Night of Fire

Or Nit de Foc or Nit de Sant Joan. Yes, another holiday! It is a solstice celebration and a floating holiday. There are so many holidays that municipalities decide which ones to observe (meaning you have to check each year to find out which city has which days off).

One tradition is to eat Coca de Sant Joan, which was served at a party we went to.
A. didn't care for it so we skipped the cava and coca part of this holiday.

On the evening of 23 June we saw a lot of families with boxes
like these, a sampler of several types of firecrackers and fireworks.

We were told that it is mostly for kids, but with parents helping.

Lots of excited kids.

We also saw older kids with bigger fireworks, but these
are more expensive. I wonder if the ones we saw were set
off by individuals or maybe some hotel or organization paid for them.

What we didn't see were bonfires, which is a usual part of the tradition and are
along the beaches of Barcelona. We'll have to come back next year and try again.

The celebrations went late into the night, but somehow we were able to finally fall asleep.

More fire

When life is full there is so much to blog about and not as much time to share. 

Here is a little post about the first day of the festival, which

seemed like a big production until I saw the next day.

As always we are amazed by the amount of meat for sale.

The words for food truck in Catalan are food truck.

And the word for bagel in Catalan is bagel.

The activities for little kids included a bounce house and this one-of-a-kind
merry-go-round powered by a person on a stationary bicycle!

There were also craft projects and and a play area.

We arrived in time to see a bit of dancing before

the goat's fire crackers were lit.

There was fire dancing and later fire twirling, too.

I thought my pictures did an adequate job capturing the evening until saw the video put together by the local magazine. I almost posted just this, but felt like I should make a least a small effort to write something up.

The merry-go-round is near the beginning - adorable! The video also shows a drumming session that we missed and some fire jump roping!

1 May

google.es today

Last week in class we were working on future tense, something I love because it is so easy. The teacher asked us take turns talking about what we would do for the long weekend. What long weekend? Turns out I had not looked to the next week or next month to see that 1 May is a holiday, Labor Day or Day of the International Worker, as it is in many parts of the world.

There were a lot of protests in Barcelona and

at least one here in Sant Cugat, but we did not go.

Two of us cycled from Sant Cugat (marked by arrow) and

two of us (company from Denmark) hiked in Sant Cugat and
could see where the other two had cycled (marked by arrow).

Great day to be outside!

Books

These were a couple of promotions related to the holiday.

Not only was the weather good, some people had a nice setting for book buying and selling.

There were many organizations selling books,

including local political groups.

There were discount books, 

books for kids,

old books, and

miniature books.

This is what we ended up, thanks to a used book store in London.

Roses

Part of the pleasure of the day was seeing the variety.

roses to plant

rose with Sant Jordi reading a book

lots and lots of organizations selling roses

so many roses, including spray painted? dipped? roses

Some roses came with a sprig of wheat, which is a symbol of being lucky financially.

Some people sold clay or cloth roses and crocheted Sant Jordi, damsels, and dragons.

These are the roses from the 3D printer and laser cutter.

I wish I could buy things from this store near the monastery!

Sant Jordi

Also known as St. George.

A few days before the holiday our teacher explained that the tradition was for women (not just wives and girlfriends, but also mothers, aunts, and maybe friends) to receive roses and men to receive books. Slowly there is a change and books are given to women, too (or mostly girls), but it seems like men do not receive roses. The language school had a little book swap and I got Born to Run, the one about actual runners, not a rock star.

We were told the holiday is the only day that there are more Catalonians than tourists on La Rambla in Barcelona. Being able to tour city hall was also an unusual event that day, but there were plenty of events in Sant Cugat, too. In the end we decided to try to squeeze everything in.

The lines were long at city hall and people were encouraged to go a few blocks over to a building with a lookout area.

Not what we had planned, but not bad, either.

After walking with the crowds we headed to Sant Cugat, which was also crowded, but not in an uncomfortable way. There were more activities, including drummers, bastoners, and plenty of people in costume (Sant Jordi, the distressed maiden, and the dragon).

There were quite a few political groups selling flowers and books, a group of kids selling their homemade flowers, and local artists selling Sant Jordi-related items. We were surprised to see people with a 3D printer and laser cutter selling things from their facility.

If we had skipped going to Barcelona would it have been enough? It is hard to say. As time zips by there is a feeling of not being able to do everything before we leave.  Better to squeeze in a quick visit than be sitting in California a year later wishing we had!

Holiday traditions

Around here you can tell a big holiday is coming when Loteria de Catalunya has a big advertising campaign.

Big sign in the grocery store.

Free bookmarks at the checkout counter.

This is just a portion of the advertising at the train station on the walls

- all the walls, and also on the stairs and along the halls.

The tickets are sold alongside the roses.

According to the lottery site:

Draw on April 27
The draw of The Fat of St. George will be held on April 27, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Catalonia Lottery. The new product, which repeats the payout structure of the Fat Year, has a circulation of 12 million, 10 million and 2 million in paper virtual support. In total have been released 80,000 numbers, at a price of 5 euros per ticket. 

There will be five grand prizes. The first will be worth 20,000 € per euro played, ie € 100,000 € 5 per ticket. The second prize awarded 6500 € per euro played (32 500 € 5 € per ticket); the third, € 3000 per euro played (15 000 € 5 € per ticket); the fourth will play 1,000 € per euro (€ 5,000 € 5 per ticket), and the fifth 500 € per euro played (€ 2,500 € 5 per ticket).

We found other ways to enjoy the holiday.