Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[aeveling]

We have now decided to add a few more days to our circular trip SDC - Finisterre - Muxia - SDC.
Our dates are 23rd December to 4th January and we were wondering how the Spanish celebrate Christmas/New Year. When will refuges,hostels, supermarkets, cafes etc be closed?

Thanks,

Andrew.

[JohnnieWalker]

Hi

Spaniards take these holydays very seriously! Even in rural Spain there will be fireworks on New Years eve. I suspect albergues will be open - why not ask Javier Martin to e mail his contacts on this route just to check.

It is a very lovely route - I'm already jealous of the quiet beauty you will experience at this time of the year.

[KiwiNomad06]

I am not sure about northern Spain, but further south I found that Christmas was relatively low-key...it was the Feast of the Three Kings on Jan 5/6 when children were given gifts and all sorts of lively things happened. But New Year's Eve was certainly a "biggie"!

[JohnnieWalker]

absolutely right that the Feast of the Kings is more populist than Christmas - even in small villages there will be processions and floats with the bystanders showered with sweets from the Kings. I think a lovely custom is the children putting out their shoes to be filled with presents the same as we would hang up our stockings. But you know churches are still full for Midnight Mass on the Noche Buena but of course the revelry is kept for the Noche Vieja when the old night can be celebrated almost as well as a good old fashioned hogmanay!