in the same way!
Roscon de Reyes
Roscon de Reyes
In the tradition, this cake is filled with a true dried broad bean (une vraie fève, le légume), and a Christian figure representing one of the Three Kings. The person that finds the bean has to pay the Roscon the year after; and the person that finds the figure is the king and will be crowned with the carton crown that usually comes with the cake if you buy it in a bakery or a shop.
Cabalgata de los Reyes
The other important moment of this Day of the Kings is the Cabalgata de los Reyes (in spanish). A big parade of floats (chars) going from Nuevos Ministerios square to Plaza de Cibeles (the most famous square of Madrid).
Los Reyes is a family party, so without much surprise at the parade there are a lot of kids and their family. This year, the parade is celebrating the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures, and to do so use as a recurrent them the classic Jules Verne’s book « Around the world in eighty days » (Le tour du monde en 80 jours). This path accross different continents includes the dance of the dragon, a way to celebrate the special partnership in 2010 between Madrid and Shanghai.
Cabalgata de los Reyes
At the end of the parade, the three Wise men, Melchior, Gaspard y Balthazar, arrived on their float and everybody applause them. They leave the char, go up the little stage where before circus exhibitions took place, and deliver a message of peace to the entire crowd (of course, retransmitted by television).
A final firework ends the procession and the party in a nice way, with the speakers screaming « And so this is Christmas » from John Lennon, and kids go back home to sleep, cause the Three Wise Men are about to pass by to leave the presents…
Here you can find a video from a Spanish TV channel to introduce the event.
As i said, i will be talking by themes about my trip to Bosnia (and more…).
So here we go…
I will start by giving you a bit of background about Sarajevo, Bosnia, and other terms and words…
Geography
Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is extended along a big river (Miljacka) from east to west. It is located in a valley, so surrounded by (very nice) mountains. Part of Sarajevo lies in the mountains, and roads can get very steep sometimes.
You can find in Sarajevo more than 400000 people.
I am about to say something that might look stupid to you… but Sarajevo looks a bit like the idea i have of Grenoble, in France (but i have never been there): a charming city, not too big, not too small, where you can see mountains from almost everywhere, with a very nice old town, lots of tramway lines as the principal mean of transportation… a city with character and something authentic.
Late history
In its late history, Bosnia and Sarajevo have known many influences. There was Ottoman influences for more than 400 years, then Austrian/Hungarian influences from 19th century til 1917 (you can still witness very nice buildings from that period), and then communism came after the WW II (you can also witness this influence, this time in all the ugly residential buildings in the suburbs), personnalized by Tito. In the 90s were the Yugoslavian Wars (yes, yes, Yugoslavian Wars : my brother just told me that wars were at a different time in Croatia, Serbia, … so it’s better to talk about them plural), and during the Bosnian War there was a big German influence (German army?) , and one of the consequence is that the currency they choosed after that war was directly related to the German Mark (i.e., with a fixed exchange rate). So, for example, now for 1 euro you can get very exactly 1,95 KM.
Mix of influences.
In France we tend to mix the terms Bosniak and Bosnian, and yet there is an important difference in that terminology.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina you can find three kinds of people: Bosniaks (mostly Muslim religion, 50% of inhabitants of Bosnia, they are speaking Bosnian), Serbs (Orthodox religion, 35% of people living in Bosnia – Serbian is the language spoken in Serbia and Montenegro) and Croats (Catholic religion, 15% of people – Croatian is the language used in Croatia). In Sarajevo, there are a lot of Bosniaques, around 80% of people. Talking about Bosnian actually refers to the language they speak in Bosnia Herzegovina and to all the people living there, without distinction of religion or cultures.
This mix of influences is one of the charm of Bosnia and Sarajevo. You can hear several times a day the muezzin singing – he is the man in the mosque that calls for prayer. And then, 5 minutes after, that would be the catholic church’s bell calling for prayer as well. And i have visited (for the first time in my life) a mosque from the inside (in Sarajevo) and a Orthodox church (in Montenegro)
You can find mosque all around the city, as well as Muslim cemeteries : from his flat located at the 10th floor, my brother can count 25 mosques, and see at least 5 or 6 cemeteries. You also find muslim graves in green parks… You have to remember that many Bosniaques were killed during the War in Bosnia : when you have a look at those cemeteries, most graves concern people deceased from 1992 to 1995, and people dead until 1997 consequently to the war.
About the Bosnian War
When i heard about my brother going to Sarajevo, the first images that came to me were of wars and destroyed buildings. For us foreigners, it is hard to think about Sarajevo without relating it to the war.
Most western countries haven’t been on a war for more than 60 years (at least on their own territory), so obviously it is really interesting to go to a country that was under siege and destruction just 15 years ago.
I have to say, it is sometimes impressive. And it makes you think a lot. About the luck we have in France, Belgium or Spain. About how people went on with their lives here, in spite of all the horrors they have seen and lived. Also makes me feel a bit uncomfortable to be there, witnessing as a tourist the destroyed buildings and the bullets.
I remember growing up with the images of Sarajevo destroyed…According to recent and official studies, at least 100.000 people found death in this conflict between 1992-1995.
Now, you can still find remainings of old destroyed buildings, bullets are everywhere on the walls… but people you meet in the street were actually there during the war. It is a weird feeling to be in those streets where history happened…
Its obviously hard to sum up the causes of the war and the war itself. You would need hundreds of years of history, to understand the tension of this part of the world, and some social information as well. Bosnia-Herzegovina was a really mixed country, as i said earlier. History is full of conflicts in the Balkans, and it would be too easy to conclude that one community was better than the other one.
After the fall of communism, things started to get bad in Yugoslavia. In the federation of Bosnia, power was dispatched between the three leading communities, but soon enough, even though Serbia and Croatia federation were trying to split Bosnia federation, Bosnia-Hercegovina declared itself as an independent country, leading to a war held by Serbs (who would later be joined by the Croats).
Everybody started fighting with each other, but this time, in this 1992-1995 conflict, Serbs attacked the most. Soon Serbs were circling Sarajevo, making a siege that would be the longest siege of a european city in the modern world : for more than 3 years, Sarajevo was surrounded by Serb force. History always tend to repeat… Serbs built some camp of concentration, raped Bosniak women, prevented the citizens to get any food or drink.
All this under the eyes of the United Nations, that just provided the country with some Peacekeeping Forces (Casques bleus), that dind’t have any right to use their weapons… and were just supposed to « keep the peace », in other words, not do anything, not try to make peace…
Anyway Bosniak organized and resisted, even without the help of UN forces. They built a tunnel under one of the hills, that they used for food and drink transit, a tunnel that Serbs never discovered. They built up a military force and won some important battles… Serbs replicated with some big massacres: Markale massacres, and Srebrenica massacre. Eventually, the International community did something and pressured Milosevic (the Serbian dictator) to stop the war.
The story in the Balkans is very interesting… I didn’t even mention Mostar here, who was another symbol during the war, symbol of the confrontation between Croats and Bosniaks… Croats and Bosniaks started the war as allied against Serbs, but then decided to join the latter ones. That went so far that Croats even destroyed the symbolic Stari Most bridge, to prevent Bosniaks to go to the other side of the city…
For more information, you should definitely go visit wikipedia, its full of information! The english Wikipedia page about the war is really big, and i was just trying to give you some introduction about the war…
Stay tuned for other articles about this trip…
