It is 23 October. Halloween is still more than a week away and Christmas Eve is two months away, but in a corner of inland ... Malaga, the Christmas lights are already twinkling above the streets.
There is no need to wait until late November or travel to Vigo to see festive illuminations: Cartaojal, a hamlet of Antequera with around 1,000 inhabitants, switched on its lights last week, barely a month into autumn.
Sources at Antequera town council explained to SUR that the early installation stems from administrative logistics. The Christmas lighting contract is combined with that for the town's two summer fairs, allowing the contractor to coordinate installation and testing across scattered outlying districts early. Once the decorations were installed in Cartaojal, their local popularity prompted officials to leave them lit.
Antequera town council presents the move as a tribute to its 11 rural districts and is considering repeating the early switch-on in another district next year.
The initiative found its main advocate in the mayor of Antequera, Manolo Barón, who shared images of the illuminations on social media alongside a light-hearted message aimed at Vigo mayor Abel Caballero, whose Galician city is famous for its elaborate Christmas displays.
"This year, Christmas begins in Cartaojal!" Barón declared, calling it "the first town in Spain to switch on its Christmas lights".
"We're sorry for Vigo and its mayor… but this year Cartaojal is one step ahead of everyone else," Barón added, highlighting that "Cartaojal and Antequera are the first in Spain to kick off the Christmas season!"
While Vigo usually holds its official switch-on during the second half of November, glowing orbs of various sizes and colours have already been illuminating Cartaojal's traditional white-walled streets for several nights.
The lights were turned on quietly without a public ceremony due to restrictions surrounding the upcoming general election on 29 November, which ban formal public inaugurations.
The main town centre of Antequera, located 13 kilometres away, will wait until early December to switch on its main illuminations to coincide with the start of the Christmas shopping season.