Saturday 21 February 2009

ENG: Carnival at the Schools of Vilanova



The week leading up to the Carnival are busy days for all parents of Vilanova. Every morning, before taking our children to school, do we have to prepare them for the theme of the day; be it simple things like putting on non-matching socks and painting their face white as a meringue or more advanced ones like dressing them as comparsers or in fancy dresses.

Since shools are closed on Carnvial Monday and Tuesday, activities reach their peak on the Friday. Then all schools here parade through the town and organize their own welcome ceremonies for el rei Carnestoltes, with music and dancing. And this 'indoctrination' into Vilanova culture starts early. Even our three-year-old was taken out for a small parade with the other children of his kindergarten. They were dressed in pineapple suits. What a pity I could not stay to take photos.

- - -

Technorati tags: Carnival, Catalonia, Festa, Garraf, Penedès, Vilanova

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hola, Thanks for writing this blog it is helpful, informative and entertaining! I am wondering if you could give me a bit of advice? My family and I are planning to move Vilanova in the new year and we have an 8 year old son who will be attending school there, can you give me any idea what are the good public schools or if there are any that would be more accommodating towards an english speaking child learning catalan? Moltes Gracies

Erik Wirdheim said...

Hi Luke,

Please, excuse me for the late answer - only yesterday did I receive the notice that there had been a comment on this post.

Welcome to Vilanova! This is a great little town, especially if you have children.

I'm confident that all public schools here will treat a native English speaker as a treasure. And personally I wouldn't look for a school with other foreigners - they might have extra resources for language support, but the level of the everyday language your son will be exposed to, will be lower.

Feel free to contact me on facebook (ErikWirdheim) when you arrive here. Maybe we can meet up.

Cheers,

Erik

Unknown said...

Hi Erik,
Thanks for the reply and positive advice. We're looking forward to the move and it would be great to meet up when we're there.
All the best,Juliana
(I used my son Luke's gmail because I've only hotmail)