Today is Sant Antoni and, like every year, The Grandma spends these days in Mallorca with her family and friends enjoying the festivities that are celebrated all over the island with foguerons and with the best folk music like balls de bot, fandangos, mateixes, jotes and boleros.
The Grandma will be on the island until Wednesday to be able to celebrate Sant Sebastià in Palma.
Sant Antoni, gloriós, gloriós, de Viana anomenat siau sempre advocat: de tot perill guardau-mos.
Sant Antoni i el dimoni jugaven a trenta-u. El dimoni va fer trenta, Sant Antoni trenta-u.
Sant Antoni n'és vengut amb una mudada honesta que molts d’anys poguem fer festa amb alegria i salut.
Devem sempre alabar-vos de gust i de bona gana, Sant Antoni de Viana de tot perill guardau-mos.
Saint Anthony, glorious, glorious, of Viana called be always an advocate: from all danger keep us.
Saint Anthony and the devil were playing thirty-one. The devil made thirty, Saint Anthony thirty-one.
Saint Anthony is sold with an honest change that for many years we can celebrate with joy and health.
We must always praise you with pleasure and good will, Saint Anthony of Viana from all danger keep us.
Today, The Grandma has been reading about one of her greatest passions, Mallorca. She has chosen the biography and adventures of Jaume Ferrer, the Mallorcan sailor and explorer who found the legendary River of Gold on a day like today in 1346.
Jaume Ferrer (1346) was a Mallorcan sailor and explorer. He sailed from Mallorca to find the legendary Riverof Gold on 10 August 1346, but the outcome of his quest and his fate areunknown. He is memorialized in his native city of Palma, Mallorca.
Very little is known about Jaume Ferrer except that he was a Mallorcan captain who set out in a galley in 1346 and sailed down the West African coast in an attempt to reach the legendary River of Gold. The results of this expedition, including whether Ferrer survived the journey, are unknown. Some recent research tentatively identifies Jaume Ferrer as Giacomino Ferrar di CasaMaveri, a second generation Genoese immigrant in Mallorca.
Virtually the only information for his expedition is the depiction and note given in the Catalan Atlas of 1375, attributed to the Mallorcan cartographerAbraham Cresques, correct patronymic: Cresques Abraham. In the bottom-left corner of the map, there is a brightly painted Aragonese-flagged vessel and a note indicating merely that Jacme Ferrerset out in an uxer on 10 August 1346 to search for the Riu de l'Or, River of Gold. An uxer is a single-mast, square-rigged and oar-powered cargo galley, with rounded stern and low prow, commonly used to freight horses.
The geographic position of the ship, below the Canary Islands, suggests Ferrer probably sailed past Cape Bojador, at that time the non plus ultra of navigation, beyond which European ships dared not sail. If Ferrer survived and returned, then his feat preceded, by nearly a whole century, the famous successful passage of that cape by the Portuguese explorer Gil Eanes in 1434.
There is a sliver of additional information found in a note in the secret archives of the Republic of Genoa, uncovered in 1802, which refers to the expedition, noting that Joannis Ferne, a Catalan, left the city of the Mallorcans in a galleass on 10 July 1346 but the vessel was never heard of again, that he went searching for the Riu Auri, River of Gold, because he heard that it was a collection point for aurum de paiola, perhaps gold nuggets, but Paiola has also been interpreted not as nugget, but as the name of a river island depicted in the 1367 Pizzigani map, that the people on the shores were all engaged in gold collection and that the river was wide and deep enough for the largest ships.
The River of Gold, frequently spoken of by trans-Saharan traders, was a reference to the Senegal River that flowed into the heart of the gold-producing Mali Empire. The Genoese note refers to it also by the alternative name of Vedamel -almost certainly a derivation from Arabic, probably Wad al-mal, river of treasure or possibly, by transcription error, Wad al-Nill, river of Nile -the Senegal was also long known as the Western Nile. Vedamel might also be the origin of Budomel, used by early Portuguese explorers in the 15th century to refer to a Wolof statelet on the Grande Côte, south to the Senegal River.
Despite the sparse information, Jaume Ferrer is memorialized in his native city of Palma, in Mallorca, by a street name, a statue in the Plaça de lesDrassanes and a relief in the town hall. The statue is a reproduction of one commissioned by the city hall and sculpted by Jacint Mateu around 1843, but replaced in 1914 by a copy with some modifications by Joan Grauches. The original is in the old Consolat de Mar building in Palma. The Atlas's ship is reproduced on a monumental sundial on the city's maritime promenade.
Today is Saint Clare of Assisi and Claire Fontaine is celebrating her feast day.
Claire has invited TheGrandma to visit the Monestir de Pedralbes, a monastery founded by James II for his wife Elisenda de Montcada in 1326 and housed by PoorClares, the community that was founded by Saint Clare of Assisi,and her most important legacy. During her visit to the Monastery of Pedralbes, Claire and TheGrandma has been remembering other important places built in honour to Saint Clare of Assisi.
Claire has remembered her last visits to the Santa Clara Convents in Palma and Naples, and The Grandma has been talking about the Santa ClaraConvent in Barcelona.
Before visiting the monastery with Claire, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Ms. Excel course.
Saint Clare of Assisi (16 July 1194 – 11 August 1253, born Chiara Offreduccio and sometimes spelled Clara, Clair, Claire or Sinclair) is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life, the first set of monastic guidelines known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honour as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares. Her feastday is on 11 August.
Old picture of the Monastery of Pedralbes
The Santa Clara Convent in Barcelona was a feminine convent built in what is now the Ribera district of the city of Barcelona. Very damaged during the siege of Barcelona (1713-1714) was definitively devastated by order of Philip V of Spain, as part of the Ribera district to build the citadel of Barcelona during the postwar years and some of its architectural remains were distributed in some remarkable buildings of the city. Traditionally, it is considered the first foundation of the Clarisses in the Iberian Peninsula, although its founding date has been strongly discussed.
The date of its founding of legendary and traditional character was 1233/1234 by Agnès de Peranda d'Assís, supposedly the daughter of Peranda and niece of Santa Clara d'Assís, the founder of the order- and Clara de Janua -this second would be Maria de Pisa according to other sources-, they arrived at the port of Barcelona, coming from the monastery of Saint Damià d'Assís, after embarking on Ancona and suffering a shipwreck. They arrived in a boat without rims or sails, with the idea of founding a monastery. The first documentation places the foundation around 1236/1237 by a bula of Gregori IX confirming the foundation initiated by several women headed by Berenguera d'Antic and Guillerma de Polinyà and ten other sisters.
In 1327, a fourteenth of these clan nuns founded the Monastery of Pedralbes. In 1691, during the French invasion, the convent left for a few days. During the Siege of Barcelona (1713-1714) the convent was very damaged and the nuns were temporarily welcomed in houses of relatives and friends with the intention of repairing the damage, which was not possible due to the destruction and devastation of a large part from the Ribera district to build the citadel of Barcelona.
The Monastery of Pedralbes is a Gothic monastery in Barcelona, Catalonia. The name of the site in the XIV century was Petras Albas, Latin for white stones. The original name devolved into the current one. The monastery was founded by Jaume II for his wife Elisenda de Montcada in
1326. It housed a community of Poor Clares, mostly members of noble
families. The
queen gave the monastery a series of privileges, including the direct
protection of the city of Barcelona, through the Consell de Cent, who had the task to defend it in case of
danger. Elisenda also built a palace annexed to the monastery, where she
lived after her husband's death in 1327. She died there in 1367. The
remains of the palace were discovered in the 1970s.
Visiting the cloister, Monastery of Pedralbes
During the Catalan Revolt (1640), the nuns were expelled, but later returned. A small number of nuns still reside in the complex. The monastery was declared a national monument in 1991.
Originally the monastery was defended by a line of walls, of which today only two towers and one gate remain. The church has a single nave, with rib vaults and a polygonal apse, and houses a Gothic retablo by Jaume Huguet. The façade is characterized by a large rose window. The cloister has three floors, and a length of 40 meters, with a central garden of orange trees and palms. It is formed by wide arches on columns, whose capitals are decorated with the emblems of the Kings of Aragon and the House of Montcada.
The sepulchre of Queen Elisenda, in alabaster stone, is located in one of the cloister's wings.
Also notable is the Chapel of St. Michael, housing several fresco paintings by Ferrer Bassa. Dating to 1346, they show the influence of the Italian painter Giotto. The former dormitory previously housed a permanent exhibition of painters such as Rubens, Canaletto, Tintoretto, Velázquez and Beato Angelico.
The Santa Clara Convent is located on Santa Clara Street in Palma, on the island of Mallorca. The first reference that exists in the convent of Santa Clara in Palma dates back to the 13th century, at the time of Jaume I. In 1256, Pope Alexander IV granted permission for the creation of a new monastery in Palma, request made by clarissa, Sister Caterina, abbess of the monastery of Santa Maria de Tarragona, who wanted to send a group of nuns to the island of Mallorca to found a new convent. Alexandre IV sent a letter to the Majorcan Franciscans, in which he will assist them at all times with the new Claretian nuns who had to settle in the capital of Mallorca.
Claire Fontaine visited Santa Clara Convent, Palma
On January 13, 1260, they settled in the center of the capital, on a land ceded for the construction of their convent. Catalina Berenguer and Guillermina, her sister, belonged to the nobility, and this made the convent progress rapidly. In 1837 the Franciscan nuns of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception of El Olivar went to the convent of Santa Clara. In the 17th century, great reforms were made, replacing the gothic part for one of the Renaissance and almost Baroque period. By 2007, the proceedings began to restore the convent completely.
The base of the building was built on remains of Muslim origin. Over the following centuries the convent was renovated and enlarged. And as witness of the extensions, there are round archways, blinded, from civil constructions, like the house of the family Montsó. The chapter room is from the 16th century, the cloister corridors contain gothic tombs of the abbesses. The current church is the third of the built in this convent. The four chapels on the left are rectangular with a back cover, and on the right there are several plants with a canopy cover. The cover of the rostrum has a double row with vault of three sections of edge. At the top of the altar there is an image of The Immaculate Conception and at the bottom one of Santa Clarad'Assisi. On the left side of the facade there is a quadrangular bell tower embedded in the wall, which stands out with three bodies. The portal dates back to 1671 and is thin. The entablature has a cornice topped by a broken fronton; In the center there is a medallion that has a relief that represents the image of Santa Clara.
Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road. Go forth without fear, for he who created you has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother.
February, 2 is a special day for The Grandma because some different events in different points of the world happen to celebrate the Candlemass day. In CanaryIslands, they celebrate the festivity of The Virgin of Candelaria, their the patron saint; in Mallorca, it is possible to contemplate an incredible phenomenon of light in the cathedral of Palma, and in Punxsutawney,they celebrate the Groundhog day,a festivity where a groundhog predicts the weather for the next months. The Grandma has visited Molins de Rei, a beautiful city near Barcelona, where The Virgin of Candelaria is also its patron.
Candlemas has got old origins and lots of European cultures celebrates it. A Catalan proverb says that if Candlemass cries, winter is finishing but if Candlemass smiles winter is going to be longer (Si la Candelera plora, l'hivern és fora; si la Candelera riu, l'hivern és viu).
One of the most popular an important Catalan poets of the 19th century, Jacint Verdaguer, wrote a beautiful poem about Candlemass that is remembered on a day like today in different events around the Catalan lands.
Before celebrating Candlemass day, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 14).
Candlemas, also spelled Candlemass, also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus and the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Christian Holy Day commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple.
The Virgin of Candelaria or Our Lady of Candelaria, popularly called LaMorenita, celebrates the Virgin Mary on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. The center of worship is located in the city of Candelaria in Tenerife. She is depicted as a Black Madonna. The Royal Basilica Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Candelaria is considered the main church dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the Canary Islands. She is the patron saint of the Canary Islands. Her feast is celebrated on February 2 and August 15, the patronal feast of the Canary Islands.
Twice a year, on February 2nd and November 11, this spectacular phenomenon appears in the Cathedral of Palma. But what is this?
The reasons for the massive interest in this event, has its roots in the Christian faith.
February 2nd: The day when Jesus was presented in the temple of Jerusalem and Mary was purified after childbirth, also known as the Calendria.
November 11: The day of Saint Martin of Tours, a saint that honoured in one of the chapels of La Seu.
At 8:30 in the morning, the sun rises over La Seu. The sun beams breaks through the greater of the two rosettes in the facade wall of the cathedral, and causes a reflection of playful colours just under the rosette on the opposite facade wall.
The Grandma contemplates the '8' in Palma Cathedral
The sensation lasts about 15 minutes, during which hundreds of excited guests adores the symphony of colours lighting up the majestic interior of one of Europe’s most spectacular constructions.
The reflection of lights and the rosette of the facade forms the number 8.
In Christian traditions, the number 8 has a symbolic value. Back in time, Christian writers found, that when an extra day was added to the natural seven day week, the gate to eternity (heaven) was opened. The number 8 represents a new start, to be born again and resurrected, just like Jesus showed himself eight times after his resurrection.
Also notice, that the 14 massive columns inside the cathedral are octagonal. The same coincide with the baptistery in many churches.
Groundhog Day is a popular tradition celebrated in Canada and the United States on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will persist for six more weeks, and if it does not see its shadow because of cloudiness, spring will arrive early. While the tradition remains popular in modern times, studies have found no consistent correlation between a groundhog seeing its shadow or not and the subsequent arrival time of spring-like weather.
The weather lore was brought from German-speaking areas where the badger is the forecasting animal. This appears to be an enhanced version of the lore that clear weather on the Christian Holy Day of Candlemas forebodes a prolonged winter.
The Groundhog Day ceremony held at Punxsutawney in western Pennsylvania, centering around a semi-mythical groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, has become the most attended.
Grundsow Lodges in Pennsylvania Dutch Country
in the southeastern part of the state celebrate them as well. Other
cities in the United States and Canada have also adopted the event. The
observance of Groundhog Day in the United States first occurred in German communities in Pennsylvania, according to known records.
Punxsutawney Phil
The earliest mention of Groundhog Day is an entry on February 2, 1840, in the diary of James L. Morris of Morgantown, in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, according to the book on the subject by Don Yoder. This was a Welsh enclave but the diarist was commenting on his neighbors who were of German stock.
The first reported news of a Groundhog Day observance was arguably made by the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in 1886: up to the time of going to press, the beast has not seen its shadow. However, it was not until the following year in 1887 that the first GroundhogDay considered official was commemorated here, with a group making a trip to the Gobbler's Knob part of town to consult the groundhog. People have gathered annually at the spot for the event ever since.
Clymer Freas (1867–1942) who was city editor at the Punxsutawney Spirit is credited as the father who conceived the idea of Groundhog Day. It has also been suggested that Punxsutawney was where all the Groundhog Day events originated, from where it spread to other parts of the United States and Canada.
The Groundhog Day celebrations of the 1880s were carried out by the Punxsutawney Elks Lodge. The lodge members were the genesis of the Groundhog Club formed later, which continued the Groundhog Day tradition. But the lodge started out being interested in the groundhog as a game animal for food. It had started to serve groundhog at the lodge, and had been organizing a hunting party on a day each year in late summer.
The chronologies given are somewhat inconsistent in the literature. The first Groundhog Picnic was held in 1887
according to a book for popular reading by an academic, but given as
post-circa-1889 by a local historian in a journal. The historian states
that around 1889 the meat was served in the lodge's banquet, and the
organized hunt started after that.
Celebrating Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney
Either way, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club was formed in 1899, and continued the hunt and Groundhog Feast, which took place annually in September.
The hunt portion of it became increasingly a ritualized formality, because the practical procurement of meat had to occur well ahead of time for marinating. A drink called the groundhog punch was also served. The flavor has been described as a cross between pork and chicken. The hunt and feast did not attract enough outside interest, and the practice discontinued.
The groundhog was not named Phil until 1961, possibly as an indirect reference to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where crowds as large as 40,000 gather each year, nearly eight times the year-round population of the town. The average draw had been about 2,000 until the year after the movie screened in 1993, after which attendance rose to about 10,000.
The official Phil is pretended to be a supercentenarian, having been the same forecasting beast since 1887. In 2019, the 133rd year of the tradition, the groundhog was summoned to come out at 7:25 am on February 2, but did not see its shadow. Fans of Punxsutawney Phil awaited his arrival starting at 6:00 a.m., thanks to a live stream provided by Visit Pennsylvania. The live stream has been a tradition for the past several years, allowing more people than ever to watch the animal meteorologist.
Ramon Llull, Joan Alcover, MiquelCosta i Llobera, Miquel dels Sants Oliver, Llorenç Vilallonga, BartomeuRosselló-Pòrcel, Maria Antònia Salvà, Blai Bonet, Baltasar Porcel, BielMesquida, Sebastià Alzamora...
They are only some of the most popular writers from the Balearic Islands,especially Mallorca. All of them were and are the most important figures of their ages and represented different movements from Medieval ages to Modern ones. From the cradle of the Catalan language with Ramon Llull to important movements like Modernism, Noucentisme or Post War Literature in the last century and Contemporany Literature in our current one.
Jordi Santanyí is a Mallorcan writer who lives in Cornellà de Llobregat, the Roman city of Cornelianus. He has just arrived to this big city to improve his career as a writer. Jordi is one of The Grandma's friends, and he is going to join to the rest of the group (Claire Fontaine, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, TinaPicotes and Tonyi Tamaki) in this amazing experience called The Grandma's Logbook. Jordi is a great expert in literature and, because of this, today TheGrandma wants to introduce him talking about his new city, Cornellà, and his passion, writing and literature.
Cornellà de Llobregat is a municipality in the comarca of the Baix Llobregat in Catalonia. It is situated on the left bank of the Llobregat River. It is in the south-western part of the Barcelona metropolitan area and is part of the wider urban area. It houses one of the three La Liga football clubs from Catalonia in RCD Espanyol. The history of Cornellà de Llobregat is defined by three principal factors: its proximity to the city of Barcelona, its being an area of passage, as was the entire County of Baix Llobregat, to and from the capital of Catalonia, and the presence of the Llobregat River. Its name is of Roman origin, Cornelianus, and the city's architectural characteristics possess Visigoth traits.
Jordi Santanyí in Cornellà de Llobregat
The first written reference to the city dates from 980 AD, at which time a church and a defense tower to ward off the Saracens already existed in the same place as the current castle, constructed in the fourteenth century.
The city was incorporated into Barcelona's territory in the thirteenth century and, for a short time, belonged to the Franqueses del Llobregat in which agricultural activity was principally developed.
Literature, most generically, is any body of written works. More restrictively, literature refers to writing considered to be an art form or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, often due to deploying language in ways that differ from ordinary usage. Its Latin root literatura/litteratura, derived itself from littera: letter or handwriting, was used to refer to all written accounts. The concept has changed meaning over time to include texts that are spoken or sung, oral literature,and non-written verbal art forms. Developments in print technology have allowed an ever-growing distribution and proliferation of written works, culminating in electronic literature.
Literature is classified according to whether it is fiction or non-fiction, and whether it is poetry or prose. It can be further distinguished according to major forms such as the novel, short story or drama;
and works are often categorized according to historical periods or
their adherence to certain aesthetic features or expectations (genre).
Jordi & the Miranda Tower, Cornellà
The history of literature follows closely the development of civilization. When defined exclusively as written work, Ancient Egyptian literature, along with Sumerian literature,are considered the world's oldest literatures. The primary genres of the literature of Ancient Egypt—didactic texts, hymns and prayers, and tales—were written almost entirely in verse; while use of poetic devices is clearly recognizable, the prosody of the verse is unknown. Most Sumerian literature is apparently poetry, as it is written in left-justified lines,and could contain line-based organization such as the couplet or the stanza. Different historical periods are reflected in literature. National and tribal sagas, accounts of the origin of the world and of customs, and myths which sometimes carry moral or spiritual messages predominate in the pre-urban eras. The epics of Homer, dating from the early to middle Iron age, and the great Indian epics of a slightly later period, have more evidence of deliberateliterary authorship, surviving like the older myths through oral tradition for long periods before being written down.
Literature in all its forms can be seen as written records, whether the literature itself be factual or fictional, it is still quite possible to decipher facts through things like characters' actions and words or the authors' style of writing and the intent behind the words. The plot is for more than just entertainment purposes; within it lies information about economics, psychology, science, religions, politics, cultures, and social depth.
Studying and analyzing literature becomes very important in terms of learning about human history.
Literature provides insights about how society has evolved and about the societal norms during each of the different periods all throughout history. For instance, postmodern authors argue that history and fiction both constitute systems of signification by which we make sense of the past. It is asserted that both of these are discourses, human constructs, signifying systems, and both derive their major claim to truth from that identity.
Literature provides views of life, which is crucial in obtaining truth and in understanding human life throughout history and its periods. Specifically, it explores the possibilities of living in terms of certain values under given social and historical circumstances.
Today, Claire Fontaine and TheGrandma have enjoyed with the Majorcan community in Barcelona, which has celebrated Sant Antoni, a traditional and popular festival in the island.
Barcelona is formed by ten districts and more than 70 neighbourhoods.
One of the most active neighbourhoods is Gràcia,where people usually occupy squares and streets to celebrate cultural events.
Before visiting Gràcia, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary LanguagePractice manual (Vocabulary 8).
The Sant Antoni bonfire festival held in Gràcia is actually a Mallorcantradition that has been brought to this Barcelona neighbourhood. It consists mainly of some exhibitions of popular culture from the Principality and Mallorca performed, for example, by capgrossos, xeremiers, castellers and diables -groups of big-headed figures, pipers, human-tower builders and firework-toting devils. Even though this tradition has been imported, it is now firmly established in the Gràcia neighbourhood and local people treat it as their own.
Three days of events and activities kick off at the Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius with Mallorcan folk songs and a chance to taste some of the typical food you can eat on the island. The centre holds a dance and concert with groups from Mallorca as a warm-up for the celebrations the following day.
Preparing the dinner in Plaça del Diamant, Gràcia
Because on Saturday evening there is a big cercavila and correfoc –a musical procession and fire run–staged by popular culture groups from sa Pobla and Gràcia, plus the odd guest sometimes. This procession is accompanied by the festival organisers from the district town hall to Plaça de la Virreina, where they light a bigbonfire for a night of fire-roasted sausages, folk dances and folk songs with a Mallorcan label. The festival is held in honour of St Anthony who, according to tradition, is the patron saint of animals, especially hoofed animals. Legend has it that he was a great friend of animals and, when he saw one that was injured, he took care of it.
The Feast of St Anthony is held on 17 January, the day he died. However, the Mallorca festival is copied in Gràcia on the last weekend in January, because the popular culture groups from Sa Pobla –the caparrots, the dimonisd’Albopàs and the xeremiers (pipers)– can come over then.
Antoni Torrens, a Sa Pobla resident who received the Barcelona Medal of Honour in 1997, suggested building a bonfire like those in Mallorca in Plaça de Diamant in 1992 so his sons, who were studying in Barcelona, could enjoy this revetlla mallorquina, a festival-eve celebration from the island.
Since then, more streets have joined in each year with their own bonfires, more of the local popular culture groups have got involved and the festival has developed into what it is today.
Have you ever wandered among bonfires in the streets of Barcelona in the midst of winter? Have you ever eaten sausages cooked over an open fire in the middle of a square? If you haven't and you'd like to tick that off your list of things to do in your lifetime, don't miss the Sa Pobla a Gràcia celebration.
Enjoying a Mallorcan dinner
Sa Pobla is a small town in Mallorca, where, every year for the feast day of Saint Anthony, they put on an ancestral and traditional party with bonfires, xeremiers who play types of flutes and bagpipes, plus ximbombes (friction drums), wandering poetryrecitals and singers of traditional folk songs.
In 1993 the tradition made its way to the streets and squares of Barcelona's Gràcia neighbourhood, and ever since, the party has been a reason for natives of Mallorca, Menorca and Eivissa, and other Balearic islanders to come together and celebrate, whether they're just visiting or live in Barcelona.
With traditional dancing, food, music, and yes, bonfires called foguerons in the middle of the street, get ready to join one of the most traditional festivals in Mallorca, without leaving Barcelona.
Although Saint Anthony's feast day is January 17, the Gràcia bonfires are lit the last weekend of the month so that groups from Sa Pobla come from Mallorca over to Barcelona for the celebration. This year the big day is last Saturday of January. Things kick off at noon with a session of folk music in the Lesseps, Estrella, Llibertat and Abaceria markets, with Mallorcan xeremiers and glossadors. At night activities get underway when the groups all meet up in Plaça de la Vila for traditional dances that lead into the parade, which sets out for Plaça de la Virreina. There, the bonfires are lit and the party really gets started.
If you're interested in more, before the big day there are plenty of related activities on as well. At the Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius (C.A.T.) bar, there is a tasting of Mallorcan products, brought to you by Glosadors de les Illes and Cor de Carxofa. The show is shared among three centres in Gràcia: the C.A.T., La Violeta de Gràcia and the Orfeó Gracienc.
There will be a traditional Mallorcan dance, ball de bot, by a historic group from the Islands, S'Estol des Gerricó and it possible to take a class to learn the most traditional Mallorcan dances, and then put them into practice in the square.
Today, The Grandma and ClaireFontaine are spending their last days in Palma. They are very happy with their visit and they are sure they will come back very soon because they love this island, its culture and traditions -common for them- and its people.
Visiting Mallorca is always a hard experience for The Grandma. She's excited every time she arrives to Son Sant Joan but she is also very sad when she is in the island because lots of memories appear on her mind. She misses her lost friends although she tries to enjoy every single moment in the island.
Claire and The Grandma have visited the Cathedral and have contemplated the last work of Miquel Barceló inside this magnificent building. This amazing work has evoked them Abraham Cresques, the Jewish cartographer from Palma who is the author of the Catalan Atlas, one of the most wonderful and awesome maps from the Middle Age that we can contemplate.
Before visiting the Cathedral, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 4).
Abraham Cresques (1325–1387), whose real name was Cresques son ofAbraham, was a 14th-century Jewish cartographer from Palma, Mallorca,then part of the Crown of Aragon. In collaboration with his son, JehudaCresques, Cresques is credited with the authorship of the celebrated CatalanAtlas of 1375.
A Mallorcan Jew, Cresques was a master map-maker and builder of clocks, compasses, and other nautical instruments. He was a leading member of the Mallorcan cartographic school.
Abraham Cresques's real name was Eliça, a.k.a. Cresques, son of Rabbi Abraham, son of Rabbi Benaviste, son of Rabbi Eliça. Eliça being the name he would have received when he came of age but known as Cresques of Abraham, Cresques being his personal name, Eliça his religious name, Abraham his patronym, but the order is often flipped in most subsequent literature. His son, Jehuda Cresques, was also a notable cartographer.
In 1375, Cresques and his son Jehuda received an assignment from Prince Joan of Aragon, the future Joan I of Aragon, to make a set of nautical charts which would go beyond the normal geographic range of contemporary portolan charts to cover the East and the West, and everything that, from the Strait of Gibraltar leads to the West.
The Catalan Atlas by Abraham Cresques and Jehuda Cresques
For this job, Cresques and Jehuda would be paid 150 Aragonese golden florins, and 60 Mallorcan pounds, respectively, as it is stated in 14th-century documents from the Prince himself and his father Pere IV of Aragon. Prince Joan intended to present the chart to his cousin Carles, later to be Carles King of France, as a gift.
In that year 1375 Cresques and Jehuda drew the six charts that composed the Catalan Atlas at their house in the Jewish quarter of Palma.
The Catalan Atlas of c. 1375 is the only map that has been confidently attributed to Cresques Abraham. But researchers have suggested that five other existing maps might also be attributed to Cresques, Jehuda or some other worker in the Cresques atelier. Like the Catalan Atlas itself, these five maps -four portolan charts, one fragment of a mappa mundi-, are unsigned and undated, and their date of composition estimated sometime between 1375 and 1400.
-Catalan Atlas, c. 1375, 6 panels, map from the Atlantic Ocean to China, held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, France
-Venice Chart, c. 1375-1400, portolan chart -missing northern Europe-, held at the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, Italy
-Florence Chart, c. 1375-1400, portolan chart -west Mediterranean only- held (Port.22) at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy
-Naples Chart, c. 1375-1400, normal portolan chart held (ms.XII.D102) at the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III in Naples, Italy
-Istanbul Map c. 1375-1400, fragment of mappa mundi, held (1828) at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey
-Paris Chart, c. 1400, portolan chart held (AA751) at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris, France
According to the last investigations, of the four portolan charts attributed the Cresques atelier, the Naples and Paris charts are more ornate than the other two, with the Paris chart (c. 1400) in particular seeming closest to the features of the Catalan Atlas (c. 1375). However, attribution to the Cresques workshop is only tentative.
As investigators say, That this group of charts is closely related is clear. But it is hard to see, from the colour analysis alone, evidence to confirm that these four charts were the product of supervised work in a single atelier.
Today is a special day for The Grandma. She is going to climb el Puig de Santa Magdalena in Inca to homage one of her most beloved friends. ClaireFontaine has flown from Barcelona to Mallorca to share with The Grandma this experience.
During the trip by train from Palma to Inca, TheGrandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 1).
El Puig de Santa Magdalena offers incredible views of the island, from the north (Alcúdia) to the south (Santanyí) and the west (Serra de Tramuntana).It's an exciting experience that you must live at least once in your life.
The Grandma is very interested in visit Inca, known for its wine cellars, because she is a great fan of wines and she likes knowing more information about their history, especially the terrible ages of phylloxera.
Inca is a town on the island of Mallorca. The population of the municipality is 25,900 in an area of 58.4 km².
There is a junction station Mallorca rail network with trains to Palma, the island's capital, to Sa Pobla, and to Manacor. Inca is home of the footwear company Camper.
Inca is known for its wine cellars. The town, like its neighboring municipality Binissalem, was a mass producer of wine from the 17th to 19th centuries when phylloxera destroyed the industry and its inhabitants turned to other activities such as tanning and leather craftsmanship.
Many old wine cellars are being used as restaurants for serving traditional Mallorcan dishes like sopes mallorquines, tombet and gató d'ametlles.
Alcúdia from El Puig de Santa Magdalena, Inca
Grape phylloxera, commonly just called phylloxera (from Ancient Greek: φύλλον, leaf, and ξηρός, dry) is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America.
These almost
microscopic, pale yellow sap-sucking insects, related to aphids, feed on
the roots and leaves of grapevines, depending on the phylloxera genetic
strain. On Vitis vinifera, the resulting deformations on
roots and secondary fungal infections can girdle roots, gradually
cutting off the flow of nutrients and water to the vine.
Nymphs also form protective galls on the undersides of grapevine leaves of some Vitis species and overwinter under the bark or on the vine roots; these leaf galls are typically only found on the leaves of American vines.
Currently there is no cure for phylloxera and unlike other grape diseases such as powdery or downy mildew, there is no chemical control or response. The only successful means of controlling phylloxera has been the grafting of phylloxera-resistant American rootstock, usually hybrid varieties created from the Vitisberlandieri, Vitis riparia and Vitis rupestris species, to more susceptible European vinifera vines.
