octubre/OCTOBER 2008
&
IM NEW PR OV ED
TOWN & COUNTRY Halloween History & Traditions Halloween In Spain
Direct delivery to: Fuente Alamo, Torre Pacheco, Los Alcรกzares and surrounding areas
Issue 2 October 2008
TOWN &
Publisher Per Jensen Sunshine Mediahouse Town and Country Magazine Apartado de Correos 1039 30850 El Paret贸n, Totana, Murcia Office Tel 968 429 113 Office Hours Mon, Tues, Thurs 9 am - 2 pm E-mail Townandcountry@sunnynumbers.com Sunny Numbers E-mail info@sunnynumbers.com Advertising Manager Per Jensen 699 501 508 Editor Amanda Judson Assistant Editor Wendy Darby Graphic Design: amandajudsondesign.com No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher All rights reserved. 漏2008 Per Jensen / Sunshine Mediahouse
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Dear Readers and Clients, We hope you enjoyed the 1st issue of the revamped Town and Country magazine (September 2008). We certainly enjoyed producing it and have received some very positive feedback. We are now into October and all that it brings - festivals and Halloween. For those of you with children it is a very exciting, and perhaps hyperactive time (all those sweets) but its also a time to reflect over the last year and get ready for the Big One - Christmas. Where does the year go? So much to do and so little time. Is it that as we get older the clocks run faster? I remember as a child that the year would drag on - for me with my birthday in October, then Halloween, then Christmas - all at the end of the year. So, remember to take a break and relax with your favourite tipple and the Town and Country magazine. If you would like your business to be included in the next issue of the new Town and Country Magazine, please contact the office on 968 429 113 or Per Jensen 699 501 508 and if you have any ideas for future topics or contents, please do let us know as we value your opinions.
COUNTRY
pg 8 Horoscopes
pg 18 Coffee Time Puzzles
pg 10 Halloween History & Traditons
pg 29 Classifieds
pg 4 Halloween in Spain
pg 19 Restuarant Guide
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Halloween in Spain El Día de Todos los Santos Halloween is celebrated on 31st October in parts of the western world including UK, Ireland, USA, Canada and sometimes Australia and New Zealand. Traditional activities include trick or treating, costume parties, viewing horror films, playing Halloween games and visiting haunted houses. In Spain at Halloween, the black cat is considered to be bad luck, especially if you let it cross your path, come into your home or even onto your ship. In Spain also a special pastry known as the Bones of the Holy is eaten on this day. Although Spain has been influenced by the Halloween hype, the event takes second place to the celebration of All Saints Day on 1st November which easily eclipses Halloween as far as a nationally celebrated holiday. Unlike the commercial and secular Halloween festivities, el Día de Todo los Santos remains a sacred day of mourning and celebration of lost ones for the Spanish. Family members gather together and visit family tombs. Although similar, Spain’s Día de Todos los Santos differs from el Día de Los Muertos (the day of the dead) in Mexico. The Spaniards bring flowers to grave sites and usually have family meals whereas
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in Mexico, people spend days preparing special cakes and meals for the deceased and also decorate cemeteries and churches. Regardless of the lack of Spanish trick or treaters, the popularity of Halloween is growing quickly here in Spain. Halloween parties are becoming more frequent and costume stores are appearing in the cities. If you want to join in here´s a list of the typical activities for the festival, and what to expect : Plan out your day Complete any necessary errands before All Saints Day. In Spain it’s a national public holiday, so banks and shops will be closed. You should also be prepared to pay a surcharge on top of any taxi fare on All Saints Day. Begin All Saints Day by visiting the local Spanish cemetery where ofrendas, or offerings, of flowers are placed on the graves. The Catholic liturgy of the Eucharist, Mass, is often performed in the cemetery. In Spain, whether or not you have relatives buried on the hallowed grounds, it is traditional to attend Mass or join a procession to the grave sites. If you can - See a traditional performance of José Zorrilla’s play “Don Juan Tenorio.” This romantic telling of the myth of Don Juan
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has been performed in Spanish theaters on All Saints Day for over a century. It is a story of Don Juan’s choice between salvation and damnation. Mirroring the theme of All Saints Day, the third act of the play is set in a cemetery where Don Juan expresses his regrets and begs forgiveness at the tomb of his fiancee, don Ines, for abandoning her. Participate in the tasty celebration of “La Castanada.” Inspired by legends of Maria, la castañera, or the chestnut seller, La Castanada occurs after a family meal. It’s a celebration in which chestnuts are roasted along with el boniato (sweet potatoes) and are eaten to satiation. It’s also customary to eat small almond cakes, called panellets, at this time. These feasts are reminiscent of those prepared after funerals in ancient Spain. Panellets Recipe Prep Time: 8 hours, 45 minutes. Cook Time: 4 minutes Ingredients: 1 lb. ground almonds 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
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1/2 -1 cup water 1 small potato gtrated peel of 1 lemon 3-4 drops lemon juice Toppings: pine nuts, sweetened cocoa powder, candied fruit, Flavorings: instant coffee powder, coconut flakes Preparation: Makes approximately 32 cookies. Blanch almonds, then grind in food processor until almonds are a fine dust.
to cool to room temperature. Then, refrigerate overnight. Pre-heat oven to 380F degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Spoon out dough with a teaspoon. Roll dough into small balls in your palms. Then roll the balls in powdered cocoa or pine nuts. If using pine nuts, brush each with a bit of egg white. Place on greased cookie sheet. If you want to flavor the cookies, separate a portion of the dough and with your hands, work in a bit of instant coffee flakes, candied fruit or cinnamon. Then make individual balls. Bake cookies just long enough to brown the pine nuts - about 4 minutes. Remove immediately using a spatula before cookies cool.
Peel the potato and cut into quarters. Boil potato in a saucepan until cooked. Drain water and mash with a fork. Place sugar in a medium saucepan. Pour 1/2 cup water into the pan and stir to dissolve sugar. Add more water to completely dissolve sugar if necessary. Place on medium heat on stovetop and bring to a boil, stirring often. Add 3-4 drops of lemon juice. Reduce heat and simmer until mixture is a thick syrup. Remove saucepan from heat. Using a large wooden spoon, gradually stir in ground almonds, potato and grated lemon peel. Allow
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Your horoscopes for November Aries
Taurus
Gemini
Finances, taxes, and intimacy are main themes for the first few weeks of the month. A love relationship reaches new depths of understanding. You are also very busy with research and investigations of all kinds. You are easily engrossed by special subjects and projects this month.
Close personal relationships are in focus this month. You find yourself making concessions more than usual. A conflict between time spent with lovers or children, and time spent with friends or group activities, is likely to capture your attention. Your responsibilities might interfere with your social life this month.
Work continues to be in the spotlight for you this month. However, responsibilities on the home front are likely to conflict with career matters. Work is busy for you in November, and you take especial pride in what you do. From the 16th forward, a partnership steps up a notch, becoming more dynamic and dramatic.
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Romance, play time, and creativity continue to take center stage in the first few weeks of November. Still, there will be times when you feel bogged down by learning, projects, paperwork, and errands. You do find time for indulging in hobbies and other pleasurable activities.
Domestic and family matters continue to take center stage for you this month. At first glance, the month may not seem to be as productive as most, but in fact you are “building your nest”, gathering your resources, and preparing for busier months ahead.
A busy month that involves plenty of errand-running, tending to paperwork, and attending appointments is in store for you. When Venus enters fellow earth sign, Capricorn, on the 12th, your charm increases and you easily attract what (and who) you want!
Libra
Scorpio
Sagittarius
It’s time to organize your personal finances this month, after perhaps some over-spending. November is an excellent month for budget-making, asking for a raise, and discovering new ways to boost your income. The 10-12 is a strong time for money matters.
November is a month of increased confidence and initiative for you. Others are following your lead now. It’s an excellent month in which to present your ideas, state your case, or simply get up to date with your emails, phone calls, and paperwork.
November is an especially strong month for you in terms of career and family matters. It’s also excellent for personal finances. The first few weeks of the month could involve some sacrifices and rethinking of your plans.
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces
Expansion, confidence, and hopefulness are keywords for November. You are feeling good about yourself and confident about your future. A romantic revelation occurs around the Full Moon on the 13th. And Venus, the planet of love and attraction, enters your sign.
Business and public affairs continue to play a big role in your life in November, but the pressures and over-activity in these areas you encountered last month begin to dissipate. As a result, you’re more likely to enjoy your increased exposure on a professional level.
Your sense of adventure runs high this month, and you are itching for a change of pace. Any partnership conflicts that have been brewing are magnified in November, however. The key to resolving this potential tug-of-war is to find common ground
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History of Halloween Halloween is now big business, and is a growing holiday in much of the western world but the biggest market is the US. It is the second largest commercial holiday in the US with Americans spending an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween (quite a few pumpkins there then). Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual? Halloween started as a pagan holiday. The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1. Samhain marked the end of summer and the harvest season and the beginning of the dark, cold days of winter. Celts believed that on this night, the boundary between the living and the dead were opened or weak. Because of this, the dead were said to roam the earth freely. During the Celts celebration they wore costumes and masks, which were said to hide their appearance from the roaming dead. The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840’s by Irish immigrants fleeing their country’s potato famine. At that time, the favourite pranks in included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates. The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree’s trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
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31st October
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer. The Irish used turnips as their “Jack’s lanterns” originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the JackO-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember. Throughout the twentieth century, Halloween was transformed into a community celebration with games, costumes and parties for both children and adults.
There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. The most common is dunking or bobbing for apples, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water; the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity which inevitably leads to a very sticky face. Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. In Puicíní (pronounced “poocheeny”), a game played in Ireland, a blindfolded person is seated in front of a table on which several saucers are placed. The saucers are shuffled and the seated person then chooses one by touch. The contents of the saucer determine the person’s life during the following year. A saucer containing earth means someone known to the player will die during the next year, a saucer containing water foretells emigration, a ring foretells marriage, a set of Rosary beads indicates that the person will take Holy Orders (becoming a nun or a priest). A coin means new wealth, a bean means poverty, and so on. In 19th century Ireland, young women placed slugs in saucers sprinkled with flour. A traditional Irish and Scottish form of divining one’s future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one’s shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse’s name. This custom has survived among Irish and Scottish immigrants in the rural United States. Unmarried women were frequently told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their
future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The mirror gaze was one of many forms of love divination around Halloween and other ancient holy days. Ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of TV series and specials with Halloween themes (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before the holiday while new horror films, like the popular Saw films, are often released theatrically before the holiday to take advantage of the atmosphere. What´s Happened On Halloween Throughout History? 1892 – Arthur Conan Doyle publishes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. 1926 – Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured. Who Was Born On Halloween? 1896 – Ethel Waters, American singer and actress (d. 1977) 1920 – Dick Francis, Welsh novelist 1963 – Rob Schneider, American actor 1982 – The Cheeky Girls, British-Romanian singers 2005 – Infanta Leonor of Spain, daughter of Felipe, Prince of Asturias and Letizia, Princess of Asturias
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To Advertise in the
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Call the Advertising Manager 699 501 508 or the office on 968 429 113 townandcountry@sunnynumbers.com Solution to Last month´s crossword: Across: 9 Carriage; 10 Ski; 11 Naming; 12 Helper; 13 Soprano; 14 Ache; 15 Four-poster; 17 Trousers; 18 Deducts; 19 Blur; 21 Impede; 24 Tropic of Capricorn; 27 Cosset; 29 Null; 30 Strange; 33 Disagree; 35 Apologetic; 36 Pier; 37 Explore; 38 Awaken; 40 Insane; 41 Nod; 42 Elegance. Down: 1 Malevolent; 2 Drop; 3 Carry out; 4 Density; 5 Misanthrope; 6 Anno Domini; 7 Smears; 8 Anchored; 10 Super; 16 Raucous; 20 Local; 22 Profane; 23 Counterpane; 25 Intervened; 26 Negligence; 28 Opinions; 31 Two-faced; 32 Foresee; 34 Abroad; 35 Aloud; 39 Alas. Mini Quiz Answers: 1 Hiram Maxim 2 New Zealand 3 Capability 4 Ruritania 5 1983 Cat Quiz Answers: 1. Tapir, 2. An average of 24, 3. It is leaving its scent on you, 4. Barely, 5. Up to 100,000 hertz, 6. Four kinds, 7. Egypt, 8. Fear of cats, 9. Sign of anger, 10. Good luck
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october 2008
TRADERS Dentista / Dentist pg24 Clinica Dental San Agustin pg9 Clinica Indent
968 598 481 968 596 306
Inmobiliaria / Estate Agents pg9 Ocean Star Services 968 171 512 Restaurantes y Bars pg20 La Diva 968 171 029 pg21 Fitzer’s Bar 699 300 274 pg24 Fresco Bistro 608 911 971 pg22 La Gran Ventica 968 159 263 pg22 Pearl’s Plaice 637 798 983 pg22 Restaurante Magnolia 968 154 512 pg26 Restaurante Marina 968 332 177 pg23 Restaurante Mira Sierras 968 658 204 pg23 The Celt 600 512 716 Servicios / Services pg13 Ace Construction Services 620 460 311 pg6 AXA Insurance 968 171 005 pg12 Changing Spaces 619 868 393 pg9 CM Construction 676 306 718 659 159 948
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pg28 pg29 pg31 pg6 pg12 pg14 pg6 pg15 pg13 pg12 pg6 pg16 pg25 pg25 pg27 pg25 pg32 pg 7 pg12
David Mason Insurance Services Eurospas Fuente Álamo Car, Boat, Caravan Parking G & L Interiors IKG Langauge Services Insectaway.com JD Joinery Jeniifer Cunningham LHE Linea Directa Mar Menor Holiday Lets Monalisa Spas MSC Insurance Opel Fuente Alamo Parasol Property Management R & C Builders Salon Gran Via Trevor Smith Versinagua
968 137 719 650 722 905 676 152 500 677 241 382 968 503 183 968 171 542 628 878 007 966 461 690 699 501 508 902 123 975 968 575 112 968 595 721 968 429 129 968 596 189 680 906 404 968 151 385 968 597 448 968 163 298 619 710 047
Veterinarian pg9 Veterinary Clinic Maskota 968 597 929
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