Portal de Cartagena
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We are going to take a short tour of the Cartagena press at the end of the 19th century and a good part of the 20th to learn how Christmas was felt and lived. We begin with the masses of Gozo celebrated in the parish of San Diego, a former Franciscan convent, announcing the consulted newspaper (El Eco de Cartagena, December 15, 1877) that from the 18th to the 24th they will be sung with Christmas carols by the girls' choir welcomed at the Casa de Misericordia.
In these Eucharists, the children's music band of said charity will also participate. Another publication (Cartagena Art stica, December 20, 1890) gives an account of how theatrical pieces were performed throughout Christendom, such as the office called Los Pastores, in which authentic shepherds and altar boys sang in the temple with rustic instruments, vulgar language and dance performance.
At the end of the seventeenth century in Castile the faithful danced disguised as shepherds, reaching such excesses that the tradition was suspended.
Bonfires were lit at the doors of churches to sing the typical songs of Easter with rabeles, zambombas, drums, tambourines and other instruments, depending on the locality. Christmas Carols and Cars Later the families got used to getting together, singing Christmas carols before the images of the domestic nativity scene, from the end of the dinner until the time to go to the mass of the rooster.
The journalist regrets that these customs, once so deeply rooted, are being lost.
In this we do not change because we observe it in every century and place: the longing for times past.
What is lost is sung. The Official Sheet of Cartagena (January 3, 1940), published by the City Council, reported that, in a theater in the city, without further specification, the Auto Sacramental "The adoration of the Kings to the Niño Jesús ", on days 5, 7 and 8.
The work was carried out by the Youth Organization of the Movement, singing Christmas carols by the comrades of said entity, which on the afternoon of December 24 they walked the streets of the city singing them. Since 1966 and during a good part of the 70s, the school Christmas carol competitions, organized by the Youth Circle of the Women's Section, led by Josefina Munuera, with the sponsorship of the Mariola Cinema Town hall.
The rivalry was very tight due to the interpretive quality of the groups, who performed before a large audience that overflowed seats and corridors, and a solvent jury chaired by Juan Lanz n, later a professor at the Conservatory.
The music teacher Jos Espinosa prepared many of these choirs and the qualifying tests took place in the Casa de la Cultura -a space now occupied by the Regional Assembly-, as I am reminded and illustrated with documentation by the sisters Isabel and Mar a Jos Rosique, who were part of the organization. New Year's Eve with grapes Taking another leap in time, we read, the farewell to the year and the reception of 1950 in the Continental Hall of Los Dolores, with the sympathetic Teresita Gimeno, the Continental orchestra and a select audience to "eat twelve grains of grapes, boisterous and unforgettable ", raffling off a Christmas basket.
At the end there will be bus service (El Noticiero, December 20, 1949). In that same publication, the New Year's Eve dance is announced at the Circo theater with bar service at affordable prices, although a table must be reserved in advance.
The Avenida room offered a farewell to the year with the Avenida orchestra, alegr and "distribution of the classic grape" and a gift of a basket.
In this case, customers are offered a permanent tram service.
Other press announcements point to the Three Wise Men, warning that in Gallego Hermanos they will find "nice and cheap toys". The decade of the 60s, 70s and part of the 80s of the XX saw the rise of the guateque New Year's Eve dinners in the garage, warehouse or empty house, properties of the family of some of the young men or women of the gang.
There was no lack of dancing thanks to the record player, plugging in the TV to follow the chimes from the Puerta del Sol in Madrid.
Finally, nightclubs and restaurants with dinners, dances and party favors will prevail. Everything points to the fact that the first cavalcades were due to the famous Casa Garnero, (El Eco de Cartagena, January 7, 1919), a procession composed, among other elements, of a float with a representation of the Bel n portal, Kings on horseback, pages, slaves, Egyptians, music band.
A few days later, the press echoed the success of this party, which had already been organized for some years ago (El Porvenir, January 13, 1919), and that the A commercial firm, dedicated to gift items, bookstore and stationery, offered a banquet at the Gran Hotel to its employees and representatives of local journalism. Later it was organized by the City Council, although other more modest parades took place outside the urban center in neighborhoods and councils, such as in Barrio de Peral, prepared with enthusiasm by the young people of the Festivities Commission (El Noticiero, January 4, 1969).
Although it was clear that the distribution of toys would correspond to the orders previously made in the Modesto Celdr n store, located on Submarino street. Jos S nchez Conesa.
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Source: José Sánchez Conesa
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