Imagine the town council of Mobile, Alabama, publishes a web poll in its official website, asking How will you spen the next days? and the options for replying are:

• Christian Christmas
• Hanukkah
• Kwanzaa
• We're atheists, but we enjoy family life watching old Carl Sagan videos.

And then, let's imagine that people come and vote and atheists are winning by an astonishing 85%! Someone reacts in the town council and the poll and its results disappear from the web, due to some technical fixes that must be done.

Well, this Christmas carol actually happened here in the Basque Country. There is some sort of ethnic divide regarding Christmas. For the Spanish, it's the Three Kings that bring the presents. For Basques,

an indigenous figure, Olentzero, a bearded coalmaker from the mountains. There's also Papa Noel, called in the French way, also known as Santa Claus (well, there are also Basque traditions around San Nikolas but that's another story), more marginal in its appeal.

, asking for preferences:

•     The Kings
•     Olentzero
•     Santa

Then the results come...

And the radical rightwing Spanish ruling party in the city takes the poll down from the website. Well, we had saved our screenshots, just in case. There's more than that on the issue, cause in the last years the civic

processions of Olentzero coming from the mountains have been banned in Iruñea: fines of several thousand euros have been put to the civil groups that organise them. Olentzero is an outlaw there...

It's a sad story. 2007 has not been a good year in the Basque Country. No much room for hope for 2008, due to the political circumstances. I feel helpless about that, not much can be done personally, I'm afraid. So, let's try to leave our lives modestly, enjoy the innocence of our children, try to be happy in private, with our friends and family. These two are my happiness, Peru and Lili, and in accordance with my blog tradition of publishing the best photo of them both, this is my choice.

Happy 2008 to all. Peace. (there's also a carol sung by the whole family!)