Galicia is an autonomous community of Spain and historic nationality under Spanish law. Located in the northwest Iberian Peninsula, it includes the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra.
May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. Traditions often include gathering wildflowers and green branches, weaving floral garlands, crowning a May Queen, and setting up a Maypole, May Tree or May Bush, around which people dance. Bonfires are also part of the festival in some regions. Regional varieties and related traditions include Walpurgis Night in central and northern Europe, the Gaelic festival Beltane, the Welsh festival Calan Mai, and May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has also been associated with the ancient Roman festival Floralia.
Spanish cuisine consists of the traditions and practices of Spanish cooking. It features considerable regional diversity, with important differences between the traditions of each of Spain's regional cuisines.
Samhain, Sauin or Oíche Shamhna is a Gaelic festival on 1 November marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or "darker half" of the year. It is also the Irish language name for November. Celebrations begin on the evening of 31 October, since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals along with Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lughnasa. Historically it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. A similar festival is held by the Brittonic Celtic people, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales.
The Passover Seder is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. The day falls in late March or in April of the Gregorian calendar; Passover lasts for seven days in Israel and eight days outside Israel. Jews traditionally observe one seder if in Israel and two if in the Jewish diaspora. The Seder is a ritual involving a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt, taken from the Book of Exodus in the Torah. The Seder itself is based on the Biblical verse commanding Jews to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt: "You shall tell your child on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'" At the seder, Jews read the text of the Haggadah, an ancient Tannaitic work. The Haggadah contains the narrative of the Israelite exodus from Egypt, special blessings and rituals, Talmudic commentaries, and Passover songs.
Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer occurring near the date of the summer solstice which is known in solar reckoning as the mid-point of the season. As the precise date of the summer solstice can vary from year to year, different traditions may celebrate or fix Midsummer at different dates or under different names occurring on or around the actual solstice. A variety of traditions have developed often rooted in regional, spiritual, or religious practices. Traditionally, Midsummer is on the first Saturday after June 20th, though it is often celebrated on Midsummer's Eve, on the day before.
Galician–Portuguese, also known as Old Galician–Portuguese, Old Galician or Old Portuguese, Medieval Galician or Medieval Portuguese when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. Alternatively, it can be considered a historical period of the Galician, Fala, and Portuguese languages.
The Coco or Coca is a mythical ghost-like monster, equivalent to the bogeyman, found in Spain and Portugal. Those beliefs have also spread in many Hispanophone and Lusophone countries. It can also be considered an Iberian version of a bugbear as it is a commonly used figure of speech representing an irrational or exaggerated fear. The Cucuy is a male being while Cuca is a female version of the mythical monster. The "monster" will come to the house of disobedient children at night and take them away.
Aguardente (Portuguese), or aguardiente (Spanish), is a type of distilled alcoholic spirit that contains between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume (ABV). It is a somewhat generic term that can refer to liquors made from various foods. It originates from and is typically consumed on the Iberian Peninsula and in Iberian America.
The opening of the mouth ceremony was an ancient Egyptian ritual described in funerary texts such as the Pyramid Texts. From the Old Kingdom to the Roman Period, there is ample evidence of this ceremony, which was believed to give the deceased their fundamental senses to carry out tasks in the afterlife. Various practices were conducted on the corpse, including the use of specific instruments to touch body parts like the mouth and eyes. These customs were often linked with childbirth, which denoted rebirth and new beginnings. For instance, cutting bloody meat from animals as offerings for the deceased signified the birthing process, which typically involves blood, and represented the commencement of a new life. Additionally, tools like the peseshkef, which resembled the tail of a fish and were originally employed for cutting infants' umbilical cords, further emphasized the idea of "rebirth".
Orujo is a pomace brandy from northern Spain. It is a transparent spirit with an alcohol content over 50%. Its name comes from the expression "aguardiente de orujo".
Galicians are a European ethnic group from northwestern Spain; it is closely related to the northern Portuguese people and has its historic homeland in Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance languages are widely spoken and official in Galicia: the native Galician and Spanish.
The Enchanted moura or moura encantada is a supernatural being from the fairy tales of Portuguese and Galician folklore. Very beautiful and seductive, she lives under an imposed occult spell. Shapeshifters, the mouras encantadas occupy liminal spaces and are builders with stone of formidable strength.
Rial is a surname, family name, or last name. The surname "Rial" is a very old family name and people with that last name can be found in small numbers in several countries of the western world that use the English language and found in significant numbers in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, namely, Spain, several Caribbean countries, and in several North and South American countries. The surname "Rial" is correctly pronounced in modern English like the English words "dial" and "vial" with the accent-stress placed on the first vowel of the diphthong "ia". The surname is correctly pronounced in modern Spanish like the Spanish words "dial" and "vial" where the accent-stress is placed on the final vowel of the diphthong which proceeds the final consonant.
A botijo, also called búcaro in Spanish, càntir in Catalan, canabarro in Galician and txongil in Basque, is a traditional porous clay container designed to contain water. The botijo, or water jar, is a typical element of culture in many parts of Spain and may vary in shape and color. Although the botijo can, exceptionally, also be found in glass, metal or even plastic, it is usually and traditionally made of clay, due to the properties of this material, such that, once the botijo is filled, it cools the water that it contains, acting as an evaporative cooler.
Galician, also known as Galego, is a Western Ibero-Romance language. Around 2.4 million people have at least some degree of competence in the language, mainly in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it has official status along with Spanish. The language is also spoken in some border zones of the neighbouring Spanish regions of Asturias and Castile and León, as well as by Galician migrant communities in the rest of Spain, in Latin America including Puerto Rico, the United States, Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe.
Castañada, Magosta, Magosto or Magusto, is a traditional festival on the Iberian Peninsula. It is popular in Portugal, Galicia and some areas of northern Spain, such as Cantabria, Asturias, Catalonia, and the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca and Cáceres, but also in some parts of the Canary Islands. The festival is also celebrated in both sides of the French-Spanish border. It has also spread internationally as a 'chestnut party'. Etymological origins are unknown, but there are several theories for the Magosto name: Magnus Ustus or Magum Ustum.
Veiga do Seixo is a village in the municipality of Riós, in the province of Ourense, Galicia, north-western Spain. Because it is linked to Portugal by a bridge over the river Mente, the place was traditionally used for illegal trade and smuggling.
The culture of Galicia is the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with the Galicia region of Spain and the Galician people.
Formerly in Spain, the pan de ánimas, pan de difunto or pan de muerto were breads that were prepared, blessed and offered to deceased loved ones during All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.
