Spending the last days of the year here turns the change of calendar into something more than a dinner, a few chimes or a special night. The idea is simple: two days, two lighthouses and two gestures.
A path to say goodbye to the year that is ending.
And a first light to welcome the one that is beginning.
31 December · The Cala Nans lighthouse
One last walk before the year ends
On 31 December, the plan begins on foot.
From Cadaqués, the path leading to the Cala Nans lighthouse gradually moves away from the village and advances between the sea and the landscape of Cap de Creus.
There is no need to think of it as a great hike. Its strength lies elsewhere: walking without hurry, leaving behind for a while the preparations for the night and giving yourself a space before the year ends.
The lighthouse thus becomes a symbolic destination.
Lighthouses exist to guide us. To mark a point in the middle of the vastness and help us know where we are.
Perhaps that is why reaching Cala Nans on the last day of the year can hold a special meaning.
It is a good moment to look back. To remember what has brought us here, what we want to keep and what we would rather leave behind.
Without any grand rituals.
Just walking, arriving and returning.
Afterwards, the path leads back to Cadaqués. The village takes centre stage again and the New Year's Eve celebration arrives.
But before the chimes we will already have done something important: giving an ending to the day and, symbolically, to the year as well.
1 January · The Cap de Creus lighthouse
Welcoming the rising sun
The next day, the plan changes completely.
It is no longer about walking to say goodbye, but about getting up while it is still dark to go and find the first light.
Every 1 January, at the Cap de Creus lighthouse, the Aplec del Sol Ixent (the gathering of the rising sun) is held. At dawn, people from all over come together facing the Mediterranean to wait for the sunrise as one.
When the light finally appears over the horizon, the new year seems to begin in an almost tangible way.
The moment is shared with sardanas and hot chocolate, but what probably stays longest in the memory is something far simpler: having been there to watch the first day of the year begin.
The landscape helps.
Cap de Creus reaches into the Mediterranean like one last piece of land before the sea. At night, the horizon almost disappears. And, little by little, the light draws it again.
There is no need to give it any mystical meaning.
The ritual is the gesture itself.
Getting up while it is still dark.
Reaching the lighthouse.
Waiting.
Watching the light appear.
And beginning.
Two lighthouses, two moments
Cala Nans and Cap de Creus do not form a conventional route here.
They are two points of a single story.
On 31 December, one lighthouse accompanies us as we look back.
On 1 January, the other waits for us as we look ahead.
Cala Nans to say goodbye.
Cap de Creus to begin.
Between the two lies a night, a change of year and that small pause that separates what is ending from what is still to come.
Perhaps this is one of the most special ways to experience New Year in Cadaqués: not filling every moment with things to do, but leaving room for the landscape to become part of the experience too.
Because there are years that begin with resolutions.
And there are years that can begin, simply, by watching the sun rise between two lighthouses.