VIVA ST GEORGE!
EXCERPT FROM EUROTRIPPING ©JR DAESCHNER
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Consider St. George's Day in Barcelona.
Unlike the Belgians, not only do the Catalonians get the date right, but they turn the palm-treed avenues of their capital into a massive rose and book festival combining literature and romance in the springtime. |
Besides Catalonia's patron saint, La Diada de Sant Jordi pays homage to the high priest of Spanish literature, Cervantes, who died on April 23rd (as did Shakespeare). It was even the inspiration for the UN's 'World Book Day', which is now observed in over a hundred countries on St. George's Day (though bizarrely, England celebrates it on a different date).
For Catalonians, Sant Jordi serves as a national day and provides a potent rival to the commercialism of Valentine's Day.
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Instead of chocolates, friends, lovers and family members exchange books and roses, the twinned symbols of their native tongue and St. George. Traditionally, men receive the books and the women roses. Among younger generations, though, couples swap books and flowers as they see fit. 'It used to be a little machista,' the president of the Friends of St. George (Amics de Sant Jordi) tells me. 'But not now. Now it's equal.' |
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