May long weekend in Galicia

Instead of having the Monday off for Victoria day I had the Thursday off for the Día de las Letras Gallegas, an annual celebration of Galician literature held on May 17th. The different regions of Spain have different ´bank holidays´ in May for saints, writers, etc. In Galicia the 17th was chosen as a day to celebrate the Galician language in 1963. That year was the centennial celebration of the first publication of Galician literature by Rosalia de Castro in 1863. I first learned about the holiday from my dance teacher who I overheard explaining that she was preparing some students to dance in the main square of Lugo on the 17th at 1:00pm with a group of 600 young people. I was intrigued and went to the tourism office for more information on the day´s events. The only available info. was a press release which the man in the office printed off for me.

On the Thursday about an hour before the dance event I started to see children in traditional dress in the streets, so I headed towards the town centre. When I arrived I saw a group of people standing around the statue of Anxel Fole, another Galician author and when I got closer I suddenly found myself part of a group on a literary walk. The poetry of María Mariño, the author selected to be recognized for 2007, was being read and sung while the group walked around the old center of Lugo. I stayed with the group for a while and then skipped out when I heard the gaita music playing. The children were lined up all around the main square with band in the centre. As they started to dance I recognized some of the Muiñeira and Jota dance steps from my classes and was almost ready to join in. I´ll have to find a costume for next year…