BARCELONA’S famous boulevards will be packed with bookstores and florists today as Catalunya comes together to celebrate Dia de Sant Jordi – better known in the English-speaking world as St George’s Day.
Balconies across the city will be adorned with the Catalan flag – or ‘Senyera’ – to honour the feast of the region’s patron saint, widely considered as one of the most important days in the regional calendar.
The Catalan version of the legend of Sant Jordi says that after the brave knight famously slayed his dragon foe, a rosebush grew from the beast’s blood once it slumped to the ground.
A triumphant Sant Jordi then handed one of the roses that spilled out of the dragon’s body to a princess.
In 1929, a group of booksellers in Barcelona headed to the city’s bustling thoroughfares to set up stands to promote their material.
The day they chose – April 23 – became World Book Day as it coincided with the date of death of two great literature icons: Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare.
Tradition therefore dictates that on Dia de Sant Jordi – the most romantic day of the year in Catalunya – women receive a rose while men receive a book in a celebration of love and literature.
In the modern era, the gender roles are interchangeable although the premise of gift-giving remains.
This Thursday, Barcelona, the capital of Catalunya, will be home to nearly 430 stalls selling books and flowers.
Streets including Passeig de Gracia and Passeig de Lluis Companys will be filled to the brim with stalls selling a range of books, with a particular focus on those written in Catalan.
This year, La Rambla will lie empty as the iconic tree-lined boulevard undergoes a multi-million-euro revamp.
Many of the stalls normally located there will instead shift to nearby areas of Ciutat Vella, with a new route stretching from Portal de l’Angel to Via Laietana, past Placa de la Catedral.
New stands will also pop up in the neighbourhoods of Les Corts, Guinardo and Sants-Montjuic.
Flower shops will also hope to cash in on the celebrations with over seven million roses set to be flogged – equal to around €25 million and a third of annual sales.
Aside from the bustling flower and book stalls, there will be poetry readings, workshops, recitings, traditional dances, street parties, music, kids activities and ‘castells’, the human towers that are unique to Catalan culture.
Activities will also take place in Girona, Tarragona, Lleida, Badalona, Calonge i Sant Antoni and Vic.
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