ViToBlog » culture http://vito.es/blog Un altre weblog. Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:32:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc Fall meeting http://vito.es/blog/posts/103/fall-meeting http://vito.es/blog/posts/103/fall-meeting#comments Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:31:58 +0000 ViTo http://vito.es/blog/?p=103 When living in a foreign country it is normal to feel lonely. Before finding your new place, you tend to join people in a similar situation in order to overcome your worries and fears. What a better way to do that than with people from your home land. That’s what we do in California. There is a Catalan community around LA, which organizes several activities throughout the year and gets together in a big meal at fall and spring. For some reason, there is a special bondage between Catalonia and California, and the catalan community in California is one of the biggest outside our main land.
This last October, I happened to assist to one of these meetings. As new (and young) members of the community we were assigned some chores like arranging all the tables, cooking the paella and preparing the music. More than 200 hundred people showed up. Most of them, are catalans who arrived here many years ago and created their families, but they do not want to let go their roots. These events allow to collect some money (not much) which will pay for the usual activities of the community.
I have to admit it was comforting and fun. So there I was cooking a paella even though I had no idea of what to do… there were some complaints about too little salt but in the end what matters is to get together and have a good time. And I certainly did have a good one!

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One of the oldest catalan traditions are the Castells (literally it means castles, yet I guess an appropiate translation would be human towers). There are people who take that tradition really seriously, and 10 level castells have been achieved. We are simply students so we don’t get close to that point, yet we have been able to build a 5 level structure. It requires both technique (for the people climbing) and strength (for the people on the bottom). I’m not that light, so my natural position would be on the base, but unfortunately despite my young age I have some back problems (both my parents had 2 hernias each which required surgery), so I cannot participate. Before coming to Irvine, I had never been interested in these elements of the catalan culture, yet now I regret not being able to join my castells mates. As most traditions, it requires special clothes and in this case I think you’ll easily spot the orange shirts, the scarf in the head, and the faixes (a kind of back belt).

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Another tradition is the typical catalan dance known as Sardana. I’m not going to explain this one. I think it is better if you see by yourselves…

Click here to view the embedded video.

It may seem funny, but I think I am embracing my catalan roots more, now that I am away, than when I was back in Barcelona.

]]> http://vito.es/blog/posts/103/fall-meeting/feed 0 St. George’s Day http://vito.es/blog/posts/17/st-georges-day http://vito.es/blog/posts/17/st-georges-day#comments Sun, 23 Apr 2006 09:26:28 +0000 ViTo http://vito.es/blog/?p=17 St. George is the patron Saint of Catalonia. St. George’s Day is celebrated in and around Catalonia since 1436. It is a festive day with many popular and cultural celebrations. The Fair of the Book and the Rose is held: Every man offers a rose to his loved one (wife or fiancée), and in return she gives him a book. This custom was started in 1926, to commemorate Cervantes death. In 1995, the 23rd of April was designated World Book Day by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, based on the Catalan tradition.

The Legend: Saint George in Montblanc
It is said that the legend of St. George, the Dragon and the Princess happened in the village of Montblanc a long time ago. The dragon was the most powerful of all the dragons because it could move through the sky, on land and through water. And the Princess who was the next in line to the throne was the king’s beloved daughter. The terror imposed by the dragon was terrible. Every day it devoured a couple of lambs. And when it was given oxes and horses it still was not satisfied . And this continued until they had to make a draw in order to give a person to appease the beast’s hunger. And the king who was of royal descent, catalan, and who lived in the village, wanted to put his family in the draw. And out of the pot came the name of the princess. The king accepted the outcome and did not want to change the sacrifice for any other person who offered to change places with the princess. Dressed in white, the princess went to be sacrificed. Suddently a young knight appeared, armed from head to toe , riding a white horse in order to free her. He was as beautiful as the sun, a foreigner and was called George. He rammed furiously the dragon that was heading for the princess. He left it half dead, confused and finished. Then, he tied up the dragon with the princess’ belt, the dragon wounded and obedient, followed him like sheep. After, with his lance he finished of the dragon, who on dying melted into the ground, and where the dragon had been a rose bush grew with roses, red like blood. St. George picked the most beautiful one and offered to the princess. He mounted his horse and amongst shouts of joy and happiness rode through the gate of the city walls where today in memorance it is still called the ‘Portal de Sant Jordi’. All of this happened in front of the king’s eyes and inhabitants of Montblanc who contemplated with fear the battle. It was for this reason that St.George was chosen to be the patron of the village a long time ago, until over a period of time it was forgotten.

- Adaptation from the book ‘Religious traditions of Catalonia.
St. George and the dragon of the four elements’, Anna de Valldaura -

I wish you a happy Saint George’s Day.

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