Apparently there is a saying in Spain: Domingo de Ramos, quien no estrena algo, se le caen las manos. Well, my hands hopefully won’t fall off this year, since I “tried” a few new things today… I went to my first Spanish wedding (in Terrassa), two baptisms PLUS a Palm Sunday service in Santa María del Mar in Barcelona (lucky for me, it was in Castellano and not Catalan as usual — don’t know why). The wedding and two baptisms were all at once(!), and in a sign of “modern Spain” (or, perhaps, “modern Catholicism”?), one of the children being baptised was also the child of the couple getting married!
Then, from the sacred to the profane — dinner of pintxos and Txakoli (typical Basque white wine), and finally a flamenco show at Tarantos. The show was by a group of guys called “Baratito Loco”…the music in particular was excellent, and especially the “two Pacos” on guitar (they weren’t “de Lucía”, no — rather Paco Heredia and Paco Garfia).
In Barcelona, near the Sagrada Familia, vendors sell huge palm fronds for Palm Sunday. They whiten and dry the fronds, then braid them into very fancy “bouquets” and flowery shapes. And all bundled up with a nice bow in the stripes of the Catalan flag!