Christmas weekend got underway yesterday, local streets alive with people and activity. In this barrio nighttime revelers stayed out celebrating until, er, this morning. Throughout the early hours, voices drifted up from the street -- talking, singing, shouting, laughing. A city cleaning crew passed through around 7 a.m., sweeping up, hosing everything down. They moved on, the revelry continued until silence gradually descended around 8, daylight finally driving everyone home.
Around 9:30, I headed out -- chilly air, gray skies, damp sidewalks. Wandered to the local plaza, picked up a newspaper, stopped into a cafeteria, the place nearly empty given how early it was for a Saturday morning in this part of the world. The few bleary individuals there stood at the counter, eyes fixed on the TV where the national Christmas lottery unfolded.
It's a huge deal, la Lotería de Navidad, an elaborate ritual virtually impossible to avoid come the morning of the event. (The hook line on television: la suerte, en directo -- luck, live.) On a stage in an auditorium, two children dressed in, essentially, Catholic school outfits take wooden balls that find their way out of enormous golden spheres -- chanting the figures emblazoned on the balls along with the value of the prize. The balls are dropped onto a rod in an abacus-like device, decisive balls are shown to a panel of officials, an audience in the auditorium reacts at big moments. An elaborate ritual that goes on for hours, the chanting nearly continuous, one pair of children giving way to another, the value of the prizes slowly climbing.
I watched, working on a croissant and caffeine. Two 30ish males stumbled in from the plaza, looking like they'd been up all night. They asked if the big prize (el gordo) had been picked yet, one of the counterpeople said no, it would be a while. The two males nodded, transferring their gaze to the TV for a moment before shambling back out to the gray morning.
A short time later I did the same, walking past a line of trucks to one side of the plaza. Children's voices played on radios in virtually every vehicle, the chanting following me past delivery people unloading crates of produce and out into the street.
Saturday morning, December 22, 2007. Madrid.
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Existentialism -- it's everywhere:
"Yow! I think I just understood 'Beetle Bailey'! It's all about pain, loneliness and despair!!" -- Zippy the Pinhead, 12/14/07
España, te quiero.
rws 8:43 AM [+]
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