Bonfire Night and two other customs you’ll have to import to Spain

Bonfire Night may be a centuries-old UK tradition, but it is not marked in Spain

Remember, remember, the fifth of November. Today’s festivities have been part of the British calendar since 1605 when Guy Fawkes failed in his attempt to blow up Parliament during the infamous Gunpowder Plot…

Brits know the drill by now: a bunch of sparklers, a smattering of fireworks in the back garden and a trip to the local park to watch the bonfire burn while wolfing down steaming burgers and hotdogs has become a much-loved tradition. It marks the first real cold days of winter, signals the onset of the prolonged festive season, and is generally great for getting you prepared for the next few months of fog, rain, wind and snow.

But despite Guy Fawkes himself being a Spain sympathiser (and even fighting on the side of the Spanish against the Low Countries in the late 16^th century), the event has very little cultural relevance in Spain.

Brits living on the Costa del Sol have since taken it upon themselves, however, to mark the occasion as best they can, but it can sometimes prove difficult to get hold of fireworks, or indeed the required permits in order to stage a mass burning.

It’s not just Bonfire Night that you will have to recreate yourself if you move to Spain: these two British traditions are notable by their absence in Spain, too…

The mad pre-Christmas rush

How many sleeps ‘til Christmas? Ask a Brit and they will probably know. Ask a Spaniard and they are likely to ask whether that number includes siestas. Spaniards love Christmas. It is a time of great joy, peace, family gatherings and gift giving. But like with many things in Spain, the pace of enjoyment is much slower.

There are no frantic pre-Christmas sales. No front-page splashes announcing the new John Lewis advert. No hectic malls and high streets filled with people on a mad dash to spend the equivalent of a small country’s GDP in a day.

Spanish stores and supermarkets will have already begun preparing for Christmas, but there is no all-out assault on the senses. Gift-giving is more rational, with children the focus and family time deemed the most important thing. Nevertheless, if you’re a Brit in Spain, you are probably going to want to do it your way, and handily Spain still makes this pretty easy – you can shop, drink and eat to your heart’s content, surrounded by Brits doing the same… at least on the Costa del Sol anyway.

April Fool’s Day

It’s catching, but April Fool’s Day isn’t really a ‘thing’ in Spain, at least not in April. Spaniards have instead the Día de los Inocentes, which takes place a few days after Christmas on December 28^th.

Dia de los Inocentes is marked in a similar fashion to April Fool’s Day: newspapers will run barely believable stories, colleagues (well, those hardy few in the office between Christmas and New Year’s) will play pranks, and children will be encouraged to play their own tricks – it is in fact more akin to Hallowe’en than April Fool’s Day, for kids at least.

But things are changing. Sandwiched between the two larger festivities of winter, and in this increasingly digital age, Spaniards are starting to enact their own April Fool’s on April 1, which makes things doubly difficult for a Brit – the best advice is to watch your back on Dec 28 AND April 1!

And besides, Spain has hundreds of its own spectacular holidays, festivals and ferias so you are never short of an excuse or five to let your hair down and celebrate. Cramming in the UK traditions as well might prove too exhausting…