On October 12, 1492, Cristòfor Colom (Italian explorer and discoverer of the New World, a.k.a. Christopher Columbus) landed three Spanish sailing vessels, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, in the Bahamas, which he believed at that time to be Asia.  Most of us are very familiar with this story.  What I find interesting is that the Bahamas celebrate October 12 as “Discovery Day” and Spain celebrates it as their National Holiday, Día de la Hispanidad [Hispanic Day], or National Day, Fiesta Nacional de España [National Day of Spain].  Even in the U.S.A., we recognize Columbus Day.  Actually, we celebrate old Chris more now that he’s dead than we ever did when he was alive.  How ironic.

In Catalonia, where many of the residents continue to push for independence from Spain, this holiday isn’t always fully embraced.  Sometimes, Catalonians protest in the streets, refuse to close their businesses on this day, and hang banners rallying for the freedom of Catalonia from their balconies (Llibertat presos politics! [Freedom for political prisoners!]).  In recent years, Catalonia has celebrated October 1 rather than October 12 as their National Day.  Rather than stay in Barcelona and get stuck in the middle of these ongoing politics over the holiday weekend, we’ve decided to go to Zurich instead.  Allita has Friday off school, in accordance with the Ministry of Education, so we have a 3-day weekend!  Yay! More details to come on that trip in a future post.

Now, however, the week prior to this controversial holiday, the little community of Sarria (our very own neighborhood) is celebrating their special festival, the Festa Major de Sarria 2019.  Once again we find ourselves surrounded by colorful community activity, carnivals, singing, food, crafts, games and general festivities.  How delightful!  As I have recently had the opportunity to spend several hours in the veterinary clinic speaking with the veterinarian and his staff, I have gotten quite a lot of info, the local “scoop” as it were, on this lovely little week-long celebration.  

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The village of Sarria, now a community within Barcelona, takes this same week every year to have a community celebration where businesses customize their hours and offerings, some even set up a long row of tables outside in the street for their menu del dia, to encourage networking and relationship building among the area residents.  There are decorations strewn from balconies that zig-zag across the streets and brightly colored fall plants in large pots set out in the city squares.  In the main square at the top of Major de Sarria [Main Street] and Bonanova Street, a small traveling carnival with games, rides and various foods is set up and doing a lively business.  Families and various other groups of all ages wander up and down the streets, talking and laughing, playing games (such as a water race with scuba flippers!), shopping, socializing and generally having fun all day long and well into the night.  

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On Friday, I fell asleep just prior to midnight while listening to the sounds of an energetic band playing a very popular and familiar song that many of the locals apparently felt the need to accompany.  Enthusistically.  It was fantastic.  So much so that Allita and I were inspired to spend the entire next day exploring the festival and celebrating with our neighbors.  We played games and cheered on our teams.  She colored pages of important historical figures of Sarria and even the Sarria dragon! At the carnival, she rode rides and played more games.  We ate traditional foods, which as expected, were amazing!  The music and festivities were thrilling.  We attended the Cercavila and saw the Gegants, the batons, and a group of timpanists (Tabalers) who really got the crowd moving!  Everyone smiled and laughed and welcomed us in every single event.  We truly felt part of the neighborhood.  We laughed and played until we were barely able to walk the single mile back to our cosy apartment.  

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