- published: 20 Oct 2013
- views: 18170
Galician can refer to:
Luar na Lubre is a Celtic music ensemble from Galicia, Spain.
Luar is Galician for moonlight; lubre is a magical forest in which the Celtic druids cast their spells.
During its career, this musical group has spread Galician music and culture. The band became famous worldwide after Mike Oldfield took interest in their music. Oldfield fell in love with their song "O son do ar" (The sound of the air, composed by Bieito Romero). Oldfield's cover is on his Voyager album, entitled "Song of the Sun". In 1992 he offered help in their worldwide tour. Their tour together was called Tubular Bells 3.[dead link] Now it is one of the most famous groups from Galicia. Their first singer Rosa Cedrón is also featured with Mike Oldfield in some songs from his live concert at Horseguard's Parade, near St James' Park, London. Rosa Cedrón left the band in 2005 and Sara Vidal became the new singer. In 2010, the group's leader, Bieito Romero, said the group was "fully fit".
The group recorded a version of Gerdundula by Status Quo.
The Galicians (Galician: Galegos) are an ethnic group and nationality, whose historical homeland is Galicia in north-western Spain. Most Galicians are bilingual, speaking both their historic language, Galician, and Castilian Spanish.
The autonomous community (a concept established in the Spanish constitution of 1978) that is known as (a) Comunidade Autónoma Galega in Galician, and as (la) Comunidad Autónoma Gallega in Spanish (in English: Galician Autonomous Community), is composed of the four Spanish provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra.
The official Statistical body of Galicia is the Instituto Galego de Estatística (IGE). According to the IGE, Galicia's total population in 2008 was 2,783,100 (1,138,474 in A Coruña, 355.406 in Lugo, 336.002 in Ourense, and 953.218 in Pontevedra). The most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centres, are Vigo, Pontevedra (in Pontevedra), Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Ferrol (in A Coruña), Lugo (in Lugo), and Ourense (in Ourense). The official languages are Galician and Spanish. Knowledge of Spanish is compulsory according to the Spanish constitution and virtually universal. Knowledge of Galician, after declining for many years owing to the pressure of Spanish and official persecution, is again on the rise due to favorable official language policies and popular support. Currently about 82% of Galicia's population can speak Galician and about 61% has it as a mother tongue.