A Cultural Weekend

This weekend's been a blur!

Aside from still being behind on my studies after Semana Santa this was a particularly busy weekend.  Saturday evening I went with three friends to see the Malaga philharmonic.  And Sunday I went with Nuria and her group of catechism students to visit the ermita of Our Lady of Rocio.  So I've spent all day today playing catch up and really I shouldn't be posting at all at the moment, but I think I deserve a break and anyway, I can work tomorrow. ;)

For my musical education class one of our assignments is to attend a concert of "cultured music" (the term "clasical" technically only refers to music between 1750-1830 roughly).  We have the option to watch a concert on TV or listen on the radio, but the point value goes down by half.  I not only wanted a chance to get full credit, but I also really like these kinds of cultural events and have attended very few (or none!) in the six years I've been living in La Roda.  We've got lots of culture in the surrounding capitals, Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba, Malaga...but I just never seem to find out about anything or never remember to look for it.

So thanks to this assignment I've been searching the web for concerts in the last month and finally settled on the Malaga philharmonic performing Saturday evening in a free event sponsored by the city.  It was a great concert and perfect for the assignment because it was meant to give a small picture of the evolution of Western music from Baroque to the beginning of the twentieth century.  They played a piece by Telemann, a contemporary of Bach and actually much more famous at the time, Beethoven's 5th Symphony and a piece by a Spanish composer, Enrique Granados.

Live music is fabulous and I enjoyed the concert even more than I would have normally since I have a better idea now, from my classes, of what I'm listening to.

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Sunday's visit was entirely different: a group of ten teenagers and three adults attending mass at one of Spain's most popular pilgrimage sites after Santiago de Compostella.  I have never been to El Rocio before, but I've wanted to go for a long time now since the lyrics to all my favorite sevillanas sing about the pilgrimage to visit the Virgen del Rocio.

It was a long drive, and kind of a trip to be in the company of so many cell phones all connected to Tuenti (Spain's own version of facebook) ;)  but also a good time.  I haven't been in the company of so many teenagers in I don't know how long.  It was fun (and a little exasperating) to listen to their banter and boasting.

The Virgen de Rocio was discovered by a hunter in the woods near the town of Almonte in Huelva.  They celebrate her romeria on the day of Pentecost.  Pentecost is fifty days after Easter Sunday when, according to scripture, the Holy Spirit presented itself to the apostles and declared that they should preach Cristianity to the world.  The Holy Spirit is symbolized by a white dove and the Rocio's nickname is "White Dove" since her celebration falls on Pentecost.

During the 12 o'clock mass, I noticed something strange fluttering in my peripheral vision: a white dove had found its way into the sanctuary.  It flew from the altar to the back of the church where the choir was singing and finally came back to rest in the highest part of the cupola.  It was a beautiful sign.

El Rocio is on the edge of Doñana, one of Andalucia's most famous and most beautiful natural parks.  Unfortunately we didn't explore.  That wasn't on the itenerary, but we did get a peek at the marisma, the wetlands of Doñana and had a picnic lunch in a beautiful pine grove prepared with picnic tables.