At Nico’s school, the tradition is to have mass birthday parties for all the children in a class who celebrate their birthday in a particular season. This makes sense in that nobody gets left out. At the same time, Nico has always made it very clear that he wants to have his own party for his birthday and I can understand that as well.
So last weekend I held a small birthday party in the park for Nico and invited a few local children along with their parents. Everything seemed to go well but I have to admit that as is so often the case for me when interacting with native Spanish/Catalan people, I felt fairly incapable of understanding what was going on in the minds of my guests. Did they think it was weird that I set up the birthday snacks on a park bench or was that a normal thing to do? Were they not eating the cheese muffins that I made because they had just finished lunch (a probable likelihood considering the party was held at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon), or did they think they looked strange and unappetizing? Essentially, I had no idea if they were they thinking “Gee this is fun!” or “Wow, these foreigners sure do throw odd birthday parties...”
How do kids in Barcelona celebrate their birthdays? My experience at attending local birthday parties is not vast, but I have donned a cone-shaped birthday hat or two during my time in Spain. Thus far, I have seen three different varieties of celebration.
1. Mass parties given for more than one child. The last one we went to involved what seemed like hundreds of screaming children and nine birthday cakes, one of which caught on fire right in the middle of the singing. I gave money to someone for a group gift but I have no idea what was bought or when it was received.
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birthdays for homeschoolers
Posted by Johanna June 01, 2011 14:34:54
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Posted by Barcelona mum June 01, 2011 12:52:35
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birthday party cultural differences
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