News

22.04.2009

La Diada de Sant Jordi, also known as el dia de la rosa (The Day of the Rose) or el 

 dia del llibre (The Day of the Book) is a Catalan holiday celebrated on April 23. The main event is the exchange of gifts between sweethearts, loved ones and respected ones. Historically, men gave women roses, and women gave men a book to celebrate the occasion—”a rose for love and a book forever.” In modern times, the mutual exchange of books is customary. Roses have been associated with this day since medieval times, but the giving of books is a more recent tradition. In 1923, a bookseller started to promote the holiday as a way to honour the nearly simultaneous deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare on April 23, 1616. Barcelona is the publishing capital in both Catalan and Spanish and this heady one-two punch of love and literacy was quickly adopted.

On Barcelona’s most visited street, La Rambla, and all over Catalonia, thousands of stands of roses and makeshift bookstallsare hastily set up for the occasion. By the end of the day, some four million roses and 400,000 books would have been purchased in the name of love. You will be hard-pressed to find a woman without a rose in hand, and half of the total yearly book sales in Catalonia take place on this occasion.

The sardana, the national dance of Catalonia, will be performed throughout the day in the Plaça Sant Jaume, and there will be a variety of street performers and musicians on hand to add a romantic ambience to nearly every public square.

Additionally, April 23 is the only day of the year when the Palau de la Generalitat, Barcelona’s principal government building, is open to the public. Inside this Gothic architectural masterpiece you’ll see huge displays of roses created to honour Saint George.

Catalonia has exported this tradition of the book and the rose to the rest of the world. In 1995, the UNESCO adopted April 23 as World Book and Copyright Day.
THE LEGEND OF SANT JORDI

According to popular tradition, Sant Jordi was a Roman soldier and was born in the 3rd 

century in Capadocia in Turkey. This Saint, who was under the orders of the emperor 

Diocletian, refused to carry out the emperor’s edict to persecute all Christians and for this reason he was martyred and decapitated by his companions. In the eastern part of the Roman Empire, he soon became venerated as a martyr and shortly after this, fantastic stories related to him began to appear.

The exploits of Sant Jordi and the Dragon became popular throughout Europe around the 9th century under the name of “Golden legend” and were compiled by the archbishop of Genoa, Iacopo da Varazze, in 1264, in the book ‘Legenda sanctorum ‘. In this version, however, the exploits took place in Libya.

The most popular legend in Catalonia about Sant Jordi tells that at Montblanc, in Conca de Barberà (Catalonia), there was a terrible dragon which viciously attacked men and beasts. To pacify it, lots were drawn and a person was chosen to be given as a sacrifice to the monster. One day, the misfortune fell on the king’s daughter, who would have died in the beast’s claws if it had not been for the arrival of a handsome knight who challenged the dragon and killed it.                                                              

This same legend, although with slight variations, is told as a popular legend in England, Portugal and Greece.

To learn more:
Generalitat de Catalunya

 Wikipedia