Category: About Chelva

The third week of August Chelva, the village where we live, celebrates its week of festivities. Normally, our village has about 1200 souls, but during the celebrations there are 5000 inhabitants. People who used to live here and moved to the larger cities such as Valencia and Barcelona. Also those, whose parents ever emigrated to France looking for work. They all come back during these days. For many people the festival week is a reunion. Although we do not belong to the history of Chelva we feel incorporated in this community. We feel at home here.

Traditionally many Spaniards are religious and during the festival week the small statue of the Virgen del Remedio is picked up from a chapel in the mountains and in a procession brought down to the village. On Friday she is carried around through the neighborhood and also comes past our street. At the beginning of the video you can see the street with the painted flowers, where Helma drained the water for our garden, last month.

In the procession you see the villagers: The contractor, the electrician, the carpenter, the grocer, people who join us to joga, people of the supermarket, the mayor, and our  Argentine friend the sculptor. You see him at the beginning of the procession carrying the cross-standard (and greeting me unobtrusive.) Many people we got to know and who have become dear to us.

As you may know Paella is one of the main dishes in Spain. When we arrived here twenty-five years ago the Dutch consul said to me: “Ben, if you want to integrate in this country you need to know exactly when to talk about soccer and when about paella“.

The paella-recipe is simple. It starts with frying  meat in oil. Then add water and vegetables. Cook the rice in this soup for about twenty minutes. And all that in the well known large, flat pan whether or not on wood fire. Like no other nation Spaniards can talk about food and a discussion on how to make a good paella often degenerates into a heated, semi-fundamentalist debate. “There should only be chicken and rabbit in! No, only fish! You should never do with bell peppers! In particular with bell peppers!” All this of course with a glass of wine in hand.

Last night in our village Chelva we had a Paella Competition. At the Plaza Mayor some twenty wood fires were burning with, on the low tripod, that big iron pan. The whole village smelled to fire and fried meat. The paella of our friends has won any prize but for me he was the world’s best. An we really had a good time till early in the morning.