Festivals and Traditions

Migration, a Pilgrimage to WelfareIgualada 2010

The Three King’s EveOn the eve of January 5th, hundreds of people disguise themselves in rich costumes as Arabian pages to tour the town on a parade and take children their presents in the name of the three Kings. The children had previously written a letter to the three kings asking for these presents

The Three

Kings

The King’s

Pages at work

Els Tres Tombs

Each 17th of January people go out to see people driving carts or carriages or riding horses. The parade goes round the town three times and that’s why it’s called “Els tres tombs” (three rounds).

Following the tradition all the members of the family have lunch all together. And for desert, there’s a special cake called “Tortell”, it’s a sponge cake in the shape of a ring.

Els tres tombs

La ‘’Mona’’The ‘’mona’’ is a typical Catalan tradition celebrated on Easter Monday. Godparents make or buy their godchildren a cake decorated with a coat of jam or marmalate or chocolate, feathers, cream, fruit, chocolate figures or eggs, photographs and small toys. The ‘’mona’’ is eaten with the family.

There are also typical Easter eggs, made of chocolate.

Sant Jordi’s Day St. Jordi ‘s Day is the day

of lovers in Catalonia. We celebrate it on the 23th of April. The boys give the girls a red rose to demostrate their love to them, and the girls give the boys a book for the same reason.

There are a lot of stands in the street to sell books, roses, cakes and love candies. It’s a very emotional and important day for lovers.

Sant Jordi’s Legend The celebration comes from a very

famous Catalan legend, “The Legend of Sant Jordi”:

Once upon a time there was a small village. Next to it there was a cave with a dragon living in it. That creature ate all the animals and, one day, there weren’t any more animals to eat and the inhabitants were very scared.

They decided to give the dragon one girl every day, and one day the princess was selected.

Then, when the princess was in front of the cave, Sant Jordi killed the dragon and saved the girl. Then the blood of the dragon changed into red roses and Saint Jordi gave her one of those flowers and he left.

This festival is celebrated before Easter. All the people disguise themselves or wear fancy dresses. The festival has a king, his name is Carnestoltes. He leads the parade around the town. Afterwards the Carnestoltes is burnt by the people (not the actor).

CARNIVAL

Human Castles

In Igualada, as in many other places in Catalonia, we build human castlesthat can be really high.

Saint John’s Eve On Saint John’s Eve

(24th June), we have a great summer festival. The tradition is to burn bonfires and play with firecrackers

The international Baloon Festival

Every summer dozens of balloons from many different countries gather in our town. There are many activities

including races, night shows and concerts.

This festival starts in the last week of August. This festival lasts 1 week and it starts in the evening at half past six and goes on until midnight and then, in the center of the town a new party for teenagers begins and it lasts all night. There’s one celebration, it’s called “empalmada”; the young people are awake all night. There’re concerts and discos in the squares.On one of the days there’s a typical

Catalan street performance or parade with “giants”, and “correfocs” (fire runners). It’s a parade with dragons, fireworks and devils. On the final day of the festival, in the football ground, there’s a fireworks show.

La castanyada-The Chestnut festival

On All Saints’ Eve we celebrate the chestnut festival. People eat roast chestnuts, sweet potatoes and almond sweets. It’s great fun, many also celebrate Halloween wearing fancy dresses.

Mushroom collecting

In autumn thousands of people go to the mountains to collect wild mushrooms. It’s a typical Catalan tradition and a big craze!!

The Nativity Scene

At Christmas, many people set their nativity scene at home. It’s a miniature reproduction of some of the scenes found in the Bible describing the birth of Jesus Christ.

El tió is a very typical Catalan tradition. It’s celebrated on Christmas Day.

El tió is a magic log that arrives from the forest just before Christmas. For several days the children feed the log so that on Christmas Day it “shits” (delivers) presents.

On Christmas Day, the children go to a room and they sing Christmas carols. Then the parents tell the children that they can hit the log to make him “defecate”.

The children sing a traditional song and when they finish, they look under the log for the presents, and they are very, very happy when they find them.

El Tió

Different versions of the Tió

Made by:• Roser Bagó• Anna Cano• Clara Casares• Carlos Espinar• Anna Custodi• Alba Fernández• Malina Gaianu• Gisela Gómez• Laura Just

• Jordina Marsal• Mireia Mayol• Laura Molina• Nora Muñoz• Jaume Pregonas• Mònica Roldán• Marc Sánchez • Laura Sánchez• Andrea Vernengo