A Fonsagrada: The Highest Town in Galicia

Driving on a cloud, near Fonsagrada

December is underway with a ¨typical Spanish¨ long weekend. Well, it's always a long weekend for me, but this time everyone else was also off on Friday. So my traditional dance class buddy and I took advantage to check out Galicia's highest and most expansive region: A Fonsagrada. The name means ¨holy fountain.¨ It's a curvy one hour drive from Lugo, right on the border with Asturies. The proximity with Asturies is evident in the architecture and accent. While in the rest of Galicia, the suffix -iño/a is used to make something small (or cute), in A Fonsagrada and Asturies, they use -ín/-ina. (FYI: in Spanish -ito/a is normally used for the same purpose). The region also has Asturian-style hórreos. In the rest of Galicia these typical granaries are rectangular; the longer they are, the wealthier the family was. In A Fonsagrada and Asturies, however, they are a lot bigger and square.

A giant mouth harp!

The main reason we went to A Fonsagrada this weekend was the fifth-annual foliada taking place there. A foliada is an evening of traditional Galician music and dancing--and we were ready to practice! But first, I signed up for a mouth harp class. There are tons of variants of the mouth harp throughout the world. In Galicia, it's made of iron and steel. A Fonsagrada is well-known for them, probably because the region was always known for blacksmithing. Back in the day, a set of bagpipes could cost as much as a cow. So obviously, many families couldn't afford such a musical luxury. A cheaper alternative was the mouth harp. It doesn't have as many notes, but it's still entertaining for kids and adults. The introductory course only lasted a few hours, and after what seemed like forever I was finally able to make some noise with the mouth harp! Woohoo! The sound reminds me of Australian didgeridoos.

After the class, in the center of town bars were packed with musicians and dancers. After swaying to the music a bit, we went to the tent where the main concerts were taking place. There, people were listening to the music as well as dancing in small groups. Finally, time to practice! There was a group of older women who were also beginners so we danced with them. In Galician dance, you line up in two rows facing each other. Then one person picks a dance move, performs it, and the group copies. That's what's most difficult about dancing for me. Having to see it once and be able to make my legs do the same (specifically, mirroring my partner's movements). Of course there are a lot of people who have been dancing most of their life and it's impossible for a clumsy newbie to keep up. So it was great to practice with others who aren't such pros!

We gave it our all Friday night. But apparently, Friday was just a warm-up. Now we know for next year to save some our enthusiasm and stay for the whole weekend.