Sant Jordi's Day

Good afternoon!

How has your Monday been so far? Today I started a one week holiday with a very active morning at the studio and the gym and now I’m enjoying a cozy afternoon with a nice tea cup, a book and some roses.

«How come roses and a book on a Monday?» you may be asking. Oh, well, that’s today’s subject: Sant Jordi.

In Catalunya we have a beautiful tradition that is celebrated every 23rd of April called Sant Jordi (Saint George in English) . In this day we are celebrating two things: literature and love.

Valentine’s day is not as important as Sant Jordi for lovers in Catalunya. There’s a legend behind the tradition of bringing a red rose to the one you love. Usually man give a rose to their lover but now a days roses are given between family members, friends and basically everyone you really care about.

According to legend, there was a terrifying dragon located in the village of Montblanc, south-west of Barcelona. The dragon was always hungry, so the people in the village gave him one animal a day to keep it from attacking the village. However, one day the dragon ate the last of the animals, and then it started eating the people of the village too. In order to satisfy the hunger of the dragon, the people of the village decided to randomly chose a person every day to be sacrificed to the beast.

One day the princess’ name came up, and although that made the King very sad, he sent her to the dragon. But just when the dragon was about to eat the princess, a brave and handsome knight, known as Sant Jordi, rode into town and killed the beast with his spear, saving her life.

From the blood of the dragon, there grew a rose bush, and Sant Jordi took a red rose and gave it to the princess as a sign of his love. Everybody in the village was very happy the dragon was dead and they lived peacefully ever after.

I was told this story since I can remember and Sant Jordi’s day has always been and always be my very favorite festivity with Christmas. The streets of Barcelona are full of roses everywhere you look and you breath love in every corner. But the best is yet to come!

23rd of April is also and iconic day for literature. In this day Sheakspeare and Cervantes died and we all know that this two figures are key in literature history. The UNESCO has since 1995 recognized this date as the International Book Day and the tradition is to give a book to the man that bring you a rose but as I said before, now everyone gets a book and a rose no matter what.

For me 23rd of April has always been a celebration of culture and love. School used to promote writing competitions and we needed to get creative by creating stories and poems for this day. I feel it’s wonderful to encourage kids to dig into the writing path and even more the habit of reading and be transported by words.

I used to be what we called in Catalan a «lletraferida», one of this girls that read a lot and just loved it. I confess that now a days I don’t read nearly as much as I used to and I’m not proud of it. That’s why, one of this year’s goals was for me to read regularly again and at least read 12 books by the end of this year. I’m still going on my third one but I hope I can still make it!

Also, as you may have read in the «50 things about me tag» post, I’m trying to get back into writing and maybe present myself into another writing competition. Although it was something that schools obliged us to do during primary education, it never felt like a real duty to accomplish. I was always blessed with writing and I even remember myself getting my mother’s typewriter and typing short stories that probably would make no sense now a days but at the time I felt like the new Virgina Woolf.

This is where we came the winners of each district of Barcelona 

to know which district won the yearly writting 

competition from all primary schools and 

high schools from the city.

The past two years I’ve been able to enjoy this date next to my friends and family enjoying my lovely city covered in books and roses but unfortunately this year it hasn’t been possible. That doesn’t mean I won’t get a rose and a book when I travel back home for a longer holiday! And anyway, I got myself some roses and I already have wonderful books to enjoy. I even have a lovely cup of tea to make the experience even better.

Last year's Sant Jordi's Day pictures

I hope you all get inspired to join the tradition and if you do, comment down bellow your book and if you had someone bringing you a red passionate rose!

I hope you have a wonderful day and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Feliç Diada de Sant Jordi!

Love,

Muriel