There is a legend that: when the last muslim king of Granada - Sultan Muhammad, after he lost his kingdom, was exiled, and on his way out of Granada, he stopped at a mountain pass to look back at Granada and began to cry. His mother was unimpressed with his sudden remorse and scolded him, “Cry like a woman for that which you could not defend as a man.”. We passed by this same road like the king but we wasn't cry, we was exciting because we went to celebrate the end of the carnaval in Alhama – small, but amazing town near the Granada.
It was Valentine's day. Few days before in the Ciudad de los ninos there were a party because of that day and i've got so cute valentine from my kids.
But, let's back to the main subject. It was a Valentine's day and we went to celebrate the end of carnaval, but... wait a minute... in Poland the carnaval ended on Wednesday which we called Ash Wednesday. From this time till the Easter there is no party in Poland. But, in Andalusia it seems that the carnaval never ending ;)
[photo from: http://alhama.com/digital/fiestas/carnaval]
The carnaval in Alhama is special and has long tradition. People dress some special clothes which some of them keep in their wardrobes especially for that day. Some others wear what they have in a hand: clothes, paper, rubbish bag and in this outfit they walk on the street. There is also a tradition that a group of people wear this same clothes. The most traditional part of the dress is some kind of mask on the face made of white material with holes for the eyes and mouth.
When you wear it you have to also change your voice to do not let no one to recognise you. The next and an important thing is that there is also sing contest. But not ordinary songs. There are groups of people and each group write one song about what happened during last year: it can be connected with politics, sport, anything and it is like a parody. The purpose is similar like in Poland before when we had: Szopki noworoczne. So, there is a sentence in Spain:" Ten cuidado, podrÃas estar en el próximo carnaval", which mean than if you do something stupid or fun or spectacular you can be in someone song during next carnaval party. There are also people who make their own show.There is a lot of fun to see how big distance have Spanish people to themselves and how can they have fun even if the weather this year was not spanish: it was raining and snowing but the peple did not care about the weather, come on, it is a carnaval, bad weather? - no pasa nada ;)
After this party on the street we went on the party in our coordinator- Carmen friend's home. We met amazing people working with immigrants, youths, disabled people, who painted our face in indian style, singing and dancing to the songs from our 4 different countries: Spain, Itally, Maroco and Poland.
You think that is the end? No way. When we came back to the Ciudad de los ninos it is turned out that on the end of the week there will be the end of the carnaval in the centre :) All the week all our huge home was full of paper, serpentine, origami cranes... because we made a decor. Each group of children prepared their own show. They also dressed in some costumes and sing about Ciudad, teachers and so on. So, it is possible that we really can be in their next carnaval ;)
