SPAIN: Joyful Spaniards started celebrating on the streets of the capital more than three days before the first royal marriage in Madrid for nearly 100 years.
Madrid residents have thrown off the cloak of mourning that has smothered the normally vibrant city since bombers killed 191 people in March, and embraced the wedding of the dashing crown prince to his beautiful commoner bride tomorrow.
Prince Felipe - soldier, sailor and heir to the throne - will marry divorced former television newsreader Ms Letizia Ortiz in Madrid's Almudena Roman Catholic cathedral.
Thousands thronged Madrid's Cibeles Square past midnight yesterday morning among monuments awash in colourful floodlights in a sign of the affection most of the Spanish public holds for a monarchy credited with leading it to democracy from dictatorship.
"In the good times and the bad, we pour into the streets," said resident Ms Alicia Cortes at the lit-up square.
Tomorrow's wedding offers Spaniards the first chance to show some public joy after a year that has seen several sombre demonstrations against war abroad, violence at home, and in mourning for those killed on March 11th.
A major event for gossip magazines, the wedding also gives Spaniards a chance to shunt aside minority republicans as well as restive separatists and lift a pall that has hung over city life since 10 bombs exploded aboard four packed commuter trains.
After dating a Spanish aristocrat, an American millionaire's daughter and a Norwegian model, Felipe (36) chose a modern Spanish woman, professional and divorced.
Ms Ortiz (31) seems to have won approval from a Catholic public in spite of her marital status.
Security in Madrid has been building over the past few weeks.Police have knocked on thousands of doors along the parade route, asking neighbours if they have seen anything suspicious.
Airspace over Madrid will be off limits to all but commercial airlines, and NATO will deploy an AWACs radar plane.
The 1978 Spanish constitution established the king as head of state.
There is growing consensus to change the rules of succession so that if Felipe and Letizia have a girl first she can become queen in her own right.