Spain celebrates April Fool’s Day today

by Abha Malpani on

If you live in Spain or any South American country, watch your back today as, other than getting a paper cut out of what looks like the shadow of the gingerbread man stuck on your back (see image), you might be the victim of many other pranks as these countries celebrate the Dia De Los Santos Innocentes (literally Day of the Innocent Saints).

Even news channels are known to give false information that will only be revealed as a joke tomorrow, but apparently they are pretty obvious: UFO lands in the Royal Palace, President runs off with daughter of the opposition, are some examples rumored to have been announced on television. I’m going to try to watch every news bulletin today :)

On this day in history, Christians believe that when King Herod found out that Jesus was born, he ordered all children under the age of two in Bethlehem to be slain in order to protect his authority as King. How did such a sad day become one of jokes and laughter?

A bit of probing and there seem to be two possible explanations:1) kids play innocent pranks all the time, so playing pranks today is actually an ode to the children that were killed, or 2) jokes on this day have a pagan origin from the Middle Ages when the day was a joyous carnival and no one was held responsible for his actions; one thing blended into another and voila, prank day in Spain and Latin America was born.

I’m going with the second explanation. Joke away!

Photo of the Day (12/26/07)

by Jamie Rhein on

This photo taken in Lutry, Switzerland captures part of what makes European towns so visually interesting. The arches, windows, shadows and earth tone hues of the brick streets and walls are wonderful. The bicycle with the backpack offers the suggestion of an adventure ready to happen. Rully G who snapped this one has two other gorgeous shots of Switzerland–both totally opposite of my pitiful bear shot in Bern. Oh, I’m jealous.

If you have a shot you’d like us to show off, load it up on Gadling’s Photo Pool on Flickr.

Christmas in Madrid, where’s your wig?

by Abha Malpani on

One of the strangest things people do in Madrid for Christmas is wear crazy wigs around the city. What’s stranger is that nobody really knows why!

For the last 30 years or more, Plaza Mayor has been home to a Christmas market with over a 100 stalls that sell all sorts of things: miniature statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary; novelty gift-wrapping material; carnival accessories like tinsel wigs, rainbow wigs, Afro wigs, assorted head-boppers, mad glasses with flashing lights or with eyes springing out — the list is endless. I think the carnival stuff, although sold pre-Christmas and worn throughout the festival, is mainly for New Year’s Eve.

Go there after 6pm pre or post Christmas and Plaza Mayor is a jolly circus of people of all sexualities and walks of life frolicking around the area being merry, encompassing and radiating the joy of Christmas in the capital. There is a great video that captures this spirit, you can check it out here.

Needless to say, there is Christmas activity all over the city, but Paseo Castellana, which is the business high-street of Madrid is one of special interest. It’s decorated with lights and huge sparkling Christmas trees, all so magnificent that there is a special bus that takes you along the route just to see them all. Also this year, 60 international artists have sculpted structures from ice that represent Madrid like the Puerta de Alcala, or the Santiago Bernabeu football stadium.

It’s cold here but not excruciating so everyone’s on the streets in holiday mode — it’s a great time to be in Madrid.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas greetings from Buckingham Palace

by Abha Malpani on

If you’ve ever been curious about what goes on behind close doors at Buckingham Palace, now is your opportunity to get more than a peek: the Queen has launched her own You Tube channel!

Celebrating 50 years of the Queen’s first televised Christmas address, this year, you will be able to watch her Christmas speech on the video-sharing network. At the moment, the site opens to her Christmas talk from 1957.

Called the Royal Channel, it currently has 18 videos that go as far back as 1917 and include: the Queen Mother’s wedding (1923), Palace garden parties, her accession and coronation, her relationship with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and part one of a day in the life of Prince Charles. It’s their way of being more accessible to the youth and people around the world.

Not home videos and nothing close to reality television, it’s merely an official peek (but a peek nonetheless) into many aspects of the royal family’s life.

Czech Christmas, Part VI: Obsessive cleaning disorder

by Iva Skoch on

I am not sure how it is in other countries, but Czech women (those over 40, at least) have this idea that Christmas would be “completely ruined” if their house was not completely spotless. They literally spend the weeks leading up to Christmas by cleaning obsessively, washing all windows, cleaning the carpets, taking collections of crystal from the shelves and dusting them…

I have nothing against cleaning in principle, but doing all of this before Christmas–which is already one of the most stressful times of the year–seems counter-productive.

Last time I asked people why it is so important to clean before Christmas, I didn’t get the answers I was hoping to get. It had nothing to do with cleansing thy soul, so to speak. It was either A) other women were doing it and she would look bad if she didn’t or B) it wouldn’t be Christmas if everything weren’t clean. Nothing like good circular logic to get the holiday spirit flowing!