BANJUL (GAMBIA) AND CATALONIA Laura Lobo Judith Romance Maria Sylva Enri Torres
JOLLOF RICE Jollof rice is thought to have originated from the Wolof ethnic group in the Senegal / Gambia region of West Africa. However, since then it has spread to other parts of West Africa, especially Nigeria, where it is a great success. This dish is so popular that most food lovers believe that it is the basis of specialized cooking. Although it is not yet an international dish, most people recognize it as an African gastronomic delight. The dish is based primarily on basmati rice, tomato, tomato sauce, onion, salt and red pepper that can sometimes be added to different spices (such as nutmeg, ginger and cumin), vegetables and almost any type of meat and fish. The initial preparation of the dish requires the use of coconut oil that is used to fry the chopped onion, the tomato when you add a pinch of ground pepper (or other spices). The whole is then mixed with the rice during the cooking absorbs all the liquid and, due to the mixture acquires an attractive reddish color. The dish, usually served with fried plantains and salad, and sometimes, the basic ingredients can be substituted with garlic, peas, thyme, nutmeg, or even curry powder.
INTERNATIONAL ROOTS FESTIVAL For over 400 years people have been separated by the results of the African Holocaust (African Atlantic Slave Trade) and the legacy of colonisation has kept us at odds with our true history, our identity, our cultural traditions and prevented unity and growth amongst our People and our Continent. The International Roots Festival is designed to encourage peoples of African Descent who reside within the Diaspora to further discover, re-affirm and re-embrace their ancestral identity through confronting a physical past. The event attracts African residents in all parts of the planet, eager to revive their origins. The festivities program includes concerts, dance and other shows inspired by local folklore.
SARDANES 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 touching with the feet the compasses of the music played 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 sardana as we know it today is media data. XIX. Since then it has been cultivated uninterruptedly, so there are more than thirty thousand scores of sardanas. The sardana was temporarily prohibited during the Franco regime as a national symbol. In 2010, the Generalitat de Catalunya registered the Sardana in the Catalog of the Festive Heritage of Catalonia and declared it a festive heritage element of national interest.
ELS CASTELLS The castles are the human towers that have been built for more than two hundred years 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 one (pillar), two (tower), three, four and five, although constructions of up to 10 castellers have already been built at the base. As for the height, a very small number of gangs have come to make ten-story castles.
BALL DE BASTONS “El ball de bastons� is a popular dance that is widespread in the Catalan, European and Mediterranean countries, with particularities defined in each place. A set of dances that use as main and characteristic element one or two canes are included under that name, which make repicar between them to the rhythm of the music.
The dance has been very present in many celebrations and festivals throughout history. This fact has supposed that at present there are different types of clothing, choreography and music as well as musical accompaniments.
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 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
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
ELS CALÇOTS Calçots or onions are a variety of tender onions, slightly bulbous and soft onions that are warmed up as they grow, and eat roasted. On the origin of the calçot there are several versions but the best known is that attributed to Xat de Benaiges, a farmer who lived in Valls at the end of the nineteenth century, the invention of this crop. In Chat de Benaiges he put a couple of shoots of onions to the fire and he discovered by chance a dish that at the beginning of the 20th century had already become habitual in many homes of Valls. Since then the consumption of calçots or calçotada has become a gastronomic festival known everywhere, especially in Catalonia. The calçots are usually eaten during the months of January, February and March, they are cooked with wood from grapes, rabas and rabasss of grapes and are consumed accompanied by a typical sauce, the said savory sauce, which is a romesco type sauce.