Day of books and roses

Today (April 23) is the Festival of Sant Jordi, and although this is my first, it is already my favorite. Sant Jordi (St. George, of the dragon) is Catalunya's patron saint. Since medieval times it has been traditional to give gifts of roses on this day. In the early 20th century the custom of exchanging books was added.

Although this most Catalan of holidays occurs on a workday, the Ramblas and plazas are jammed with people buying books from the many vendors who have set up tables, and roses of every color, although red is traditional. Each rose is combined with a stalk of wheat.

I asked Barbara, my Catalan landlady, to explain the meaning of this festival, and here is what she so beautifully wrote:

For Catalunya, the day of Sant Jordi is the day of: a) the rose, which symbolizes love and the commitment to family, one’s partner, and loved ones; and b) the book, which symbolizes the culture and reading, and which permits the meeting between the authors of books and their readers. But also it is the day of catalanidad. For a Catalan, the day of Sant Jordi is a workday that is lived with the collective enthusiasm of a holiday, a day of which all the citizens feel proud. The wheat [stalk that is included with the rose] can have two meanings: first work (one of the identifying characteristics of the Catalan population); and second, the yellow color, which along with the red of the rose, constitutes the Catalan flag: Yellow with four bars of red, which [symbolize those] a king painted with his fingers with the blood from a mortal war wound.

In the tradition of Sant Jordi, I share with you here a poem by the Catalan poet
Maria-Antonia Salva (1869-1958):

Like a monstrous reptile with spotted skin,
with slimy entrails, it lay
in its corner drinking in the sunlight.
All at once, its malice awakened,
reviving, it cracked the flowerpot.
Beyond the orchard, to be lost track of,
it was hurled over an arid wall,
and after a time, upon the rugged stones,
poking among the crevices and seams,
I found the old dragon still raging and clinging.