In another of our occasional disappearing world series ..... the dying art
of the last of the traditional Spanish castanet makers is being reported on a BBC report.
I say 'traditional', because of course like most things these days, there are factory makers (usually in China), who make them for the tourist trade .... anyone familiar with Spain (or even the Spanish speaking resorts across South America), will have seen the glossy castanets hanging from any tourist knick-knack shop.
They lasted five minutes if they were ever used, but normally are the bedrock of the souvenirs hanging in many a working class kitchen, where they act as mute reminders of a holiday on the Costa Del Sol.
Still, its another small part of the world that is fast disappearing, and when gone, they are likely to be gone forever.
I say 'traditional', because of course like most things these days, there are factory makers (usually in China), who make them for the tourist trade .... anyone familiar with Spain (or even the Spanish speaking resorts across South America), will have seen the glossy castanets hanging from any tourist knick-knack shop.
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| Spanish Castanets - Big In The 60's |
They lasted five minutes if they were ever used, but normally are the bedrock of the souvenirs hanging in many a working class kitchen, where they act as mute reminders of a holiday on the Costa Del Sol.
Still, its another small part of the world that is fast disappearing, and when gone, they are likely to be gone forever.
I've tried but I'm finding it hard to care. Well, perhaps I haven't really tried - I can't work up the interest to even do that.
ReplyDeleteWell perhaps castanets are not your thing, nor indeed are they mine, but its still a little bit of our background culture that once gone, is gone. We are all time travelling into the future, but perhaps like no other society before, we are losing our roots before we have even reached the end of the journey, or worked out what we need to keep.
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