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Date Published: 13/09/2022

ARCHIVED - Feeling festive: Spain begins planning Christmas lighting despite energy crisis

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

Several communities in Spain have already begun hanging their Christmas street lights

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Feeling festive: Spain begins planning Christmas lighting despite energy crisis

Half of the country is experiencing scorching temperatures at the moment and Halloween is still weeks away, but believe it or not, several communities in Spain are already putting up their Christmas lights. Some of the stand-outs are the capital, Madrid, where the illuminations are going up as we speak, and Vigo, which started working on the displays last month, at the height of summer.

Whether or not people think it’s too soon to get into the festive spirit (Christmas is 14 weeks away, if anyone’s counting) one obvious concern stands out: the current energy crisis, and if the government plans to put restrictions on lighting to save power.

Aside from the few exceptions, most regional leaders are holding off on ordering their Christmas lights until they get some indication from the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, on whether they’ll be asked to cut back on lighting this year. The various ministries are meeting with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) this week to discuss measures that can be included in Spain’s energy saving contingency plan, which should be ready by the end of September. However, the existing plan makes no mention of Christmas lights and Ms Ribera herself said recently that she has no intention of making the “unpleasant” decision to limit festive decorations.

It seems she would be up against stiff opposition in any case, at least from Madrid, whose mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, said this week: "What cannot be done is that (the lights) disappear due to the situation that is being experienced, because it is a tourist, commercial and economic attraction for Madrid."

For the past several years, municipalities across Spain have been switching to LED lights for their winter displays, and so energy consumption doesn’t really spike at Christmas. For now, if nothing changes, the festive illuminations will begin, as always, from Black Friday on November 25 and remain until January 6.

Image: Pixabay

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