The chestnut our alternative to Halloween

The Castañada, a popular festival celebrated in Catalonia, Aragon, the Balearic Islands and Valencia, is getting closer. It is celebrated on October 31, and during All Saints' Day, and is known for eating chestnuts, sweet potatoes and Panellets!

The origin of the Castañada dates back to the traditional pagan festival in which the end of the harvest was considered to be over and was considered a good time to worship the souls that were no longer there.

The popular tradition of the Castañada has two very important figures that are the Castañera, an old woman dressed in a skirt, an apron and a hood. And the Castañero, an old man dressed in pants, apron and beret. It is a tradition that the last week of October, all the small children dress up to go to school pretending to be Castañeros and Castañeras distributing chestnuts to their friends.

This year we wanted to give a more "our" alternative to the Halloween party and we have designed a Castañera or Castañero personalized children's costume kit . It is an ideal gift to give meaning to this beautiful autumn tradition in some areas of Spain.

Our Kit brings two different costume options, a carrycot, wooden cones for the chestnuts and a card with a traditional text in the language you want and with the child's name.

Currently this traditional festival is celebrated in a family environment and it is typical to eat chestnuts, sweet potatoes and panellets. You can buy the panellets, or make them decorating them as you want.

We leave you the traditional recipe for panellets with pine nuts so that you can make it with the little ones in the house.

Ingredients:

100g of potato

150g of sugar

200g of pine nuts

200g ground almonds

1 lemon

1 egg

Elaboration:

1. Cook the potato with skin. When it is cooked, remove the skin and mash it with a fork until you get a paste.

2. Wash the lemon and grate the skin. Mix it with the sugar.

3. Mix the sugar and lemon with the potato, and the ground almonds until you get a homogeneous mixture.

4. With the help of a spoon and your hands, you see making balls of the dough. Store them in the fridge.

5. Preheat the oven to 220ºC

6. In a plate beat the egg, and put another plate with all the pine nuts.

7. Take the dough out of the fridge and pass the balls through the egg and pine nuts so that they stick together.

8. Place the panellets on top of a baking tray and paint each panellet with what you have left over from the egg. Leave them for about 5 minutes and voila!

Do not forget to share your chestnut with us through social networks @fiestadeolivia tagging us, or through the hashtag #lafiestadeolivia, we will be delighted to see your photos. A hug and we hope you have a great time!