Carnaval

This weekend was the beginning of Carnaval, the festival celebrated throughout Spain that generally involves dressing up in costumes, going out and having a good time. The Carnaval in Cádiz (province neighboring the province of Sevilla) is probably the most famous in Spain, and in Cádiz, Carnaval involves the performance of musical groups whose songs are funny, witty, and critical.

This weekend I got to enjoy Carnaval in two different cities!

Saturday I went to the city of Cádiz with a girl from my lab and one of her friends. Until 4pm or so there wasn't much going for Carnaval, since everyone was recovering from the night before, but we enjoyed walking around the city in the absolutely perfect weather. Later on we got to see a few chirigotas (one type of musical group) performing on the streets. We left just as the crowds of partying young people were coming - absolutely everyone was dressed up!

Everyone in costume. This is on the steps of the cathedral!

On Sunday I went with two girls in my lab to the town of Bornos in the province of Cádiz, where Juanjo, another member of my lab, is a part of a comparsa (another type of musical group) there for Carnaval. It was a big contrast from Cádiz - Bornos is a little town out in the country, with a cute little church, town hall, and a main street with a few bars.

A chirigota performing in Bornos

We got to watch Juanjo's comparsa perform in a bar - 14 people with a singers, guitar, and a few other instruments. They performed for about half an hour and had songs about the spirit of Carnaval in Bornos, world leaders, inside jokes about Bornos, and other things. The crowd loved it!

We guessed that we were the only people in the town that day who weren't from Bornos, because everyone there knows each other. While we were waiting in the bar for Juanjo's comparsa to start, a dad asked us if we were from outside - he probably didn't recognize us and knew we weren't from Bornos! We told him we're friends with Juanjo, and he knew pretty much immediately who we were talking about!

After the performance

I've learned so much about how Carnaval is celebrated and viewed and about the rules/styles/traditions of the songs, but of course can't write everything here. I'm fascinated getting to be immersed in Carnaval, having known about it since we did a little unit on it in Spanish IV back in high school. And next weekend I'm going back to Cádiz for the second weekend of Carnaval!