TORREVIEJA.com - Interactive website of the city of Torrevieja, in Alicante, Spain.: TORREVIEJA TRADITION´S: LA CHARAMITA

TORREVIEJA TRADITION´S: LA CHARAMITA
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Redaction on 11 December, 2007 02:31:27
 
The “Charamita” in Torrevieja is linked to the local patron saint
festivities to honour the Immaculate Conception which take place during the
first days of December. It is made of a brass band and three giant figures:
Lily, el Lobo (the wolf) and el Ogro (the ogre), accompanied by a group of
“cabezudos” (carnival figures with an enormous head) entertained by the
music of the “charamitero”, the person who plays the “dulzaina” (a
small flute), the drum and very typical music from the eastern coast of Spain.
This music is somehow the “soundtrack” of the local saint festivities to
honour the Immaculate Conception. Songs like the well-known “Serafina, la
cochina” (Serafina the dirty one), “Los garbanzos torraos” (the toasted
chickpeas) or the “Ora pro nobis”. All these songs are sung together by
those children who go with the “charamita” when they go round the streets
of Torrevieja, in the morning and in the afternoon, during the week of this
local festivities.
This is a tradition in Torrevieja which passes on from parents to children. And
this is one of the activities children love most when the time to honour their
patron saint comes.