JOAN AMADES I GELATS & 'L'HOME DELS NASSOS'

Today is the last day of 2021 and The Grandma wants to say goodbye to this difficult year, talking about an ancestral Catalan tradition, L'Home dels nassos.

Joan Amades i Gelats (Barcelona, 23 July 1890-17 January 1959), was an eminent Catalan ethnologist and folklorist.

 
An autodidact, he worked at the historical archive of the city of Barcelona and at the Museum of Industry and Popular Arts of the same city.

 
From 1956 onwards, he collaborated with UNESCO. He was also an important promoter of Esperanto and founded the Federació Esperantista Catalana (Catalan Esperanto Association).

 
Perhaps the most important book in his large bibliography is Costumari Català (a collection of Catalan customs), the main work for the study of Catalan popular culture.

 
-Les diades populars catalanes (1932–1949) (The Catalan popular feasts)

 
-Les cent millor cançons populars (1949) (The 100 best folk songs)

 
-Refranyer català comentat (1951) (Commented collection of Catalan sayings)

 
-Les cent millors rondalles populars (1953) (The 100 best popular fairy tales)

 
-Costumari Català (1950–1956) (Collection of Catalan customs)

 
-Guia de les festes tradicionals de Catalunya. Itinerari per tot l'any (1958) (Guide to traditional feasts in Catalonia. Itinerary for the whole year)

 

More information: Barcelona

 
Home dels nassos, Man of the noses in English, is a character in Catalan myths and legends.

 
The legend says that this man has as many noses as the year has days, and loses one every day and can only be seen on December 31st.

 
In this way, children of Catalonia are led to believe that there is a man with 365 noses, and they are asked to search him on last day of the year. Being the last day of the year, he has only one nose remaining, the rest have been already lost.

 

More information: Barcelona

 

This moves me to respectfully propose,
in the Obra del Cançoner Popular de Catalunya the publication
more or less immediate of small volumes of songs
within reach of all pockets,
for the song to return to the village.

Joan Amades