Flowered crosses and modern art in May

A little more than a month after Fallas transformed our town, the local groups who created the giant papier-mâché monuments that were burned at the end of that festival got their creative juices flowing once more – this time to construct giant monuments made of flowers. Valencians, it appears, are really into ephemeral art. Technically, the monuments were supposed to feature crosses, as Burriana – like much of Spain – was celebrating the Cruces de Mayo (Crosses of May) festival the first weekend of that month. As we came to see, however, the cross concept proved a very loose jumping off point. Since the

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A fancy calçotada and some Holy Week pomp

A few days before taking off for a spring break trip to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Tenerife, we spent the second weekend of April around home because we were invited to a calçotada in Vila-Real! This traditional spring festival of Catalan origin celebrates the calçot, a very specific kind of spring onion that is traditionally fire-roasted, wrapped in newspaper, then peeled and eaten by hand while wearing gloves. It is also dipped in romesco sauce (delicious, and probably the reason why we needed the bibs) before it makes its way to mouths and bellies. Dreamer just couldn’t get it right, though.

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