Siestas and Fiestas

...but economists and officials complain that late nights are bad for efficiency and business...

...Television's early close-down sends restless viewers out into the streets for a stroll-Although some may be discouraged by the dimmed lights...

...But tradition is strong -even stronger, sometimes, than the Church...

...Car-owning families tend, therefore, to be on the move by midaf-ternoon...

...Fiestas are an opportunity for family gatherings, excursions, color, noise, and huge meals...

...So as not to seem irredeemably sadopuritanical, the government has decided to allow flamenco singers, pelota players, cinema-goers, liontamers and the rest an extra half-hour on Saturdays and fiesta-eves (of which there are a lot), and an extra hour every night in summer...

...He will return to his office when his counterparts in Northern Europe are thinking of going home...

...The national fiestas (like those in honor of Saint James, in July, and the Virgin of the Pillar, in October) shut down almost everything in Spain except bars, bullrings and restaurants...

...Semana Santa, once marked by exceptional solemnity, is now, for most people, just another festive occasion, and some of its famous processions are timed to avoid their clashing with televised soccer matches that would siphon off many participants and spectators...

...he will depart for dinner when they are thinking of going to bed...

...And the thought of the dollars going to opec to pay for the fuel guzzled by all that nightlife gives the Treasury nightmares...

...Even Franco, who was advised by his economic ministers around 1970 to persuade Spaniards to go to bed earlier, failed to change their noctambu-lous habits, despite his being aided by a pullulation of police services and a termitary of technocrats...

...Foreign businessmen are sometimes discouraged from dealing with Spanish firms by their awkward office hours...

...except in some coastal resorts where Northern tourists have disrupted Spanish mores...

...I have Spanish friends who do not hesitate to go to their doctor or hairdresser after 10 p.m...

...he will take off in the direction of a huge lunch and, if the weather is hot, a siesta...

...For more than two years, as it has moved nearer the European Economic Community, it has been trying to persuade Spaniards to adopt "European" hours and a more secular calendar...

...Frustrated flamenco fans gamble in cafes...

...Deprived pelota players probably join eta...

...Blowing Up Bridges The Spanish government has been tampering also with another sensitive issue-fiestas...

...The state-controlled TV network has been ordered to switch off at midnight...

...Some of these measures appear to be self-defeating...

...Attendance at the religious services held on fiesta days has plummeted and some services have been suspended...

...Some protests are supported by commercial as well as religious and traditionalist arguments...

...While to an outsider they may seem to follow a repetitive pattern, year after year, their character has in fact changed during the last decade, reflecting a decrease in religiosity and an increase in prosperity...

...So the official one-day fiesta becomes a break of four and a half days...

...Alarmed by the vast sums these puentes cost the economy, the government has decided that some midweek fiestas must be suppressed...

...Between 2-3 p.m...

...taxi drivers are often off-duty policemen...

...Catalans are already discussing which should be their national day: September 11, traditionally a day of defiance of Madrid and commemoration of the heroism of the defenders of Barcelona against the Bourbon conquest of 1714...

...Even some local fiestas-such as those in Madrid (San Isidro), Barcelona (Mer-ce), Valencia (Fallas) and Pamplona (San Fermin)-Give rise to festivities that last for days...

...The morning bank clerk may be an evening accountant...

...Mugging is a new profession in Spain and its practitioners were at a disadvantage when streets were crowded and lights were bright...

...This will have happened five times this year, with heavy traffic on the roads each time-complicated in summer by the presence of a million foreign cars...

...Catalans were angered by the Madrid government's decision to abolish four fiestas they are particularly fond of...

...Musical shows traditionally begin at 10:30 or 11 p.m., as do circuses and the grisly "comic" bullfights that are staged for children...

...The electrician, plumber or mason one has asked to come may do so at 9 a.m...

...These will probably survive now that Catalonia has obtained an autonomy statute and will soon have its own regional government...

...While applauding its decision to erase from the calendar the July 18 "fiesta" (commemorating the military revolt that put General Franco in power), many Spaniards have protested against other proposed suppressions...

...Tarragona still holds major fiestas to honor Sant Magi and Santa Tecla, although ecclesiastical historians suspect they never existed and their feast days have been abolished by the appropriate authorities in Rome...

...To officials in Madrid the issue is academic, since both occasions already bring Catalonia to a standstill...

...Many do a second job in the late afternoon or evening...

...and the Catalan town of Girona holds a big agricultural fair and fiesta that brings in millions of pesetas on All Saints' day...

...he will be at his best, most dynamic, most expansive, while they are having dinner...

...When a fiesta falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, they "bridge" the gap between it and the weekend by taking an extra day off...

...That is when Spain's air becomes breathable, when its wines are most drinkable and its inhabitants most hospitable, and when public entertainments are just getting into their swing...

...Resigned to the likelihood that it will have to reprieve some of the fiestas on its hit list, the Spanish government is trying a new tack: It is urging the Church to rearrange its calendar so that as many religious festivities as possible fall on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday...

...Spaniards used to make up for their short-or nonexistent-summer vacations by taking, on average, 21 one-day holidays a year to celebrate fiestas...

...the Maundy Thursday processions are features of the tourist season in Seville and other southern cities...

...With the spread of car ownership and the trend toward a five-day week, Spaniards have given themselves several extra holidays called puentes (bridges...

...The government had said, for example, that Saint Joseph's day, Maundy Thursday and All Saints' day should become normal workdays...

...or April 23, the feast of Sant Jordi (Saint George), the patron saint of Catalonia...

...So Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez has launched a go-to-bed campaign backed by a battery of restrictions...

...But Valencia holds a great pyrotechnic fiesta that attracts thousands of visitors in Saint Joseph's honor...

...Long working hours, climate and social custom have combined to make a nightbird of the average urban Spaniard...

...Like their European neighbors, they are now entitled to three or four weeks off every summer, but they have still preserved 14 fiestas...

...and, having arrived, he will want to finish the job before going home, even if it involves knocking a hole through a wall at midnight...

...Like Doctor Johnson, he suspects the worst of people who go to bed before midnight...

...But that is not all...

...Employees take a lengthy lunch break, too, and some have a short siesta in the summer...

...There are signs that they are having more success than government officials in persuading Spaniards to stay indoors after dark...

...Even small-town restaurants will welcome a traveler who arrives for dinner at 10 p.m...

...Although most fiestas are Catholic, many seem to be governed by the Jewish calendar and begin the previous evening...

...Spanish priests still bless cars on Saint Christopher's day, although the Vatican has struck him from its list of saints...

...or 9 p.m...

...Cinemas and circuses have been told to close at midnight, and cafes and restaurants at 1 a.m...

...A country where it is considered abnormal to go to bed one day and get up the next is naturally attractive to tourists, journalists and other nocturnal fauna...

...Around noon he will disappear in search of a glass of wine or beer, accompanied by tapas-A snack without which he might collapse of inanition, as the Spanish breakfast is a spectral affair...

...Basques must stop playing pelota, and flamenco singers must desist from wailing, half an hour after midnight...

...Drowsiness is one cause of the low productivity and high accident rate that afflict many Spanish industries...

...In addition, smalltown and village fiestas are sprinkled through the calendar like prawns in a paella, two or three for everyone...

...Before and after this year's Easter and Pillar fiestas, traffic jams 30 miles long built up on the Spanish side of the Andorran and French frontiers, with waits of up to six hours to cross the border...

...Total working hours are shorter than they were five years ago, but they are still the longest in Western Europe...

...Northern Europeans-And Norte-Americanos-doing business with Spain, or simply on vacation there, are sometimes tempted to put their watches back two or three hours...

...It would be hard to persuade even agnostic Spaniards that the Ascension of the Virgin Mary did not occur on a Thursday, thus entitling them to a four-day weekend in mid-May...

...Streetlights have already been dimmed and Christmas and other illuminations are to be reduced to a minimum...

...The average Spanish businessman, official or politician is rarely visible before 10:30 a.m...

...Now, with earlier closings and back-street gloom, their working conditions have improved and their numbers are increasing...

...Suarez is however receiving help from the shop assistants' and waiters' unions, which favor earlier closing hours, and from the muggers, who have not yet founded a union, though anything is possible...