11th of Setember:  Diada de Catalunya (Catalonia Festivity)

24th of Setember: La Merçè (Barcelona’s festivity)

Merçè is the female catalan name that corresponds with the [...]]]> The month of Setember is usually a very hard month as it comes just after summer holidays. In Barcelona, to make a softer and more pleasant return there are the 2 main festivities:

11th of Setember:  Diada de Catalunya (Catalonia Festivity)

24th of Setember: La Merçè (Barcelona’s festivity)

Merçè is the female catalan name that corresponds with the Patron Saint of the city. The festivity is celebrated for over a week and it holds a large number of activities for everyone.

A large number of events are organized for La Merçè Festivity:

• 10km run Solidarity race taking place on Sunday 26th and going through main Barcelona areas.

• Theatre performances, shows with fireworks and giants and heady characters are performed every day along the whole city.

• Museums in Barcelona are free on the 24th of September.

• Castellers (human towers) on the 26th of September at Plaça Sant Jaume.

• Piromusical (fireworks) the 26th at Av. Reina Maria Cristina (Plaça Espanya – Metro map):

• Concerts from the 23rd of September among the main groups are:

• Thrusday 23rd: Belle and Sebastian, Loquillo, Quimi Portet, La Pegatina, Groove Juice, Obrint Pas i Balkatalan Experience, Suckafish P. Jones, …

• Friday 24th: Goldfrapp, San Leon, Crystal Fighters, La Unión i El sueño de Morfeo, las Flores Azules, Black Baudelaire …

• Saturday 25th: Gespa, Susan’s Red Nipples i Toundra, Maika Makovski, I Blame Coco, Ash i Vinila Von Bismark & The Lucky Dados, Fundación Tony Manero
  

Institutions and political [...]]]> Catalonia Festivity is known as “Diada de Catalunya” and it is celebrated the 11th of Setember. With this festivity, Catalonia celebrates the the fall of Barcelona in the hands of the Bourbon troops under the Duke of Berwick during the War of Spanish Succession on September 11th, 1714, after fourteen months of siege.

Institutions and political parties traditionally made floral offerings to the monuments of Rafael Casanova (Ronda Sant Pere 51, metro Urquinaona, check Barcelona Metro map here) and Josep Moragues, both in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia.

Since 2003, the main festivity is holded in Ciutadella Park (click here for Public transportation information in Barcelona). On this festivity, music, catalan personalities and thousands of citizens meet to celebrate and enjoy this very special date.

During the celebration, the most relevant icons: la Senyera (Catalan flag) can be usually seen everywhere and specially hanging from balconies and the Catalonian National anthem “Els Segadors” can be usually heard as it is commonly played to exalt the Catalan feeling.

April 23rd is the feast of Sant Jordi (Diada de Sant Jordi), the patron Saint of Catalonia. The tradition is that the man buys the woman a rose and the woman buys the man a book, although this is not just between lovers, it is also between friends, workmates, [...]]]>

April 23rd is the feast of Sant Jordi (Diada de Sant Jordi), the patron Saint of Catalonia. The tradition is that the man buys the woman a rose and the woman buys the man a book, although this is not just between lovers, it is also between friends, workmates, … . It is a very colourful day as you will see almost everybody carrying at least one rose.

Although Sant Jordi is not a public holiday, city centre (and Las Ramblas specially) is totally packed with people walking around looking for books and roses or simply enjoying the atmosphere.

As it is also Book´s day (Dia del Llibre) there are lots of bookstalls where you can even see writers signing their own books.

It is a very romantic day, although in recent years is getting more commercial, but still a very enjoyable day.

Tip: April 23rd is the only day of the year that the Palau de la Generalitat is open to the public. It is a magnificent building so it is a highly recommended visit. Big queues are expected so try to get there early.

Tags: sant jordi, dia del llibre

For those people visiting or staying in Barcelona during the month of August, there are some nice and interesting activities to enjoy their visit to Barcelona. One of these activities would be the well-known Festes de Gracia.

From mid August and for 9 days, the Gracia area is filled with joy, music and [...]]]>

For those people visiting or staying in Barcelona during the month of August, there are some nice and interesting activities to enjoy their visit to Barcelona. One of these activities would be the well-known Festes de Gracia.

From mid August and for 9 days, the Gracia area is filled with joy, music and party all the time. Since many many years , streets are decorated by neighbours in search of becoming the most beautiful and attractive street of the whole area. This would be one of the biggest Barcelona traditions.

Gracia Area is located at the north side of Barcelona, at the end of Paseo de Gracia. The closest Metro stations are Fontana (L3 line) and Joanic (L2 line).

This year, and after a difficult decision, Verdi Street was coronated as the best coronated street and it looked like this:

Gracia are not the only ‘Fiestas’ holded in August in Barcelona as when Gracia are ended, ’Fiestas de Sants’ starts. Sants Area can be reached by Metro at stations: Sants Estació (L5 and L3 line) and Plaça de Sants (L5 and L1 lines).

First of all, we should start with a brief introduction to what Castellers are and the basic terminology. As this is a catalan tradition, all the terminology is in Catalan, although I will include the English transaction between brackets.

Basically a castell (castle) consists of a human tower with can have up to ten levels high. [...]]]>

First of all, we should start with a brief introduction to what Castellers are and the basic terminology. As this is a catalan tradition, all the terminology is in Catalan, although I will include the English transaction between brackets.

Basically a castell (castle) consists of a human tower with can have up to ten levels high. These castells (castle) are built during town festivals. At these festivals, different colles castelleres (teams) compete to build the most impressive castell. These colles castelleres dress up in traditional catalan costumes.

Barcelona’s colla castellera (team of castle builders) is Castellers de Barcelona and this year they celebrate their 40th anniversary. In order to celebrate such an important event, they have organized two diades castelleres (days where these castles are built, normally on a sunday).

First diada castellera:

Date: 20th of June
Venue: Plaça de Sant Jaume (city centre)
Time: 20h
Metro: Jaume I (L4 – yellow line)

Second diada castellera:

Date: 21st of June
Venue: Plaça de Sant Jaume (city centre)
Time: 12h
Metro: Jaume I (L4 – yellow line)

This is one of the most important catalan traditions so if you are in town on the 20th or 21st of June, I strongly recommend that you don’t miss it as it is a great event and you will definitely enjoy it.