Santiago de Compostela has been full of surprises for me. As I mentioned previously, the weather has been cooler and wetter than I thought it would be. Ascension, a city holiday that took up half of my stay here, was also unexpected.
Ascension is a festival commemorating Mary’s ascension to heaven. I’m sure there were religious aspects to this holiday, but the majority of my experience with it felt more like the Western Idaho Fair each August. The events took place in the main park near the Old Town and at various plazas in Old Town. Here are some of the interesting things I experienced.
Lights
The first sign that something was coming were the lights hung in the trees. I have seen lights like this on streets for Christmas, but these ones had flowers and butterflies. The main light spelled out ASCENSION.
La Noria
According to my teacher, the traveling ferris wheel that they put up is one of the biggest ones in Europe. I usually take a pass on carnie rides, but this one felt sturdy so I paid 6 euros for a ride. It was quite tall and I got really great view of the valley. How fast it moved was shocking. In my experience, ferris wheels are pretty tame, but this one was moving so fast I had to take off my hat because I was afraid the wind would blow it off!
Carney food
Ascension fair food included hamburgers, fries, doughnuts, churros, cotton candy, candied nuts, and more. I only tried the doughnuts because they are a special kind for festivals, but I saw people eating a gourmet dish of french fries and beanie weenies. I’m not gonna lie, I was intrigued…
Book fair
In America, state/county fairs don’t often feature books. I was impressed to see there was a very well attended book fair staged right next to the games and food. Unfortunately for me, the books were all in Spanish and I’m not quite up to par for reading novels. It cracked me up to see the Spanish version of a book in my brother’s favorite series: Sky Ridge Hotshots.
Games and Rides
I was astounded with how much stuff they could fit in this not remotely level park. Trucks with carnival games lined the hills and noise from bumper cars and the funhouse were so loud I had to plug my ears. My fellow student lives near the park and he complained about how the noise kept him up at night. Speaking of, it is not at all strange to see kids walking around at 10 or 11 PM. I go to bed before these five year olds!
Classical Concert
One of my favorite things I experienced as part of Ascension was a classical concert in the middle of an outdoor plaza next to a church from the 1600s. There were around 30 black suit-clad musicians playing everything but stringed instruments. They focused on Galician composers, but the final song definitely had a little Mozart sampled into it.
Nighttime Concerts
I went to three evening performances that varied dramatically. One was a kistchy band that played some American 80s music in addition to latino hits. The number of people (mainly white-haired couples) dancing wowed me.
The audience was vastly different for another night, where a DJ and rappers almost brought down the cathedral with the pounding bass.
The final performance was the weirdest, and even though my Spanish isn’t great, even I could pick up on the strong feminist slant. This performance was a mix of acts, including a skit, singing, and a group comedy song.
Traditional music and dancing
Perhaps the coolest performance I saw was the most traditional. A big group of people dressed in traditional clothes took turns playing instruments and dancing. Parts of it were extremely Riverdance-esque, with pointed toes and hopping around to bagpipes. This tracks due to the strong Celtic influence in this region. I did not understand the headdresses some of the women wore after the group turned into a processional, but it appeared to be giant round loaves of bread with ribbons. I have no idea what that was all about, but it looked like a good time.
Ascension lasted for around two weeks. The noria is still up and running and couple food trucks are still hanging around, but the lights and majority of the attractions have packed it up. I love that I got to experience so much of this holiday, as it is clearly a big event each year.
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