ion.
Then the family and relatives and friends from miles around come to
celebrate. All over Spain, on a Sunday morning, you'll see the little
girls in their long white dresses with white gloves and veils, looking
proud and happy as they walk to church with their beaming mothers and
fathers for their confirmation. When boys are confirmed, they wear white
suits, with a cape lined in scarlet or blue satin and trimmed with gold
braid. If the family has enough money, they may hire a horse-drawn
carriage. The driver wears a tall black stovepipe silk hat and the
carriage doors and horses' bridles are decorated with white flowers.

The church is very important in Spanish life. The Apostle James himself
came to preach in Spain, and later, after he had been killed in
Palestine, his body was brought back to Spain for burial. His tomb is in
the beautiful Cathedral of Santiago--which is the way Spanish people say
St. James--in Compostela, in northern Spain. For thousands of years
people from all over the world have come as pilgrims to Compostela. Many
little Spanish boys are named Santiago, or perhaps Jaime, another way to
say James in Spanish, for Santiago is the patron saint of all Spain.

Every city and village also has its very own private patron saint. Once
a year there is a village festival or "fiesta" in his or her honor. If
you were to travel through Spain you would find a fiesta somewhere every
day of the year! These fiestas start in the morning when all the people
go to church, which is always decorated with hundreds of flowers and
candles. Then in the afternoon or evening there is a long parade from
the church through the main streets and back to the church again, with
the figure of the saint standing on a flower-draped platform which is
carried on the shoulders of young men.

[Illustration]

Choirs sing, candles and incense burn, and all the people stand in
reverence along the route. A bullfight is usually a feature of a saint's
day too, with the whole town going to the Plaza de Toros to watch. The
paseo will be especially gay at fiesta time, and as darkness falls, the
guitars will start to twang, castanets will click and all the young
people will gather in the main square to take part in folk dances until
morning. Sometimes the saint's fiesta will last a whole week, with
bullfights every afternoon and a fair every night.

One of the most unusual fiestas in all Spain is held every March in
Valencia in honor of St.