Cultural traditions
Edgar Aubach Brenda Ă lvarez Marta Dalmau Sandra Domingo Cristina Flores Sheila GenĂŠ Stavroula Christa
Castellers The castles are the human towers that have been built for more than two hundred years (there are references already in the eighteenth century) in the Camp de Tarragona and the Penedès, as a result of the expansion of the Valencian Muixeraga. Since the 80s of the twentieth century, the castles were gradually spreading throughout Catalonia, Northern Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, becoming a very powerful symbol of Catalan identity. The tens of existing groups are currently made up of hundreds of people with the aim of raising castles of diverse complexity. The most common constructions have the basic structures of 1 (pillar), two (tower), three, four and five, although constructions of up to 10 castles have already been built at the base. In terms of height, a very small number of groups have managed to make ten-story castles (according to the way of counting the floors from the origins. when the two members that culminate the castle is they put totally rights). Apart from the physical and technical preparation or the enormous social support of the castle phenomenon, the element that is considered the most important of this spectacular evolution has been the incorporation of women in a popular and festive celebration reserved, until three decades ago , exclusively to men. Since November 16, 2010, the castles are Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO
Sardana Sardana is a popular Catalan dance considered the national dance of Catalonia. It is a collective dance that danced men and women holding hands forming a rotllana, and tapping with the feet the compasses of the music performed by the cobla. The name can refer both to dance and music. In order to dance the sardana, an indeterminate number of dancers form a knapsack taken by their hands and looking at the center, dancing to the right and left with a fairly stable time, with an often slow and concentrated air, at some more lively moments. The roller components should preferably be pairs of man-women, but only a minimum of two people are taken from their hands to consider that they have already created a roundabout. The sardana is a dance that is not exclusive, so that any person and at any moment of the dance can add individually or in pairs to the rhythm (unless it is a contest or an exhibition). However, there is a sardanist group organized as a stable group, similar to the dance group.
Correfocs Correfoc is a game or show that takes place in the streets of cities and towns, where the aim is to avoid the pyrotechnics used by devil and the imaginary and mythological beings that are represented. [1] It is an event celebrated mostly in Catalonia, but it has also spread to the Valencian Country, the Balearic Islands and Northern Catalonia. It has its roots in the Ball of Devils already documented in the 12th century, but it was not until the twentieth which took its present form. The correfoc term emerged in different parades of festivals or popular celebrations of Catalonia, as an impromptu manifestation of the people, dragons and devils that acted, jumping and dancing together under fire. During the decade of the 80s and 90s it was scattered around the geography of the Catalan Countries. A correfoc and a parade or a procession must be differentiated. In a parade or procession, although the public can also act in the case of a correfoc, the rate of fire is slower than in a correfoc.
L’aplec del caragol The gathering of Caragol de Lleida is an annual gathering, one weekend in May, on the banks of the Segre River and the Camps Elisis de Lleida since 1980. It is a gastronomic manifestation to which the screws are the protagonists and which incorporates music, barges and a parade through the streets of the city. In 2010 200,000 visitors were expected and 12 tonnes of snails were consumed. In 1980, with about 12 clusters an assembly was born, it incorporated a parade through the streets of the city of Lleida. About 300 scholars participated in the first festival of Aplec and about 4,000 visitors attended the first gastronomic event in Lleida. The gang of the Order of the Snail was the mother's gang of Aplec. The Order of the Screw had gathered a group of 18 groups to spend the day by the river Segre. So they asked for the collaboration and authorization to the City Council of Lleida to make an Aplec to the Xoperal of the river in the district of Cappont.
La faldeta Faldeta Day is a celebration of the Spanish municipality of Fraga in the province of Huesca, autonomous community of Aragon that was celebrated for the first time in the year 1977 and consists of a holiday tribute to its ancestors and to the fragile woman, to its form of life and its way of dressing.1 Until a few years ago it was celebrated every April 23, and now the holiday has passed on Sunday after April 23 for comfort reasons for the entire population of Fraga and fragatinos that for reasons Others reside in other autonomous communities, where April 23 is not declared as a holiday. It is declared as a National Tourist Interest Holiday
Sant Jordi The Day of Sant Jordi in Catalonia is a celebration that is celebrated on April 23 with the Day of the Book and the Fair of the Roses, symbols of culture and love, and it is also a day that claims the Catalan culture. It's the day of lovers, and that is why since the fifteenth century it is a custom to give away a red rose "like blood" to the beloved. In the 1930s the custom of giving a book to the boy is added, on the occasion of the day of the book. The same day is also the National Day of Aragon.
Caga tiรณ The Christmas trunk (also called "tiรณ") is one of the elements of Catalan and Aragonese mythology and a tradition deeply rooted in Catalonia, Aragon (where it is said in Aragonese trunk , toza or blasphemy of Christmas, Occitania (where it is called occitano cachafuoc or souoc de Nadal) and Andorra. In spite of the many local variants, the tradition consists of gathering a piece of heavy stumps or branches days before Christmas, usually on December 8th, day of the Purest Concepcion is placed in some corner of the house with a blanket so it does not get cold and where it is fed daily until the day it crashes. There are homes where the thimble is simply a piece of wood (one or more chairs, for example), a piece of cork, or a box, of different sizes as appropriate for the space and sizes of the gifts, which it will have to shut.
La castanyera ‘Castanyera’ is a character represented by a lady who wears old clothes and who always wears an apron and a headscarf. During the ‘castanyada’ party, the chestnut tree sells chestnuts through the streets of the city. He wears a basket full of chestnuts that he has picked up in the wood and roasts the toaster. Then he puts them in the papers to sell. At the Museu del Vendrell there is a painting by Ramon Calsina depicting a chestnut tree that gives it a chestnut on the moon, titled La castanyera.
Moros i cristians With the Moors and Christians Festival, the city has proudly regained a lost tradition, whose history dates back to the 12th century. The festive weekend starts at Paeria Square, with the Embassies, the parliaments of the Moorish and Christian ambassadors to prevent the battle that will take place on Sunday, the big day of the party. On Sunday morning, the so-called children's entrance is celebrated and, at noon, the bands are presented, who play the music of the festival of Lleida. In the afternoon, the comparsas of Moors and Christians are concentrated in La Seu Vella for later parading with their colorful uniforms in the most central streets. Before the night falls, parliaments of a satirical nature begin that cause a verbal evocation that follows the spectacular battle, with the incomparable frame of the Seu Vella as a fund.
Reis mags The Kings of the East, Kings of the East or simply the Kings (often called in a large part of Western Catalan the Reix) are, according to the New Testament, some wise men (or sages, according to the translation) who brought gifts to Jesus, guided by a star. These gifts were gold, incense and myrrh. The Catholic Church celebrates the solemnity of the Kings, called epiphany, on January 6. On the eve, on the 5th, it is tradition that people will reach toys, candies and more gifts to the girl. In the 21st century the Kings are received at the cavalcades, a relatively recent tradition: the first was in Alcoy in 1885 and in the Principality, in Igualada in 1895. In some towns, they are received with light from torches and lanterns, an old custom, when the children went out to the forest, on the beach and in some other verals to make signs of light and showed the way to the Kings so that they would not be lost.
La batalla de les flors Battles with flowers and other natural elements are common in the festive manifestations of many cultures around the world. Every 11th of May Lleida celebrates its Battle of Flowers, an event that has its origin in the curious mixture between the religious procession of the patron Saint Anastasi during which people threw flowers from the balconies and the Artistic Cavalcade that filled the city of floats decorated. The current Battle of Flowers has its origins in a mixture of two traditional acts. First of all in the religious procession of Saint Anastasi. Formerly, on May 11, the saint was shot in a procession through the streets of the city and people threw thousands of flowers from the balconies and doors of the houses where it was going. A local tradition explains that the unmarried girl who was able to introduce a crown of flowers to the head of the saint would marry the following year. Local historians say that, after passing the procession, the girl was playing the crowns and the remaining flowers that were left on the floor. This spontaneous festive battle that the Lleidetans and Leicesters celebrated once the procession had finished ended up becoming the current Battle of Flowers.
La nit de Sant Joan The Saint John's Eve, also popularly known as Night of Fire, Night of Sorceresses or Night of the Roses, is celebrated throughout the Catalan Countries during the night between 23 and 24 June. It is a magical night in which the summer solstice is celebrated, with two days of delay. It is a celebration that the Catholic Church coincides with the date of birth of Saint John the Baptist and that has become a celebration with elements and customs very marked and symbolic: the purifying fire, the midnight baths, the herbs of St. John, the songs, dance or cures and more magic rituals. The origin of the celebration of the Night of San Juan is pagan and is part of the group of solsticial parties, such as Nadal. With a tradition that dates back much before the introduction of Christianity, it is a cult of the sun, the prolongation of the day, by the summer solstice. Bonfire on the beach of Almadrava, Marina Alta. The bonfires are the central element of the Night of Saint John in the Catalan Countries The celebrations have fire as a characteristic element. There are communal, family and individual bonfires, and according to the tradition of each locality, many different ones are mounted or they are only made in a particular place or street, traditionally with unsuitable wooden objects that have accumulated throughout the year. In celebrations there is a prominent place for pyrotechnics. Gastronomically they are usually accompanied by the family gatherings on the evening of this date with the coca de Sant Joan.
Saint John’s night (Greece) The very same tradition described by our Spanish partners in the previous slide is celebrated in Greece. Saint John, Klidonas , is celebrated on the very same day. The night between the 23rd and the 24th of June, A bonfire is made at the town square and residents jump over it in an attempt to cleanse themselves of all kinds of evil. It takes place in many different parts of Greece and it is still very popular today. It is amazing how so many different peoples share the same tradition!
Sma Grodorna (Frog dance, Sweden) In Sweden, in the middle of Summer, Swedish people meet and dance around a maypole, to a song called “The small frogs”. They dance like frogs and they sing a song talking about frogs too. Originating from a military march from the French revolution, with some words later changed by the British. The song in Sweden goes something like this: “The little frogs, the little frogs Are funny to observe, No ears, no tails, do they possess”. Image downloaded from Pixabay.