Galicia

Can/May anyone explain to me the customs, the mannerisms, the food, and et cetera of the beautiful Celtic region? I'm planning to take a trip to Galicia, maybe to A Corunna sometime in the future. Any information at all would suffice to help me learn.

Costumbres gallegas , galicia , los celtas en Galicia and galinor might be good starters for you to learn a little before your trip! Galicia is magical! You will love it I am sure!!

P. S. I hope you can read in Spanish

hey everybody

Thanks esperanza! The sites were helpful. And yes, I am able to read Spanish...up until a certain point... But, then again, I can understand the main idea. :p

Santiago de Compostela is the Capital of the Autonomous Region of Galicia (Xunta do Galizia). 2004 is an Anho Júbilar Xacobeo (a year in which the Apostle's Feast Day: 25 July, falls on a Sunday). There will be big events throughout Galicia during late Spring & Summer.

During the 700-year Moorish occupation of Spain, Christians were called 'Gallegos' by the Moors.

Gallegos are a seafaring people - many in the new World, mostly Cuba and Argentina (incl. Cuba's Fidel Castro) trace their roots to Galicia. I am Irish but I think there was a Celtic (Castreño) migration to Ireland about the 3rd Century B.C. So I may have some distant Gallego roots.

One of Galicia's provinces, Pontevedra, is where Spain's busiest Atlantic port (Vigo) is located. Gallegos grow and eat a lot of potatos - in Vigo I had the best broiled Swordfish I had ever eaten at a small, family run restaurant. A fish market (at la Pedra) is awesome! Down the ria from the city of Vigo is Baiona, where Columbus made landfall on his return from his first Voyage of Discovery. The Castle of Conde de Gondomar in Baiona is a Parador Naciónal. About 15-mi south from Baiona is la Guardia and Monte Santa Tecla where there is a restored 4th Century B.C. Celtic settlement. Definitely worth a visit!

Why the sarcasm, Eddie? -->

El Cid, Galicia is wonderful! besides being the third Holiest place in the Christian world, as Eddie described, it is also, along with Asturias, the most celtic in Spain.

My father and his family are Gallegos, he was born there, then immigrated to Cuba just before the Guerra Incivil, and grew up there. But,I remember as a child my Grandmother telling me stories about Brujas and all sorts of elves and goblins. Very similar to the mythology of the Celtic peoples of Ireland and Scotland. She made me wear an Azabache, to keep away the evil eye and brujas too! I was so surprised when I went to Galicia and noticed the jewelry stores selling azabaches, and postcards of funny witches! Abuela also told me a lot of stories about sprites that lived in trees and under bridges. Not to mention the mermaids! That too is part of Galician mythology.

El Çid d'Espanna writes:
No sarcasm intended! I use the to emphasize the fact that you will see new and wondrous things, especially at Monte Santa Tecla, and Baiona and places between the two along the coastal road.
BTW
Once (in 1992) I was in Galicia at the same time as Cuba's Fidel Castro, who was visiting near Betanzos, where his family came from.

Back in about 1998, the Chieftains, an Irish folk group (with a Gaitero from Pontevedra) put out a CD called "Santiago." There is a little booklet that comes with that CD that tells a lot about Galicia. Carlos Nuñez, who was the group's lead bagpiper, had won the annual bagpipe (Gaita) competition that is still held each May in Vigo.

In northeastern Galicia, people wear wooden shoes, like in Holland.

hey everybody

eddie

carlos nunez the only non-irish member(but still celtic )is really from vigo not pontevedra.
now...if perhaps you meant his provence of origin then ala your right go ahead.

oh and youre right about the northeastern galegos wearing wooden shoes called madrenhas which look somewhat tippy toe.it also makes them look somewhat taller. i saw some of them near viveiro, they were all going to market.

fmiketheman writes: That's precisely what I meant! I wasn't absolutey sure if Carlos Nuñez was born and raised in the city of Vigo; that's why I said Pontevedra where Vigo is the largest city although not the Capital of the Province.

As for the wooden shoes: They also wear them in parts of Asturias and Cantabria. I am told it's because the roadsa get so muddy.

for El Çid d'Espanna: Another popular food in Galicia in late winter / early Spring is lacon con grelos. You pass many roadside stands on the old road between Santiago and A'Corunha with ladies selling grelos (similar to turnip greens).

Besides short stints in Ourense and Vigo, all of my time in Galicia has been in very small towns in the mountains. Twice I have been fortunate enough to be there on market day in the little town of Viana do Bolo. It is my most vivid memory of Galicia.

The gypsies come in with their wagons full of clothing, hardware, meat and produce and clothing. Arriving with them are the pulpo vendors, who set themselves up outside restaurants with their huge copper pots and propane burners. You order your octopus, then head inside to get your bread, potatoes and wine and gaseosa (not La Casera, but the local stuff) and sit family style with the rest of the locals. The vendor brings in your pulpo and you get to add your own oil, pimenton and sal gordo. This is not your typical 12 euro, 8 pieces of Madrid tapas, but a huge, heaping, steaming mound!

The way I understand it, the market/pulpo caravan arrives in small towns all across Galicia on the same day each month. If you are fortunate enough to run into it, don't pass it up!

My second most vivid memory is being summoned from my room to help a dozen other men unload a lumber truck of 20 foot, 12 x 12 inch wooden beams for a carpenter, destined to refurbish a local church!

WOW. Speaking of the subject at hand, there's a website that you might want to see. It talks about Iberian-Visigothic Elves (which in my own opinion are ancient stories of alien visitations ) and other types of creatures such as Xanas, Cuélebres, and Trasgus.

Iberian-Visigothic Elves

I was just wondering why you had put the " ", nada más. Interesting info on Castro I might add.