The community continues to have this tradition because Asturian culture is still a minority within the country of Spain itself, and so to them, they have to keep their traditions alive in order for the next generation to pass it on. This also allows them to stay connected to their roots and Celtic past.
And it's not just the small villages keeping this tradition up. Some of the residents of the larger cities who have moved there for work opportunities or studies, ill return to their villages to do these kinds of traditions or events. These traditions not only help keep the residents in touch with the past, but they also help communities pass it on through the next generations.
This particular tradition is heavily connected to the environment because you have to be mindful of what state the environment is in when it comes to looking for mushrooms. For example, as the summer was extremely wet this year, the teachers had large hopes that there would be an abundance of mushrooms up in the forests for them to pick. Sadly, though, because of the heatwave that soon followed these rainstorms, the ground ended up drying up too fast for any mushrooms to grow.
For the nuts, it's important to understand the changing of the leaves and how many days have passed in order for you to go out and scavenge for nuts. As we were well into the season for chestnuts, walnuts and hazelnuts, we had no problem finding the shells on the ground and picking the nuts out of them. One must be careful though, as the shells can be quite prickly and can hurt if you touch them!
