Arnau Romero, Artur Martinez
In Barcelona in December, if you want to see something of Spanish culture, there's nowhere better than the Fira de Santa Lucía , a temporary market set up in front of and around the cathedral selling Christmas trees and figures for the belén, the crib, as well as countless ideas for Christmas presents. The most traditional figure is the crib and the cagatió.
"Tió" , little logs the kids will beat on
Christmas Eve so that they produce presents.
The cagatió is a log, with a face painted on it, wearing a barretina, the red hat of traditional peasant costume. On Christmas Day, it's hidden under a blanket and the kids beat it with a stick, singing a rather rude little song that asks it to, if you'll excuse the expression, "shit" presents.
Traditional dishes in Barcelona
Barcelona's many restaurants and bars offer the best of Catalonia's diverse
cuisine. Other Mediterranean countries, like France and Italy, have heavily
influenced Catalan cooking, which features lots of fresh fruit and vegetables,
seafood, pork and veal.
Catalans love cold meats (embutidos) of all sorts, especially pork
sausages (butifara). The staple dish is butifarra amb mongutes, a
stew of pork sausage and white beans. Escudella is a traditional stew
made with sausage, chickpeas, pasta and a giant pork meatball. It's generally
eaten at Christmas time and followed by crema catalana, a sweet egg
custard topped with caramelized sugar that has become a popular dessert
throughout Spain.
Fish is a major part of the diet. Zarzuela is a tasty seafood casserole
that originated in Barcelona and spread to other parts of the country.
Bacallà a la llauna is cod cooked in a tin dish.
In summer, you can enjoy lighter dishes like escalibada (red peppers
mixed with aubergines and onions) and esqueixada (red peppers with cod
and onions). Or head for one of the many farmhouse (masía) restaurants on
the outskirts of the city and
try some traditional dishes.
If you're lucky, the restaurant will serve calçotada, a sauce (calçots)
made from tender spring onions served on an oven-fired tile, followed by grilled
meat.
Catalan dishes are always accompanied by pan con tomate, country-style
bread smeared liberally with ripe tomato, olive oil and salt.
There are eight different areas in Catalonia that produce good quality wines.
The region is famous for its white wines from the Penedes area and cava,
sparkling white wines. The quality of red wines, particularly from the Priorat
area, has improved in recent years.
"Embutits", dry sausages and slices on bread with tomato.
The sardana is a kind of circle dance typical of Catalonia. There are two main types of this dancing, the original sardana short sardana style and the more modern large sardana which is more popular. The sardana is about two thousand years old but such theories have few adherents. Music for the sardana is played by a "cobla" a wind band with double bass consisting of 12 instruments played by 11 musicians, four of these instruments tenora, tible, flabiol and tambor are typical Catalan instruments, the others trumpet, trombone, fiscorn and double bass are more conventional . The sardana was invented in the Ampurdà, a county north of Catalonia. The most famous sardanas are: La santa espina, Llevantina, Vora el niu, Aplec de tardor and Palafrugell i Tamariu.
There is also another festivity called the Eve of Saint John's that is celebrated on 23rd June with big fireworks. And also the people eat the coca of Sant Joan, a sweet bread with cream and cherries.
Sardana dancers
Easter in Barcelona
One of the Easter traditions in Catalonia is that on Easter Sunday the Godfather gives his Godchild La Mona, an Easter Egg or cake.
Easter usually falls at the end of March or beginning of April, but since Christmas the bakers and confectioners have been planning how they can outdo their last year's efforts. Chocolate sculptures representing Disney characters, football idols, etc. adorn the shop.