'FIRA DE SANTA LLÚCIA', XMAS TRADITION IN BARCELONA

Today, The Grandma has visited The Fira de Santa Llúcia, one of the city's most popular Christmas fairs in Barcelona since 1786.

The Fira de Santa Llúcia, one of the city's most popular Christmas fairs, has been held in front of the Cathedral since 1786.

Visitors will find craft products and typical Christmas items there. Two figures from the world of Catalan culture, among many others, have testified to its importance: the aristocrat Rafael Amat, known as the Baron of Maldà, and the folklorist Joan Amades.

Every year more than two hundred stalls fill the Pla de la Seu and Avinguda de la Catedral with a broad range of products. The stalls are sets up there at the end of November or beginning of December but always before 13 December, which is the feast day of Santa Llúcia, and they stay there till Christmas.

They are grouped in four main sectors. Nativity scenes and figures, offering nativity scene accessories, caves, figures, candles and Christmas decorations. Greenery and plants, where you will find natural and artificial trees, moss, tió logs, eucalyptus branches and similar things. Crafts, with all kinds of craft products and accessories, such as clothes, jewellery, decorations and gift items, plus lots more. Finally, the music sector, with simbombes, tambourines and other traditional Christmas instruments.

While the Fira de Santa Llúcia is on you can enjoy all kinds of traditional Christmas entertainment and activities, such as the short courses organised by the nativity-scene makers, the Associació de Pessebristes de Barcelona, a giant tió log, the Carassa de Nadal parade, traditional dancing and musical performances.

 More information: Fira de Santa Llúcia

Christmas is not a time nor a season,
but a state of mind.
To cherish peace and goodwill,
to be plenteous in mercy,
is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

Calvin Coolidge

MONA DE PASQUA, EASTER MONA IN THE CATALAN LANDS

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of one of her closest friends, Claire Fontaine. Together, they have celebrated Easter eating a mona, a typical Catalan cake that is eaten on Easter Monday in the Catalan lands.

The Easter mona, in Catalan Mona de Pasqua, is a kind of cake that is usually eaten on Easter Sunday or Easter Monday in Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Valencia and Murcia.

According to the writing of Joan Amades, mentions of the mona date back to the 15th century, though in the Joan Lacavalleria's 1696 dictionary, Gazophylacium Catalano-Latinum, mona still has a purely zoological definition, meaning female monkey.

There are several hypotheses about the origin of the term:

-Munda. In the Latin plural of mundum, banners offered by the Romans to Ceres during April, containing candy and decorating.

-Muna. in ancient Arabic منى, a land tax in the form of an offering of cakes, boiled eggs or other agricultural products, literally meaning gift or provision of the mouth.

-Munichia. Celebration dedicated to Artemis in ancient Greece.

More information: Catalunya

The tradition is often traced back to feasts that Roman shepherds celebrated with cakes or the Beltane, a Celtic festival that was celebrated in the month of May and where pastries with eggs were consumed.

Nowadays, the mona comes in all shapes and sizes, when previously they were generally round, like a rosca. Initially, the mona was a cake made with sugar or other sweeteners, and contained hard boiled eggs. However, in most parts of Catalonia over time the eggs were replaced by chocolate, and it eventually became the focus of the mona.

In Valencia and Murcia, on the other hand, the recipe has not changed and still has the original form of a pastry with the hard-boiled egg on it. Currently in Valencia, the Easter mona can be found with a hard-boiled egg on top or with an egg-white caramel, which is cooked along with the mona. In Valencia there are areas where the mona is typical all year, without the hard-boiled egg on it, but it often has different names such as tonya, panou, pa socarrat, and coca bova, among other alternatives.

In almost all Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia, it is customary for godparents to give the mona to their godchild on Easter Sunday.

On Easter Monday, families or groups of friends gather together and go somewhere, especially the countryside, to eat the mona. Traditionally, the age of the children was reflected in the number of eggs in the mona, until they were 12 years old. Currently, it is common for godparents to give the mona to their godchildren throughout their lives.

The Easter mona tradition is tied to that of bakers, who now make real works of art with pastry and chocolate, and since the mid-nineteenth century, mones have lost their initial simplicity, making their presentation more complex, for they must be elaborated with caramelized sugar, sugar almonds, jams, crunchy toppings, silver anise and, of course, before being decorated with painted Easter eggs or figures made from porcelain, wood, cardboard or fabric.

More information: Barcelona

 Every Easter, at one household or another,
I find a battle begins and the conversation
of how to 'properly eat' a chocolate bunny.

Hilary Farr

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