Most Catalan celebrations are pretty cool. They almost always involve fire and explosives, often drums, parades and people climbing on each other, or at least dudes chucking candy from horses. Which makes the holiday of their patron saint pretty underwhelming. Yes, just like Christopher Columbus and Santa, it turns out Saint George was Catalan. He slew the dragon somewhere north of Lleida. (wikipedia.cat)
Sant Jordi day is the local Valentines day. Now you'd think that love and explosives would go together like a horse and carriage, but you'd be wrong. It's a sedate affair where men give women flowers and women give men a book. (No gender reduction here. Nope.) The streets fill with people, but there is nary a dragon nor giant to be found. Just stalls and stalls of people selling roses and books. If Barca beat Chelsea tomorrow, I'm sure the city will make up for it by burning down a Zara.
Happy Sant Jordi
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