Surprise! Holiday!

Forget "El Halloween."  November 1 is a big holiday here.

As I've written, my Madrid friends complain that they're being "contaminated" by "El HAlloween" and that this is what comes of slavishly imitating everything Anglo-Saxon.  I admit I was amused last night by the number of people of all ages in costume, though I note that none of the children in costume were carrying plastic pumpkins for their loot.  Since every supermarket has been selling plastic pumpkins filled with candy for a month I can only assume that Spaniards haven't gotten the hang of trick-or-treating yet, and just give children large amounts of candy at parties.  (That was what seemed to be happening in a little square in the pueblo when I rode home last night, and several children in costume were gathered around one of the picnic tables reaching into a bag an adult was holding for them, while they had the traditional Spanish children's party, which involves children running around a plaza or playground while adults sit and hang out.)



Given that my Madrid friends also said that the local tradition of going to place candles at cemeteries on All Saint's Day was dying (and also maybe dressing up as ghosts, but not at all the same way as El Halloween), I was startled when the friendly BNE librarian told me that today was a holiday, and even more so when I checked the university calendar and realized there was no class.  It did explain why everyone in costume last night was so casual about going out on a Tuesday night, but for a place where the tradition of All Saints Day is dying, it was certainly pretty dead around here on November 1.  The university (where I headed to meet someone who I've been doing a regular English conversation exchange with) was a ghost town.  (All puns intended there.)  More to the point, supermarkets and the polideportivo and even yoga were closed.  And at dinner time when I turned on El Intermedio they were running a re-run because they hadn't recorded today.  I was very shocked.  (I took the shortcut past the Tanatorio San Isidro to go home by bike last night, and was actually startled to see a little group of more or less formally dressed people -- not in costume I was relieved to note -- clustered outside the gates of the cemetery under the nearly full moon.  So...that wasn't weird.  The rooms of the "Interfunerarias" were lit up and a few people were in some of the hallways, and it looked more like a Marriott than ever.)  For people who claim that they don't celebrate All Saints Day and who look puzzled if you refer to the Mexican Día de los Muertos, a lot of things certainly close here.

That said, the Casa del Libro was open (actually everything on the Gran Via was open and there were hordes of people - you wouldn't know it was a holiday).  I took the opportunity of having some free time to browse there and also to actually buy a book that I saw listed in the BNE catalog, that I had seen online was available and fairly cheap.  It's an epistolario (a collection of letters) between Max Aub and Vicente Aleixandre spanning from the 1950s to the 1970s.  Mostly they talk about interesting books and authors and what they've been reading lately, and it showed up on one of my searches (I think for Nicolás Guillén again), and isn't too long, so I decided that having a book I could read on my comfy couch or in bed was worth it.

The book was in the basement with the literatura extranjera, so I had a happy time browsing the English language fiction also.  Very interesting to see what they have.  On the ground floor, near their big mystery and thriller section, I was attracted by a book with a lovely old Nancy Drew style cover with a title that was something like Muerte en Heron Park, by Christianna Brand.  I looked at it more closely and saw that it was first published in English, in 1943, with the much better title Green for Danger.  And has apparently been made into a movie.  Further phone googling revealed that Christianna Brand wrote a series which is considered end of the British Golden Age.  And here I am sad about having read all the Agatha Christie books and I hadn't heard of her!  My impulse was to remedy this at once, but it seemed foolish to buy the book in Spanish translation, and sadly they did not have it in the English language section.  The NYPL also does not have any of her mysteries in circulating libraries (though a couple in the research division), and none as ebooks.  This makes me sad.  I may be forced to pay for an ebook, if I can't find a copy in Madrid.  On the up side, the Casa del Libro does have a fine selection of Agatha Christie books in the original, and I stood in the aisle and re-read a couple of short stories from Miss Marple's Final Cases.  (I figured that I was purchasing a book so I was allowed to read a few short stories for free.)  I also looked at an anthology of short stories inspired by Jane Eyre called Reader, I Married Him, and read a couple where Jane was a scheming bitch with great pleasure.  I have no interest whatsoever in redeeming Bertha Rochester, but Jane has always irritated me.  (Actually, the Brontes have always irritated me.  Anyone who doesn't like Austen's work and mistakes overwritten crap like Jane Eyre for genuine emotion....I don't handle the 19th C well.)

So that was my unexpected holiday.  I also took the opportunity to bake muffins, so I have breakfast to go for the rest of the week.  I've decided to count this as a semi-productive day, although really I should have been writing.