GALICIAN TRADITION

Celebrating the Galician Tradition of Queimada

The high-octane experience promised to bring us better luck

When my friend and I checked into our hotel in the town of Sabaris, Spain, we were hot and tired and only wanted to put our feet up and relax. We were several days into the Camino de Santiago, a 280km walk from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

But when the desk clerk told us there would be a Queimada celebration that evening for guests at the hotel, I was intrigued. I had just read an article about it and watched a couple of videos, so it wasn’t completely unknown to me.

Potent alcohol, fire, magic spells, what could possibly go wrong? Queimada translates to burned in Spanish and burnt out in Galician.

Queimada is an ancient Galician tradition, some say it was started by Celtic druids who passed it along. Others believe it came from Buenos Aires by Galician immigrants. That doesn’t really matter if it brings us better luck.

We had walked in unseasonably hot, humid weather and gotten lost numerous times. I had blisters, a twisted knee, and a muscle cramp in my neck. I wasn’t complaining, I just needed a bit of good luck.

The ritual involves powerful alcohol, fruit, magic spells, and a lot of singing and dancing. The alcohol called Aguardente is a brandy-like drink, a byproduct of the winemaking process. It’s mixed in either a hollowed-out pumpkin or in a ceramic container and herbs, coffee beans, lemon peel, cinnamon, and sometimes pieces of fruit are added to the punch.

And then the real magic happens.

Our host was dressed in full costume, a long white and blue caftan, beads, and a turban on his head, all very sorcerer-like. As people gathered around the bowl, the host lit the alcohol on fire and as it burned it created a blue flame. Then the mystical, melodic incantations began. They are meant to keep the evil spirits at bay and protect those who drink the firewater from evil curses. Our host didn’t actually chant the incantations. He had a recording that he played while he performed the ritual. I’m sure the magic is just as effective.

The host raised a ladle of the burning liquid and slowly poured it back into the flaming punch. This continued for several minutes until he handed the ladle over to others to join in the ceremony. Finally, it was ladled into cups which were passed out to the guests to drink.

Just don’t forget to blow out the flame.

As expected the elixir was hot but the strong alcohol had not been burned off yet so it was still powerful stuff.

It actually tasted a lot better than I expected and I ended up downing a couple of cups of the firewater. It didn’t take long for people to lose their inhibitions, singing traditional Galician songs which then evolved into karaoke.

I would have loved to stay and enjoy more of the celebration but we had to get up early the next morning to continue our journey on the Camino de Santiago. At least we knew we had some extra protection that promised to give us better luck along The Way.

Thank you for reading.