I am in sunny Spain for 3 weeks and the first week has just flown by. This weekend has been full of celebrations.

Saturday was St Patrick’s Day and some of the Irish locals decided to put on a two day event in Moraira.  We spent a very pleasant morning at the local home & garden centre browsing around a small gift fair and then listening to the lively Irish singer Niamh O’Sheenan before she shot off for the gig in Moriara.

The sound on this short video does not do her justice. My husband took it to test out the video function on his new Samsung Galaxy. I don’t know if there is a way to make it sound less tinny.

I searched for a better clip on YouTube but was surprised that were none. Not only has she has missed a great opportunity to promote yerself on YouTube but she could have set up a Facebook Fanpage. This would be a great opportunity for an enterprising internet marketer!

St Patrick’s Day has fallen in the middle of the 5 day Las Fallas celebration. It started as as a national holiday to celebrate St Joseph’s day (the patron saint of carpenters) but has extended into a 5 day fiesta that the Spanish are so good at.

Las Fallas meaning “the fires” is thought to originate from a pagan ritual to celebrate the start of Spring.

We saw some huge models being erected in Denia town centre on Friday in preparation for the celebrations. They are known as Ninots (puppets), take about a year to make from papier mâché, wood, or plaster and are said to cost tens of thousands of euros

The figures almost looked like some Disney characters but are apparently often caricatures of Spanish politicians and celebrities.

Cranes are needed to put some of them in place as they can be up to three stories high. Then, at the end of the fiesta late on Monday night the Ninots are burned, a ritual that is known as “La Crema”.

Chunks around the bases of the Ninots are chopped out and they are filled with fireworks then doused with lighter accelerant. As you can imagine the heat gets intense and the fire brigades are out in force dousing the nearby buildings to stop them catching alight. I can’t imagine what the pollution must be like!

Can you imagine this being allowed in the UK? The people at Health and Safety would be have heart attacks.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day in the UK (but not in Spain),and many English run restaurant’s here were offering a special Mother’s Day lunch. We went to one at the Don Quijote Bar in Moraira simply because one of our favourite bands The Manhattan Jazz Band was playing.

With sunny days, clear blue skies with temperatures reaching 21°C it’s been a great week.

How was your weekend? Did you celebrate St Patrick’s Day or Mother’s Day?