Una comparación entre dos días festivos: El día de Andalucía y el día de San Patrick de Irlanda.

Hola a tod@s! Hoy quería escribir sobre mi experiencia del día de Andalucía este año como extranjera. Me hacía pensar mucho en el día festivo de mi país, el día de San Patrick. Entonces quería contar mis pensamientos de mi experiencia del día de Andalucía mientras hablar sobre las similitudes o diferencias con el día festivo de Irlanda. ¡¡Espero que disfrutéis!!

I can definitely say Irish people are very proud of their culture and traditions much like what I’ve noticed since I’ve been here in Andalucía. Irish people really love to talk, especially over a pint of Guinness and a packet of Tayto Crisps (the most famous and popular crisps brand in Ireland). St. Patrick’s Day celebrates this to the max. We all gather on the afternoon of St. Patrick’s day at the local pub and catch up with friends. Usually everyone glued to the screens watching a rugby match, and everyone is enjoying seeing family and friends.

In the morning, in the cities or in the bigger towns, there will be a St. Patrick’s Day parade. I must admit, compared to the magnificent array of parades I’ve seen here during Semana Santa, our St. Patrick’s day parades don’t stand a chance! However I find them very nice as they are so community based. The parade consists of members from various clubs, community groups or businesses from the towns walking along, showcasing what they do. For example the local karate club will all walk down and then and one moment stop to show some of their moves, and then continue on. In bigger cities like Dublin, the celebrations and parades are much more elaborate but I have to say, coming from a fairly medium sized-town I personally love the community aspect of our parades and getting to meet up with neighbours from the town.

This “community feel” is something I really noticed during día de Andalucía. I’ve already noticed that the people here love to meet up in groups and spend time chatting and having a drink, even dressing up on a Sunday afternoon to eat and meet up with family. But I have to say on día de Andalucía, I really noticed that everyone was using this as a good opportunity to meet up with friends, eat with family and just spend time with loved ones. That’s really what I liked about the day.

In the lead up to the day, our university held an event where people could eat traditional Anadlucían foods like tostadas de aceite  and listen to flamenco music. We have a very similar thing in Ireland, where the week before St. Patrick’s day all schools make an effort to speak Irish for the week, (the second language of Ireland)

I started out the day of Día de Andalucía with my Erasmus friends (two girls from England), we went out for lunch and then spent the afternoon walking around the city and sitting out and doing lots of people watching ,which is my favourite thing to do around here!! Then in the evening, some of our Spanish friends came to join us. I really loved that because it meant we got to learn exactly what Andalusians would do to celebrate this day, which we learned was indeed meet up with friends and family over a drink or some food. It was a great way to spend the day.

By the end of the day I realised that the day itself is actually quite simple. It’s all about appreciating the great things about this region and spending time with loved ones. I’m so happy I got to experience this special day here as I really enjoyed celebrating this place and hanging out with friends.