Catalonian Culture

April 23, 2013-

A famous day in Catalonian culture: El dia de Sant Jordi.

Sort of like Valentines Day, the story goes like this:

"Once upon a time, a terrible dragon terrorized the inhabitants of a small village in Catalonia called Montblanc. The dragon wrecked havoc among the population and devoured the animals put out to pasture until there were none left. To calm the dragon's anger, the inhabitants of the village decided to sacrifice one person every day, chosen by drawing lots, and to offer that person to the dragon as a sign of their good will. However, one, dark day, the person chosen to be sacrificed was the king's daughter: the princess. Just when she was about to be swallowed up by the dragon, a courageous knight appeared and confronted the evil beast. This was Saint George (Sant Jordi in Catalan). He thrust his lance into the dragon and, out of the blood that spurted forth, there grew a red rose bush. Since then, it has been the custom in Catalonia to present a rose to your loved one. Saint George, the patron saint of Catalonia, became the symbol of Catalonia during the Renaixença, a nineteenth century political and cultural movement that sought to reclaim the symbols of Catalan identity."

On Sant Jordi's day the men in Barcelona and Catalunya give their sweetheart a red rose, and in recent years a new Sant Jordi tradition is that the ladies give the men a book. The book giving is a way to commemorate the nearly simultaneous deaths of two famous authors: Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespere on 23 April 1616. Anyone can give anyone a book, however, only a man can give a woman a rose.

Really, on this day there are three things celebrated: the Sant Jordi victory, the death of the two authors, and Catalunya's push for independence. 

In the first half of our 3 hour language class our teacher told us to walk around in groups and ask people, in Spanish, what the day was about. She gave us a list of questions to help us. Some of the questions included: what they were celebrating on Sant Jordi, why the women give me roses, the history of Sant Jordi, etc. It was interesting because we had known nothing about the day of Sant Jordi and this was the perfect way to learn about it. Not to mention it being a beautiful day and then sun was shining.

The streets were filled with rose stands with the Catalan flags hanging around the tables and tables upon tables of books. The lines to get a book were very long, apparently el dia de Sant Jordi is the cheapest day to buy a book in general.

The prices of the roses varied depending on where you were in the city. There were many different colored roses to buy and some even multicolored.There was a huge festival on Las Ramblas celebrating the day with massive amounts of people, book tables and rose tables.

Hung from one of the buildings in Plaza Catalunya (the main plaza) a huge banner read: "Catalunya: Europe's newest country."

The thing I like most about this day is that it is celebrated in "the streets" so to speak. Lovers meet up at lunch time and exchange their roses and books. They hang out, have a picnic and spend time together outside all day.

The children in the schools typically have a poetry contest where they write poems, read them in front of the class, and then choose a winner. They too exchange roses, the boys bring both a book and a rose and give it to one of the girls in their class. Apparently (according to my Spanish teacher) all the girls wear shorts and tank tops to try to impress the boys, rain or shine :)
A day I will never forget filled with Catalonian culture and Spanish love.