Sant Jordi

April 23rd is a special day in Cataluyna and am glad I was here during it. It is La Diada de Sant Jordi (St. George), who is the patron saint of Cataluyna.

This holiday is special for several reasons. It is in celebration of the day Sant Jordi died. It's also the same day that both Cervantes and Shakespeare died. There were signs all over for la diada de Sant Jordi, el dia de la rosa, and el dia del llibre. So it's kind of a blend between a less commercial Valentine's day and a love of literature day.

The tradition is for men to give significant women in their lives a single red rose. They give a rose to their mother, sister, girlfriend/wife etc. The women give the men a book in return. It can be any book - novel, poetry, travel, comic etc.

However, a local told me that they've modernized the tradition in a few ways:
1) men still give a single rose, but it's not always red. While the most popular was red, there were pink, white, yellow, and several roses dyed several other colors - like blue or even hideous tie die patterns.
2) some forward thinking men now also give a book to the women in their lives. It did seem a bit unfair to me that the women get a rose that will die in a few days while the men get to keep a book forever, so I was glad to hear that some men also give books nowadays.

The rose thing - apparently Sant Jordi killed a dragon and as blood spilled out of the dragon's mouth and hit the floor it turned into a rose. That's what a waiter told me.

It was very neat to walk around seeing women carrying their rose(s) and men carrying their book(s). Roses and books were for sale everywhere you turned. The gift giving was out in the open instead of at home which I found interesting. The women all day walked around with their rose(s) in hand or sticking out of their purse, instead of leaving it home in some water. Almost like a status symbol - how many roses did you get today?

I might have to incorporate the celebration of St. Jordi day into my next relationship.

While I didn't buy a rose or book yesterday, I did start Flaubert's Madame Bovary. I feel like I should be reading Cervantes' Don Quixote, but in the foreword of Madame Bovary it does say that Cervantes was one of Flaubert's favorite authors. So that made me feel a bit more legit.