Don’t look for them in the RAE dictionary because academics have not yet found a place for them there, but over the last few years two words have been making their way into the national Christmas lexicon: “good afternoon and new year’s afternoon”. Just like Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, the canonical celebrations they have begun to complement. Actually both terms are self-explanatory: good afternoon and old afternoon They are nothing other than lateness (a phenomenon upward) transferred to the festivities of December 24 and 31. It’s that simple, that effective.
The formula has caught on to such an extent in recent years that it has gone from being a diffuse and spontaneous phenomenon to a settled reality that moves thousands of peopleis organized with weeks in advancehas the institutional endorsement of the town councils and gives an extra boost to the coffers of the hoteliers.
New times, new traditions. Christmas is (almost by definition) synonymous with tradition, but that doesn’t mean it’s immutable. On the contrary. Over the last few years, the holidays have been enriched with new habits that, through repetition, have already become established in Spanish ‘Christmas lore’: lighting parties of the lights, the fights between city councils to erect XXL luminous trees, the ‘pre-grapes’ and of course the good afternoon and old afternoon.
New celebrations that take over from others that falter.
¿Good afternoon and old afternoon? Exact. Two expanding trends that are practically self-explanatory. The good afternoon and old afternoon They are nothing other than the adaptation of the late to the two big Christmas events: Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. The party no longer starts at night, with a copious dinner. It begins at noon and in the afternoon, with celebrations that usually leave homes and move to public spaces such as restaurants, bars, streets and squares.
It is not about replacing the family dinner on the 24th or the one that precedes the 12 bells on the 31st, but rather about rethinking the celebration with friends and family, adjusting their schedules to bring them forward towards the afternoon (even at noon) in a ‘challenge’ to the traditional dinners that go on forever and the old party favors.
A proven success. It may seem simple, but it works. If you open Google and type “New Year’s Eve” You will basically find two things: announcements from town councils that inform about their celebrations (the list is extensive: Petrer, Cartagena, Torremolinos, Boadilla del Monte, Two Sisters, Fuenlabrada…) and articles of regional newspapers that they count how the “previews” of December 24 and especially December 31 have gained popularity over the years.
“It’s like reliving a day of the Pilar Festival in the middle of Christmas. A terrifying vermouth, but with wonderful billing,” explained last year to the newspaper ‘Heraldo’ a hotelier from Zaragoza who told how the good afternoon and old afternoon They have carved out a niche for themselves in December.
There is nothing written about how to celebrate them, but the most common thing is that the afternoons start in the hours before dinner, even around noon (about one or even a little before), and continue for hours, until eight.
Searching for the causes. that the old afternoon is gaining strength precisely now and not eight, ten or eleven years ago is no coincidence. Although it is not easy to determine the reasons that explain why a trend succeeds, the truth is that the boom in Christmas “previews” is preceded by factors that have paved the way for it. The first (obvious) is the expansion of late in Spain.
Whether causality or not, as the population pyramid of the country is thinning at the base and widening in the age group between 30 and 50, evening leisure has been gaining weight. That is, venues willing to offer experiences similar to those at night parties, only at an afternoon time that prevents the client from staying up late or waking up the next morning exhausted and hungover.
The legacy of COVID. Another factor that helps understand the success of the good afternoon either old afternoon It’s the pandemic. COVID not only forced us to spend weeks confined at home, it also (and perhaps because of that) rediscovered the pleasure of going out and enjoying the streets and terraces, which is precisely where they are celebrated the afternoons of December 24 and 31. This is how hoteliers explained it to them in 2024. The Digital Confidential in an article in which it was stated that attendance at the Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve previews shot up by 25% in just two years.
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Is there more? Yes. To all of the above, other equally important keys can be added, such as families being less willing to spend hours between stoves or the increase in ordered dishes to restaurants. If we enjoy more leisure on the afternoons of the 24th and 31st, it is simply because we organize ourselves differently on those days and we are less tied to the kitchens.
Another key is the advantages to organize midday and afternoon plans instead of long dinners, especially if there are children involved. How icing is it the bet what have they done not a few town councils by the evening parties, especially in small towns where the afternoon has become an opportunity to celebrate (in community and with music) Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve.
Images | Gijón City Council, Fuenlabrada City Council
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was originally published in
Xataka
by
Carlos Prego
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