Xinzo de Limia, between the elections and the carnival
The town of Xinzo de Limia, in Ourense, is one of the cities in the world with the longest carnival (or entroido). From January 20th to this Sunday, January 18th, the so-called Piñata Sunday, the neighbors are immersed in the party and manage to dress differently every day, including this Sunday, which takes place before noon with brass bands through the Streets began and at dusk the last festival of celebrations ends, with the polling stations in the municipal capital and the villages already closed.
Although the main character of the Xinzo celebrations are the Screens, ancestral and almost mythological beings who come out masked and armed with dried and inflated cow bladders and with which they incite anyone who does not take to the streets in disguise, most of what the neighbors do , Dramatization Parody presents scenes in groups, such as Meli, Lina, Esther, Lola, Sole, Isa and Carmen did. They are a group of friends united by music and environmentalism who have set up an alternative polling station with a large pumpkin instead of an urn and countless magic potions to scare away the Meigallo (spook) and combat the “Curse of Carrexo.” “, that is, the carrying or transportation of voters to polling stations, generally the elderly and disabled, by groups interested in determining the color of their ballots. Ourense is precisely the Galician province that registers the most complaints about Carrexo at every electoral event. These neighbors of Xinzo de Limia prepared various preparations in front of people, “some very tasty and others with terrible traps,” says Xosé Santos, another neighbor.
Piñata Sunday is the fifth (after Fareleiro, Oleiro, Corredoiro and Entroido) of the festive calendar of and Laza, although in reality it is a polyhedron with its own traditions in countless communities. “For us it is not a farewell festival for the flesh, a carnival in the religious sense,” explains Santos, “but an entrance, an entroido, to spring and the rebirth of life, that is why it is so colorful.” Today the elegant screens are no more to see, but Xinzo is completely disguised and many neighbors have come to vote, yes, revealing their faces as they identify themselves to the President and table members.