Jan 6th
Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Tue 6 Jan 2015 18:48
As promised, sweets suddenly rained down upon us once the Kings arrived in the midst of the crowds and all the children scrabbled around stuffing them into pockets, hats, baskets and bags brought along in eager anticipation.
What a great way to bring throngs to Church! Sweet showers went on right through the centre of the town, up the hill and into the Church itself. At the far end in front of the Altar the Sanlucar Choir (from 21st December) sang a few songs to the packed congregation, a few prayers were spoken and everyone joined in with the last song.
The Kings then exited to the town hall and when the crowds had dispersed, we could see the very lovely sight of a 'live' crib with Mary, Joseph, an alive smiling baby Jesus (actually a 6 month old girl in pink) and also a live lamb. Around the crib were lots of local children all dressed beautifully in black white and red all singing along and clearly enjoying the moment.
At the town hall, the Kings presented gifts to all the local children ~ gifts were brought to the hall by their parents ~ as we were not involved with this stage we left the Mayor reading out the long list of local children. What an eye opener, and what a very memorable spectacle.
An invitation had gone to all people on the River from ex-pats Dave and Jean who gave the most hospitable welcome to us strangers. Their beautiful house, the old Post Office of Sanlucar, was packed with some now familiar faces, Harry and Isabelle were instantly welcomed as well, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable few hours sampling lovely food, listening to the group of musicians strumming folk tunes in the corner. We bade farewell at 10pm and Jean said the party usually went on until 5am ... "see you next 5th Jan, it is the only party we give and we'll be giving it again next year".
Shortly after we left a massive power cut plunged Sanlucar into darkness, apparently the party continued into the wee hours under candle light and oil lamps.