Goodbye 2017! - Celebrating together the end of the year - Madrid, Spain

Goodbye 2017! Celebrating together the end of the year Madrid, Spain, December 31, 2017 By Carlos Badosa, Francesca Stabile, seen in a while; just as any family blessing; one for themselves and their Rubén Cabero, Stefan Campillo would naturally do. families, and one for our national community. We read some of the as a

J In the morning program, six people ust as it is important to spend time young and old, first and second closing moment for the day. together with our own families, we generation, man and women, from all In the afternoon, we had our traditional didn’t want to miss the opportunity over the world -Spanish, Ecuadorian, entertainment with dancing, music, and to gather as a national community for Bulgarian, Korean-, from different theater performances. We had cash the end of this year; a moment backgrounds and positions, had 10 prizes for the most-voted performances traditionally in our culture held for minutes each to talk openly about their chosen by the audience at the end of moments of joy, change, renewal and most important moments and the afternoon; and we raffled a spanish goodwill. experiences this year, in order to create ham leg among the participants. On December 31st, 130 people of the a space for reflecting on the upcoming This day reminded us that, despite the Spanish family gathered for a whole- year and remember what is most work it takes to organize big events, day program, organized entirely by important. After the talks, the whole there is a big power in gathering second-generation staff with the great group split into smaller groups of 7-9 together, because it is the gift True support of many elders, in the congress people, mixing people of all ages, to Parents gave us: to feel that, despite we centre of Fray Luis de Leon, located in share their most significant events this are all different in character, age, the mountain area of Guadarrama, near year, and to think about what they ideological dispositions, we all belong Madrid; in order to celebrate our would like to invest their time next to the same family. presence together, create communal year. We want to thank every single person bonds, have fun, share our stories, eat, To finish the morning, we asked that took the time to share those and catch up with those we haven’t everyone to share anonymously and moments with us. written in paper their best wishes and