One Of The Three

December is the month for holidays. No really, even more so than most other months. Today and Saturday are both public holidays: one political, one religious – Constitution Day and Immaculate Conception. Today’s celebration relates to the fact that a referendum on the constitution for the post-Franco democratic Spain was held on the 6th December 1978. Under the constitution, in addition to statements of democracy and law, there are provisions for regional self-government and the exercise of languages. These were things negated during the Franco era. Regional autonomy and the variety of languages are two of the most profound elements of both the constitution and today’s Spain. But both lead to their tensions, not least in respect of the degree to which a local language takes precedence over the national language of Castilian or vice versa. That is no more so the case than in Mallorca and within the local educational sector, a battleground for the competing requirements of the national language and of Catalan and Mallorquín. For many, it is an absurdity that Castilian, a world language of greater practical benefit, might be subjugated not just by Catalan but also by the more obscure local version. The language issue is not one about to go away. The leader of the Partido Popular nationally, Mariano Rajoy, seems to have a particular thing about the dominance of Castilian: the national elections are only a few months away.

But while on the absurd, the fact that there are two public holidays over three days means that the intervening day, the 7th December, becomes a de facto holiday as well – the bridge or in local terms “puente” (Castilian, that is). If the intention had been, back in 1978, that subsequent anniversaries of the referendum were to be public holidays, why wasn’t it held on the 7th or the 9th or at some other time? Immaculate Conception has long been a holiday in the Catholic calendar. Might it not have made more sense had …? (Could an answer as to why there is a day’s gap be that otherwise there would be occasions when the two days would coincide with a weekend.)

Anyway, just coming back to the constitution, “Ultima Hora” presents the findings of a survey within the Balearics as to people’s satisfaction or not with the constitution as it stands. Not that surprisingly, a strong majority (78%) say that they are satisfied. I say not surprisingly as, is the constitution something people really pay much attention to, except when a pollster comes along and asks?


And after this spate of days off, we have Christmas. It is coming, the goose is getting fat, all that. The lights are being put up, though with energy-saving in mind. The shops are playing naff music. The papers have special recipes. Pretty much like anywhere, even if Christmas is less of an orgy of credit-card busting here than it is in the UK. Still, for those locally who need their anglo-Christmas fill, as always pleased to put in a word for my chums at Little Britain supermarket in Puerto Alcúdia: turkeys and all the trimmings, mince pies, brandy sauce, Christmas puddings, chocolates, cards … . To Steve and Urbano at Little Britain, God rest ye merry gentlemen. Well from the 25th at any rate.


QUIZ
Yesterday – “Going Underground”, The Jam. Today’s title – song by Manchester-ish group, think jam and add two.

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