Traditional night of Parrandos

Every Spanish person, whom I meet, seems a happy person. I have yet to see a frown on their face. Well they have reason to be. During these four months that I have been here in Tenerife, I have noticed that there has been festival every week-end at some or the other part of this island. Lucky people, they have just siesta and fiesta. The part of the island where I am staying there is tranquillity at all times. People walk at their own pace, no one is in hurry to reach anywhere, their working hours are only from 9am to 1pm and then from 4pm to 8pm. And between one and four, I don’t see anybody on the road except few cars crossing the village. Sometimes, when I am walking on the streets during those hours, I can even hear my own footsteps. I get surprised, when people who know me, stop their car in the middle of the road to chat with me and nobody is honking...how strange! Nobody is honking! During the evenings, I see them in the clubs, watching football match or reading paper, and in the residential areas, I see people sitting outside their home and chatting with their neighbours, most of them might be planning for the next week-end party. This weekend there was an event at the fiesta called Parrandos. I was interested and I asked my brother to take me. We went there around 10pm, and streets were lighted and alive with smiling faces. All the people were dressed in their traditional clothes and formed their own group and sang the folk music. There were many different groups at various tables, each group had their own their traditional dress. Every table had peanuts, gofio (a sweet dish made of flour) and bottles of wine which they had in between their own traditional songs and music. There was a surprised meal too (a special treat) and I was tempted dig into that plate of corn and meat. The party went on for another two hours and was followed by another party for younger groups,