Reixach, Modest

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

IN THIS DOSSIER WE ARE PRESENTING A REPERTORY OF TRADITIONAL 
POPULAR FESTIVALS OF THE PAISOS CATALANS. WE HAVE CHOSEN FES- 
TIVALS WHICH ARE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE DIFFERENT CATALAN 
REGIONS AND HAVE VARIED ORIGINS. FESTIVALS, WITH THEIR ART, 
THEIR SENSUALITY AND THEIR SYMBOLISM, PROVIDE A GLIMPSE OF 
THE MYSTERY OF EACH COUNTRY, OF ANCIENT MYTHOLOGIES, OF THE 
COLLECTIVE HOPES AND FEARS. FOR US IN CATALONIA, OUR FESTIVALS 
ARE DEAR TO US AS AN EXPRESSION OF OUR IDENTITY, AND OUR 
PARTICIPATION IN OUR TRADITIONAL FESTIVALS HAS GROWN WITH 
THE ARRIVAL OF DEMOCRATIC FREEDOM. YOUNG PEOPLE ARE NOW 
THE MOST DETERMINED PROTAGONISTS OF OUR FESTIVALS, WHICH 
HAVE BECOME RITUALS OF THE CATALAN SPIRIT AND OF JOYFUL AND 
OPEN COMMUNICATION 

T H E  C A T A L A N  F E S T I V E  
H E R I T A G E  
OVER THE AGES, CATALONIA HAS BUILT UP-A REPERTORY 
OF COLLECTIVE CELEBRATIONS WHICH, ALONG WITH HER 
HISTORICAL, NATURAL AND LINGUISTIC HERITAGE, 
CONTRIBUTES TO HER PARTICULAR PERSONALITY. 
M O D E S T  R E l X A C H  D I R E C T O R ,  F u N D A C I Ó  S E R V E I S  D E  C U L T U R A  P O P U L A R  
C A T A L O N I A  
O ike any other nation, Catalonia has over the ages built up a re- pertory of collective celebra- 
tions which, along with her architec- 
tural, artistic, historical, natural and lin- 
guistic heritage, contributes to her par- 
ticular, differentiated personality. This 
festive heritage is made up of general 
celebrations which are common to the 
whole of the cultural community, and 
of a host of festivals that are specific to 
more reduced areas and local groups. 
The more localized festivals are often 
one area's specific, unique form of a 
more generalised celebration. 
Inventories and Classifications 
As in other fields of our cultural heri- 
tage, popular and traditional celebra- 
tions have experienced a considerable 
boom in the last few years, both in the 
rural areas, in spite of disappearances 
as a result of depopulation, and, espe- 
cially, in the urban areas. The reviva1 
has shown itself in an increase in the 
number and quality of the celebrations 
and in the growing interest they arouse 
among the observers of social life, the 
media and students of subjects as va- 
ried as anthropology, history, sociology, 
geography, economics and the history 
of art. Proof of this is the recent publi- 
cation in Catalonia of an exhaustive ac- 
count of existing festivals, which lists 
more than eight thousand of them for a 
population of some six million inhabi- 
tants. Successive volumes on other 
parts of the linguistic community will 
eventually complete this corpus of Ca- 
talan festivals, which combines a series 
of general elements common to al1 the 
regions (Catalonia, País Valencia, Ba- 
learics, Catalonia North and Andorra), 
with a wide range of types and specific 
characteristics. 
There is a basic classification made up 
of seven essential categories: the festa 
major, neighbourhood celebrations, vo- 
tive feasts, patron festivals, civic cele- 
brations, gatherings and fairs. 
The most important festivals through- 
out the territory cover the whole of the 
annual cycle and are often linked to 
remote calendars, such as the Celtic, 
Jewish or Roman calendars, and to dif- 
ferent cycles, of which the most notice- 
able is the agricultura1 and farming cy- 
cle. The most direct relationship is with 
the Christian liturgical calendar and, 
in more recent times, with the tourist 
trade and the holiday period. 
Some of the Most Characteristic 
Festivals 
Leaving to one side the more universal 
celebrations, such as Christmas, Carni- 
val, Holy Week and Easter, which take 
on very specific forms in the countries 
of Catalan culture, and the strictly local 
events, 1 shall mention some of the 
most characteristic general celebrations. 
By general 1 don't mean those festivals 
that are no more than an official day off 
work which has been declared a holi- 
day, so much as those days which, wheth- 
er or not they are official holidays, have 
generated the greatest wealth and profu- 
sion of celebrations around the country. 
Sometimes these are festivals that are 
also celebrated in other, neighbouring 
cultural communities to the north or 
south -the Catalan culture isn't an iso- 
lated one- but with distinct characteris- 
tics. 
Sant Jordi (Saint George) 
The feast of Sant Jordi (23rd April) isn't 
a bank holiday, but is one of the most 
specific and original celebrations in the 
Catalan area. The day of Sant Jordi, 
patron saint of Catalonia and of plenty 
of other countries, is one with a strong 
patriotic, human and cultural signifi- 
cance. Over the years, Sant Jordi has 
become a peaceful celebration of Cata- 
lan identity. Much of its present popu- 
larity stems from the need of stateless 
nations to demand their right to exist as 
a people, especially in times of repres- 
sion and persecution such as the Franco 
regime in Spain. It's therefore a politi- 
cal festival in the broadest sense of the 
word. This powerful connotation of re- 
sistance and national affirmation un- 
derlying the Sant Jordi celebration is 
materialized in two things that have be- 
come the most characteristic and the 
irreplaceable elements of the celebra- 
tion: the book and the rose. More books 
are bought as presents on Sant Jordi 
than on any other day of the year and 
it's also a day when a great many pub- 
lishing novelties appear. Women are 
presented with roses by their suitors, 
husbands, fathers, sons or friends. Not 
only is the custom alive, it also grows 
year after year, its gratuity vigorously 
reinforcing its symbolism. One of the 
most beautiful sights one could hope to 
lay eyes on is to be found in the streets 
and squares of towns and villages, 
brought to life by the mass of stands 
selling books and roses, always under 
the constant symbol of the Catalan flag. 
In Catalonia, Sant Jordi has become the 
almost perfect synthesis of the concepts 
of nation, culture and love. 
Sant Josep (Saint Joseph) 
Another widespread traditional celebra- 
tion is that of Sant Josep (19th March). 
More extended than Sant Jordi through- 
out the Paisos Catalans, it reaches its 
maximum splendour in the Pais Valen- 
cia with the traditions of les falles, or 
the burning of massive cardboard fig- 
ures and scultpures in the streets and 
squares. 
Sant Joan (Saint John), or the Summer 
Solst ice 
A little later on (24th June) is the festi- 
vity of Sant Joan, full of remote echos 
and the most widespread festival of the 
Paisos Catalans and of the Mediterra- 
nean in general. Once again its most 
frequent manifestation is in fire. Like a 
trail of gunpowder, the bonfires spread 
across the hills and plains, the towns 
and villages of the whole of the Catalan 
area, from the high planes of the Pyre- 
nees to the Mediterranean islands, 
where it takes on one of its most splen- 
did forms in the town of Ciutadella, in 
Menorca, with ' a  fantastic spectacle of 
light and horses. 
Festivals and the Community 
This isn't the place for a description of 
the social content of these festivals or of 
the Catalan festive heritage. This would 
cal1 for a discussion of the food, the 
organizing bodies, the music and dance, 
the clothing, real and fantastic figures, 
the religious and civic acts, the games, 
competitions and exhibitions, the 
sports events and the magical world of 
the fairstalls and the open-air shows. 
1 shall end simply by remarking that our 
mechanized and programmed society 
seems to rediscover in popular celebra- 
tions the spirit of the unifying dream, of 
the communal game and of solidary 
evasion, al1 of them circumstances that 
are of great benefit to the human and 
social condition. 


The Catalan Festive Heritage

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Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert