Tomorrow is "Fat Tuesday" and I will be following the tradition to make "filloas" (Galician crepes)for my family. My daughters are looking forward to it and I get to pass on the traditions that I cherish from when I was a little girl!

Talking about this tradition with one of my first cousins, she asked me about another tradition but we both couldn't remember what day this was done: filling a basin with clean water and adding flowers to the water and then washing your face with the water... is this done on one specific day of the year?? Does anyone know? This may be only done in Galicia...
gracias...Esperanza

I was in the Galician towns of Viana do Bolo and A Veiga for carnaval. The first thing I saw in Viana on Tuesday was the children dressed in costume and carrying bags of flour which they threw by the handfuls at each other and everyone else. The shops and bars had everything wrapped in plastic.

Then we headed to A Veiga where they were having the "farewell to meat" with chorizo, pork empanadas, bread and wine straight from the barrel. On wednesday they welcomed the fish with an open-fire sardine roast along with tuna empanadas. At the end the kids burned a large paper mache fish. When it was over we ended up in a bar watching Spain beat Portugal on TV!

On Thursday we went to a feira de pulpo in Viana, but that is a whole 'nother story...