Feria!

Before coming to Spain I had never heard of feria season. It didn't take too long to learn about it...they told us about it in the culture class that Naval Station Rota required us to take our first week here.  Each city in Andalusia designates a week usually sometime in April or May for feria.  We live in El Puerto de Santa Maria, which held feria at the end of April. Seville, the capital of Andalusia, is suppose to have the best feria in all of southern Spain.  

 

Dancing at Feria

Feria means Fair in Spanish.  Their are special feria grounds that are empty all year until feria season and then out of nowhere hundreds of tents pop up. It's not quite like a fair back home.  There are amusements, food and drinking.  But other than horse and carriages there are not live animals.  The only fair that I am familiar with is the Topsfield Fair held in October.  It is really nothing like that.  All of the women dress in flamenco dresses.  Each tent is individually decorated, usually by a restaurant or business but sometimes a family will own a tent.  In addition to drinking sherry and other Spanish wines and eating tapas people go to feria to dance.  The type of dancing is called Sevillana.

The boys at Feria

  

My Sevillana dance class

A few months ago I started taking Sevillana lessons with a few other military wives in my neighborhood. I really wanted to quit after the first class but I decided to go back and am so glad I did. I learned how to Sevillana dance, bought a flamenco dress and even danced at feria! It was so fun and definitely worth the lessons.  The girls also have flamenco dresses and love dressing up in them. They were so excited to wear their dresses to school.  Rebecca even came with me to feria in Puerto and we danced together...she took lessons at school. This year we made it to feria in El Puerto de Santa Maria and Rota. Hopefully next year we can make it to Jerez and Sevilla.