For the holiday weekend around Easter, I traveled with my host family to a small mountain village called Arcos de las Salinas. The name “Las Salinas” is due to the salt mines that used to be vital to the area, however now they are no longer in service.
It is remarkable how my Spanish family has owned the house in this town for almost three hundred years! My host siblings' grandmother explained to me how it originally belonged to the great-grandfather of her grandfather, and how it has stayed in the family for all of these years. In fact, most if not all of the families who travel there for the holidays have similar lengthy heritage. Curiously, I have seen many familiar faces as well, because several friends of the family that I have met over the course of the semester are people who live in Valencia, but make frequent travels to Arcos for the holidays and especially during the summer.
Most of the time spent in Arcos was relaxing or eating. For the latter, one of the highlights was a massive paella, which is a traditional Valencian rice dish that we made in the street (see the picture above). I have always eaten very well here in Spain, and this weekend was no exception! I also had the chance to play a little bit of pickup soccer/futsal, of which I was surely the worst, but proud to pick up the first assist of the day. Also, in the town nearby they held a tournament that lasted all of Friday, and the team of my host brother and his friends won! He was so happy, despite having fallen and broken his wrist near the end of the day.
Here in Spain, celebrating all of the traditions during the Semana Santa, or Holy Week is such an important part of the culture. There are frequently processions through the streets, with people dressed up in traditional attire, carrying crosses and paying homage to the virgin as well as Christ while marching to the beating drums. Also, it is kind of freaky to see some of the outfits, because in the United States we associate all white costumes with tall pointy caps and masks with the KKK, but the tradition there runs much deeper and longer in Spain. Doesn’t mean I can’t think it looks a little weird. Arcos was a little small to have these, but they did still have a mass. Every town here in Spain, no matter how small, has at least a small plaza and pub for social gatherings, and a church, often surprisingly more ornate and beautiful inside than you might expect.
I truly enjoyed visiting this town, especially because of how significant it is to my hosts. While there have only been a handful of times that I am somewhat homesick, I do admit that I missed being able to celebrate Easter with my church and my family!