Andalucía Day

Today (February 28th) is Andalucía Day in Spain. Andalucía Day commemorates the day the region of Andalucía became one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain. My students don't have school today because of the holiday, and so we celebrated the holiday in school yesterday. Celebrating Andalucía Day with my students and teachers was one of the coolest experiences I've had thus far in Spain. The teachers made sure I was heavily included in the festivities--I was the cajón player for our performance of El Himno de Andalucía. I had never played the cajón before, but I looked up a video of someone playing the cajón in Rumba rhythm the night before and figured it out. Daniel, a teacher I work with, played guitar and sang the song while I played cajón and a few students held up the Spanish and Andalucían flags. We performed 8 different times, going from classroom to classroom. The older students have all wanted to hear me play ukulele for a while now, so I brought my ukulele to that class and played The Scientist by Coldplay for them, and they all sang along. Andalucía Day was a day full of music at my school, but also a day full of cultural awareness. Each section of students had been assigned a different country to make posters about to hang up around the school on Andalucía Day. I thought this was really cool — they not only focused on learning about their own culture as a region, but on cultures from around the world as well. A typical Andalucían breakfast was also served: bocadillas con jamón y aceite de oliva (a sub with ham and olive oil). The female teachers and I also all tried to coordinate wearing white or polka dot shirts with flowers in our hair, another Andalucían tradition. I feel so honored to have been included in this day of cultural traditions.