“And the sweetness came not with pride and with the lonely dreams of poets nor with the glamour of a secret, but with the homespun truth of folk-tales…” CS Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress
No sooner had we arrived in Toledo, than the town began its transformation from stark, stone medieval walls — plain and warm — to flower-bedecked balconies, 16th and 17th century tapestries hung with pride from private windows and public spaces like the town hall, banks and storefronts. Preparations for Toledo’s most important holiday, Corpus Christi, were underway and celebrants gathered in plazas and in churches singing and kissing one another with the joy that marks the occasion. The holiday celebrates the body of Christ, or as far as I can tell from my Protestant enculturation, Jesus Christ Incarnate.
Not a block from our hotel sits the Plaza de Mayor (the main square). Stage construction started early afternoon and by 8:00 sound checks were nearly done — fine tuning for the open-air concert to come. We hung around with the Toledoans until 8:45. Apparently, a hometown girl-turned-famous (Ana Alcaide) and her band were giving a concert on the Spanish legends put to music. Her interest and impressive education focus on instruments and music of days long past, better known as folk. Although we speak very little Spanish, her story-telling through music broadened our Spanish history. The evening’s magic will linger long from the sweetness of these 2 days in Toledo.
And I’ve enjoyed another sort of sweet — that of finding a gluten-free gelato spot run by a young woman, who went out of her way to ensure a good Toledo gelato-eating experience. And that’s how folk tales begin, isn’t it? One story upon another, passed along in the company of fellow pilgrims. A little bit of homespun truth from Toledo for your day, friends.
