The lighting of the Christmas lights in Vigo generates, like every year, great expectations. The mayor of the city, Abel Knighthas spoken about it in an interview on RTVE’s Canal 24 Horas, where he has also confessed What language would you not use? to announce the countdown during the Christmas lighting because he doesn’t speak it.
Starting this Saturday, at 8:00 p.m., “Christmas starts in Vigo and Christmas starts everywhere,” Caballero stated before advance some details about it. “We will do a lighting more sober, more austerebecause the memory of Valencia is still present, but we start Christmas and we start a great celebration with lights that are announced in New York, London, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​everywhere,” he indicated.
As noveltythis year changes “the concept of the Christmas tree”, according to Abel Caballero. “We have a gigantic Christmas tree, it measures 50 meters, but this year we changed the concept of the tree through a forest“said the mayor of the city.
“In the great square of Vigo, which is called Puerta del Sol, just like the one in Madrid, we have the great 50-meter tree, but we are going to have nine more trees9 or 10 meters each, which is three stories high. What there is going to be is a forest of Christmas treesthat with music and carols each of the trees and lights makes gestures, like an accompaniment to a forest of living Christmas trees,” he explained.
He language management of the Vigo councilor during the Christmas lighting has also been another of the issues mentioned during his interview. It is common for Abel Caballero to use the Spanish, Galician and English at the time of the countdown before lighting the tree, and this year, the mayor also does not rule out adding other languages.
Maybe I can do it too in French, in Italian, in Portuguesedue to language similarity… We have visitors from so many countries…”, he assessed.
Of course, among the possible languages German has been discarded. “I wouldn’t be able to do it in German, because I don’t speak it“, he confessed. “But the idea is good, I have to use more languages,” Caballero reiterated when explaining the international significance which has the retransmission of the lighting of the Vigo lights, which in other years has been seen in Latin American countries or even through the British network BBC One.
Gentleman has also advanced that there will be a special ignition for those affected by DANA in Valencia. “There will be. Wait until eight and we will check it,” he assured.
On the other hand, in the face of criticism who maintain that the lighting takes place too soon, Caballero has responded that many do it for political reasons, such as the PP or the BNG, “who do not want there to be Christmas in Vigo, because that way they believe that I am going to lose the elections, and They are completely wrong.”
Secondly, the councilor has admitted that “Christmas Yes, it causes discomfort, and that’s where we are acting.: in the areas where there are more people, we are giving exclusive traffic cards for residents, the volume of the music is very measured, we spread it to more places because we are expanding Christmas so that it extends to more areas of the city …”, he listed.
According to Caballero, there is a high demand for streets in Vigo that ask to be illuminated, in addition to the 450 streets that remain illuminated during this Christmas period. “I have 400 streets that request me additionally May it illuminate them too. The tendency, by demand, of citizens is to expand further. And this is what satisfies me. This, and it put Vigo in the world,” the mayor concluded.