Feliç dia de Sant Jordi! Happy Sant Jordi Day!

Today is Sant Jordi Day here in Catalonia. A day of love. Roses, books, princes, princesses, and dragons. What could be better?!

“Sant Jordi or Saint George is Catalonia’s patron saint. It is the Catalan equivalent to Saint Valentine’s Day, but in Catalonia it is not about chocolate, romantic dinners and love letters. Instead, two kinds of gifts that are exchanged: one, a rose, and another, a book. Traditionally, the woman (princess, if you like) gives a book to the man (or knight, if we stay in these terms), and then the man gives a red rose to the woman.

The tradition is based of the legend of Sant Jordi. As the story goes, a knight in shining armor rode in to save a princess from a dragon. After he slayed the dragon, out of the beast’s blood grew a single rose, which the hero presented to the damsel. Although no books are mentioned in the tale, April 23 also happens to be the UNESCO World Book Day. Therefore, every city and every town throughout the country are filled with stands selling books and roses.” ~ Catalan News article

The promenade in Sitges was lined with stalls selling books, roses, along with jewelry and cookies in shapes of books, roses, and dragons.

This year there was also an artist, Blanca Benitez, creating a painting of the dragon, the princess, the rose, and I would assume the prince was painted in. She painted while being accompanied on the piano by Tutu Pachamama. We caught the painting at different stages but did not see the finished product.

We had such a lovely day wandering around town. Coffee, sitting by the seafront watching the waves, and tapas for lunch.

Kim, our friend, and next door neighbor brought me a rose this morning and Bob bought me one when we were in town along with the beautiful and yummy cookies. I bought him a book…he was reading it when I took the photo below so I inserted my writers’ group book instead. In case you haven’t ordered your copy yet here is the link. wink wink

http://www.lulu.com/shop/maww/a-workingtitle/paperback/product-23854952.html

Feliç dia de Sant Jordi!