St George & the dragon, the roses and the books (Sant Jordi y el dragón, las rosas y los libros)...

This Wednesday (April 23) was all about roses and books here in Cataluña. It was La Diada de Sant Jordi (St George´s Day). The day of love (hence the roses) and Catalan culture (the books).

If you’re anything like me, you might only connect Saint George with England. But he´s actually the patron saint of many places and has been an important part of Catalan identity since at least the 14^th century. The shimmering roof of Casa Batlló, one of Antoni Gaudí´s masterpieces on the Passeig de Gracia, actually represents the dragon from the legend of "Saint George and the Dragon".

Casa Batlló. The scaly, shimmering roof represents St George's dragon

Saint George and the Dragon

I was reminded that it was La Diada de Sant Jordi the moment I stepped outside my building as there was a little stall selling roses right there. Walking into the centre (my barrio is about a 15 minute stroll to Plaça Cataluña), I passed a rose stall on just about every corner (although I do have to say that some gave me the distinct impression that they may be flogging roses that had fallen off the back of a truck).

These roses I'm sure did NOT fall off the back of a truck...

But the real action was in town. Barcelona’s famous Rambla, along with The Rambla de Cataluña and the Passeig de Gracia were crammed with stall-after-stall, wrapped in Catalan flags (with varying degrees of love and care) and piled high with books or roses or both. And people. More people than I had ever seen on these streets – it took me half an hour to just walk a few blocks!

There was a very impressive number of book signings going on, a rose market in the Plaça de San Jaume and the beautiful Palace of the Generalitat (the Catalan government) was open to the public. In Plaça Cataluña, local Catalan-speaking TV stations were broadcasting live, along with Catalan radio and even Spain’s national broadcaster.

I eventually bought my rose from a stall set up by a local school. I saw others being run by bookstores and florists (obviously), clothes stores, toy stores (selling dragons, castles and Saint Georges), car dealerships, hotels, charities, animal welfare groups (including one of my favourites: SOS Greyhounds), LGBTI groups, political parties and, of course, the various Catalan independence groups.

Saint Jordi is not exactly a day for Catalan nationalism (that's La Diada Nacional de Cataluña on September 11), but with the current Catalan independence push, there was clearly an air of nationalism mixed in with all the roses and books. 

A referendum on Independence has been scheduled for the coming 9^th of November. The central government has branded the referendum illegal, pledging that it won’t go ahead, but the Generalitat (currently an interesting coalition of conservative and left-wing nationalist parties) is pushing on. And so the Independistas were out in force on Wednesday, collecting signatures in support of the referendum and pushing the "Si + Si" ("yes + yes") campaign for the two questions: "Do you want Catalonia to become a State?" and in case of an affirmative response, "Do you want this State to be independent?"

"Say what Spain may, Referendum!"

If the referendum goes ahead (and that is a big "if") and the "Si + Si" campaign wins, this might have been my first and last Diada de Sant Jordi as a resident of Barcelona. You see, G and I are here as Italian citizens (my dad was Italian and G is Italian-Italian) and according to Spain and Europe, Cataluña will be kicked out of the EU if it chooses to go it alone, which could leave the huge number of resident ex-pats here from other EU countries in a bit of a limbo.

Best not to think about that for now and just smell the roses…

Palmones and other curious Catalan traditions (Palmónes y otras tradiciones catalanes curiosos)…

These are Palmónes. They look like sticks wrapped up with ribbon at first sight, but they are actually palm fronds – hence their name, which translates literally into “big palms”. They’re an Easter tradition here in Cataluña, and another one of the curiosities I need to add to my list of things I never saw in Madrid – like Cannelloni for Christmas and the Caganer (which I’ll get to in a minute as I cannot let that one go by without a mention).

It’s Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) today, so the Palmónes are having their day. In Madrid, the (mainly) old ladies will be carrying their more regular palm fronds, minus the elaborate ribbons, home from church to tie onto their balconies.

Here in Cataluña, the Palmónes are the ambit of the kids – specifically the boys. The girls carry smaller, intricately woven versions called Palmas.  Traditionally, it’s the godparents who buy these, but I’m not sure how strictly that is being adhered to as at the Palmónes stalls just around the corner from home I saw what looked like Mums and Dads with their (excited) kids buying them together. I imagine the kids were more excited by the toys and sweets tied to them than any religious or traditional significances.

The intricately woven Palmas, for the girls

These days they use all manner of ribbons on the Palmónes and Palmas – like the Barcelona Football Club ones in the pic at the top. Traditionally though, the ribbons are in the design of the Catalan flag (red and yellow stripes).

A further Palm Sunday tradition is the donning of new clothes. If I’m honest, I can’t say whether this is the same in Madrid as I never came across it there, but here the saying goes that if you don’t wear some new clothes, your hands will fall off(!) Why exactly that is, I’ve not been able to work out…

Now, for that quick note on the Caganer – perhaps the oddest tradition I’ve come across to date. This is a figurine of someone... er... pooing. I’m serious; Cagar in Catalan means to have a poo. It’s not for Easter, but Christmas and you’re meant to pop one in a discrete corner of your nativity scene.

Traditionally they are classic Catalan peasant figures wearing a little red cap, but these days you will find all manner of characters – I’ve seen Bart Simpson, C3P0, Superman, Barack Obama, the list goes on – and all of them are squatting down and having a poo (with pile of poo included!). The true meaning of the Caganer is a bit lost, but many people say it has to do with fertilising the ground to bring prosperity for the year ahead. Whatever the reason, it’s a very curios Christmas tradition…

A traditional Caganer, pile of poo and all. Photo by Mtiedemann 

A ninth-century night out of town (Una noche fuera en el siglo nueve)...

The other week, G and I took a short trip out of Barcelona to spend the night in a 9th century castle. Well, the oldest part is 9th century, the rest having been added to, changed, destroyed and rebuilt over the years. Still, pretty awesome to think that we were sharing the same space where people had been living, working, flighting, held prisoner and even tortured (seriously, the anti-room to the current restaurant was actually used as a torture-chamber) over the past thousand years.

Of course to G it’s not such a big deal. He’s from Florence, so grew up surrounded by medieval wonder. But for me, coming from a country in which you’d be lucky to find a building standing that is 200 years old, it’s a thrill - even after all these years living in Europe. Not that G is a spoil-sport, he lets me ramble on about how “amazing” it is to think about all the people who had been standing in this spot or that over this century or that, feigning interest as best as he can. God bless him.

Anyway, it’s called Cardona Castle and is about an hour-drive north-west of Barcelona, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The setting is pretty spectacular. The castle looks very imposing set up high on a steep hill overlooking the town of Cardona. From one side of the castle there are views up to the snow-capped peaks of the Pyrenees and from the other, to the jagged rock crown of Montserrat. Just behind the town you can see the reason why Cardona was once so important as to deserve a castle like this: a massive salt mountain.

Salt is still being dug out from the Cardona mine, as it has been since even before the Roman’s got there. A tour through the mine is meant to be well worth it, according to TripAdvisor. Unfortunately I didn’t read this until after we got there and we chose to visit on the only day (Monday) that the mine was closed.

There is another reason why Cardona has such an imposing castle. It used to be right on the border with Al-Andalus - Moorish Spain - so it was important for both keeping the Moors back and as a base for incursions into Moorish territory in attempts to claw it back for Christendom.  Also, being so close to France, it was important for keeping out invaders from the north. Legend has it that it was assailed a thousand times and never fell.

The mine and the castle are said to be the main things to do in Cardona, but I think a walk around the medieval town centre is essential too. It won’t take long, it’s small and when we were there at least, there was very little going on. But its narrow, hilly streets, ancient buildings and stone and wooden archways are enchanting.

There is a beautiful, austere 13th century Gothic church there too. It’s greatest treasures were a little hidden from us though as, as so happens in Spanish churches, they are tucked away in dark corners that require a Euro to be inserted into the light switch to allow you to enjoy them – and we walked into the church without a single coin between us.

The castle is these days a Parador hotel. The Paradores is a state-owned network of hotels, a great many of which occupy grand old buildings that form part of Spain’s national heritage. They were started by King Alfonso XIII (Spain's last king before the Second Republic). The idea was that by restoring these buildings and turning them into hotels they could help pay for their own upkeep, both saving them and breathing life into the Spanish countryside via tourism.

If I’m honest, I find the Paradores a little bit stuck in the 70s in terms of their offerings and styling, but the magnificent buildings that many of them are housed in I think makes us for this failing. The Spanish government is currently in the process of selling the Paradores off. This will probably update the offering, I just hope some pretty strict clauses are included for maintaining their important heritage role.