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Hola! We are stealing this thread... but heck talking about chestnuts is a nice break... Chestnuts was the staple food in this area before the potato probably even before the Kingdom of Leon (smile, please). My favorite recipe - out of many - is chestnut soup: peel add milk, a little sugar, cinnamon, cook slowly...
But here is a question for you people... Which country produces more chestnuts? No you won´t find the answer in Wikipedia... and no it´s not Catalunya.
David, I´m writing from someplace in the Rias Baixas. You asked.
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Chestnuts was the staple food in this area before the potato probably even before the Kingdom of Leon (smile, please).....hahahahaha......of course I laugh at it. Did you thinK i was going to be like some catalan nationalism who do not see, read, understand or speak about anything which is not their own "lovely" catalunya?hehehe......
Anyway, I got speaking to portuguish customer today at work about Magusto and just found out that they celebrate it to welcome the new wine produced after the grape collection. Well I did not know this to be honest.....it is always so wonderful to speak to people from other culture...you learn so much dont you?
Galego.....let me give you 2 guesses. My first thought would be America due to the production of all kind of nuts in the south. My second guess would be Australia.....and this is really a risky guess beacuse it is not based on any sense.....just pure gues :-)
Cant wait to hear the answer.....
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Olá David
The chestnut (castanha) was so important that the tree was called “arvore do pão”, bread tree, people made bread with the flower. The “ magusto” tradition in Portugal is to make a bonfire where everybody gathers around and eat the roasted chestnuts. The wine is important at this time so people drink
“vinho novo” and “jeropiga”. You can also eat all sorts of regional food depending of the tradition and magusto can also be made with cooked chestnuts.
There are a many sayings about magusto and wine: “Dia de S. Martinho, lume, castanhas e vinho”. São Martinho is when "they celebrate it to welcome the new wine produced after the grape collection", as you said.
With the coal from the bonfire people paint their faces. People also sing songs and play all sorts of games for fun.
In some regions the magusto is celebrated in Christmas time too, and the old tradition of preparing a meal for the dead was also common at this time(not so much nowadays).
In the “Dia de Todos os Santos” , All Saints Day, during the day, children go from house to house asking for the “pão por Deus” or “ pão pelas alminhas” carrying a bag made of cloth where they put the dry fruits, cakes and bread people give to them. Today they get candies and cookies too. In the past entire families would go from door to door asking for the “pão por Deus”, now it is only the children and the tradition is dying in the big towns. In the afternoon there is the magusto that lasts until late at night.
There was also a tradition of carving turnips ,or pumpkins, make three or four holes to make eyes nose and a mouth, put a candle inside and then leave them at night in hidden places to scare the people that was passing by. An old pan with a lid with four holes would do too. It was called “côca” or “coca” but I do not know if there was a specific date when they used to do it, hardly anyone remembers this tradition, it is pretty much dead. I know it was also a tradition in Spain and had the same name, maybe in Galicia. It could be connected with the “coca rabixa” ( the dragon), because it is all about fire, but I can’t find information about it.
Galego, you are right all these traditions are of pre-Roman origin and were most probably Celtic. I can tell you where "the Best chestnut " is produced ;) , the biggest producer hummm....that is a tough one. Maybe India?
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*(flower) =the bread was better with flour
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Hi, david and "gringo"
"you are right all these traditions are of pre-Roman origin and were most probably Celtic". Eh! I never said such a thing. Let's not "celtify" everything, if we really don't know. Even the experts call that civilization "castrexa" to avoid controversy. BTW if you are ever around Peñafiel in Valladolid don´t forget to visit Pintia, 4 Kms from Peñafiel. Pintia was an important pre-roman city. The area was populated by the Vacceos (apparently or probably celtiberians). It is very impressive, at least it impressed me for the technology they had in those days and the beautiful craftmanship.
The biggest chestnut producer is China, apparently mostly from bushes not trees. Other chestnut producing countries seem to be Turkey and Italy. Spain comes as number 7. At least this is what this book says...
Cheers.
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Galego
««Eh! I never said such a thing. »» sorry you are right, you did not say it. I wanted to reffer to the "before" you said but was almost asleep:
««Chestnuts was the staple food in this area before the potato probably even before the Kingdom of Leon (smile, please).»»
«« Let's not "celtify" everything, if we really don't know. Even the experts call that civilization "castrexa" to avoid controversy.»» It is not to avoid controversy, it is because of the village's type of construction, hill fort , castros existed long before the celts appeared in that region. More to the south where the Celts also lived it is not called "civilização castreja", the houses are also square. "Civilização Castreja" is mostly for the northwest region.
It is not celtifying everything, I said it is probably celtic because we not only find many of these traditions all over europe (or variations of it), but at the same time they do not appear all over the Iberian peninsula, only in specific areas that had celtic population. But if you mean we should not forget the other native people I agree.
Ooops I was looking for Valladolid - Pintia, in Galicia. There are so many beautifull things in the Iberian peninsula, it would be nice they made virtual tours of all of them. But it is asking too much. Just have to wait untill one day I go there.
If you like castros "Citânia de Briteiros" is a beautifull place to go too.
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Thanks Gringo and Galego, love reading you guys.....so much to learn from other cultures.
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Hello Galego and Gringo,
Just to prove you how we humans keep traditions no matter where we migrate. Surfing on internet I just found this leonese association in Mexico who apparently are second and third generations from leonese emigrats. This makes me feel so happy to see how people still care for the culture and tradition which are hard to keep on these times:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpkpv8IwZso&mode=related&search=
The kids dancing leonese songs put a huge smile on my face....isnt this wonderful to watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjlLitD4VUo
BTW, they are celebrating la Virgen del Camino "Patrona" of the leonese regions.
Look forward to hearing some amazaing traditions from your regions.
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David wrote: "My first thought would be America due to the production of all kind of nuts". I almost missed this precious sentence. Absolutely right the list of nuts or lunatics is long these days: G.W.Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Bolton, Paterson the crazy preacher, everybody in Fox Network, and so on... God! it must be horrible to be American these days.
Back to our chestnut - and innocent - thread, the American chestnut trees (mostly South and South East) suffered a horrible plague that killed most of them. So these days the USA has nuts but no chestnut trees (Couldn't avoid the joke again) although they are trying to recover the chestnuts and get rid of the nut or lunatic. Good luck to them.
Haven't been to Briteiros - close the my town - although I've been often to Portugal but I'll promise to go. Been to Vidago several times (a splendid resort-hotel there) near Chaves. I love Portugal. The Portuguese have preserved their towns and villages beautiful while in Spain we've built garbage over garbage and continue to do so. I Portugal there is still air between the buildings, in Spain you often see the sky up there between to tall cement walls.
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Hei Gringo,"your" Côca (coca) is "el Coco", conocido, en muchos lugares, como "el Cuco".
Coco- Del port. côco, fantasma que lleva una calabaza vacía, a modo de cabeza. m. Fantasma que se figura para meter miedo a los niños.(Diccionario de la Real Academia Española).
This a well known lullaby to make kids sleep: "Duérmete niño duérmete ya, que viene el coco y te comerá"
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Hei Gringo,"your" Côca (coca) is "el Coco", known in many places, as "el Cuco".
Coco- Del port. côco, fantasma que lleva una calabaza vacía, a modo de cabeza. m. Fantasma que se figura para meter miedo a los niños.(Diccionario de la Real Academia Española).
This a well known lullaby to make kids sleep: "Duérmete niño duérmete ya, que viene el coco y te comerá"
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"Duérmete niño, que viene el coco y se lleva a los niños que duermen poco".
Me encantó ver los videos de Méjico. La música no se oye muy bien... pero el tipo de baile y los trajes son como los de aquí. Bueno... al fin y al cabo somos vecinos. Saludos.
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Galego, I am happy to hear you like those videos from mexico.
What I thought it was very impressive to see how emigrats kept and keep those traditional from generation to generation.......
By the way, what happened to those catalan nationalism? Since you, me and Gringo started on this forum they seemed to be vanished.
I guess they get bored as we do not talk about catalunya....hehehe.
By the way Galego, I got the feeling you lived in States for a while is that right? Sorry dont mean to go down to personal question so up to you if you wanna answer it!
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"By the way Galego, I got the feeling you lived in States for a while is that right? Sorry dont mean to go down to personal question so up to you if you wanna answer it!"
David,
Absolutely! You are a cunning observer, but I won't tell you where. I don't like giving personal information on the net even anonymously. And to tell you the truth I enjoyed it. I got to know people from all over the world - literally. But there is no place like home.
Cheers!
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Olá
Guest:
««"your" Côca (coca) is "el Coco", conocido, en muchos lugares, como "el Cuco".»»
In Portugal the name “coco” "côca" or "coca" meant the same when referring to the spooky fellow . Guess why the name “coco” was given, by the Portuguese, to the fruit that in English is also called "coco"-nut: Because it looked like a “coco”.
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