Description

Catalan holiday held in celebration of Sant Jordi – St George
Patron saint of Catalonia

Popular as a day for Catalan autonomy

• Catalan holiday
• Lovers exchange
  a rose (females) and
  a book (males) as a token of love

Center of Barcelonaa hosts huge outdoor bookstores with authors signing copies of their books.

The Tale

• Roman military man
• Born in the 3rd Century in Cappadocia, Turkey.
• Refused to persecute the Christians (was decapitated by his contemporaries)
• Faced a dragon and killed it
• Saving the princess from her tragic destiny as a sacrifice (to placate dragon)
• A beautiful rose tree with red roses grew where the dragon shed its blood
• In 1926 joined with Book Day (birth of Miguel de Cervantes and the death of Shakespeare and Josep Pla)

Catalan holiday held in celebration of St George

• Slayer of dragons
• Patron Saint of Catalonia (England & other nations)
• Accepted date of Saint George’s death in AD 303

Also known as El dia de la Rosa (The Day of the Rose)

or El dia del Llibre (The Day of the Book)

(Similar to the UK’s Valentine’s Day)

“a rose for love and a book forever.”

TYPICAL ITINERARY All information ‘subject to change’

• 25 stalls selling books & flowers (approx) During the day

  Passeig de la Ribera (between the streets of Bonaire and Sant Pau)

• 4.30pm (16.30 hrs) Book Discussion: At Pizza Restuant ‘la Pizzeria’ at Cap de la Vila
• 5pm (17:00 hrs) Book Discussion: Cafè Roy
• 8pm (20 hrs) Sardana dance in Cap de la Vila
• 8pm (20 hrs) Book Discussion: on Lorca, Santiago Rusiñol Library (Biblioteca)
• Men purchase flowers for female friends and loved ones
• Women buy books for their special men
• 4 million roses and 800,000 books
• Book stores and cafes often host readings by authors (including 24-hour marathon readings of Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”)
• 20/04/2012 Friday 8pm (20 hrs) Book Presentation: Volumes of dolls in Saumell(Volum Els ninots d’en Saumell). At’Lla Sala d’Actes del Retiro’. Includes a selection of jokes 20:00h a 21:00h
• 20/04/2012 Friday 8pm (20 hrs) Book Presentation: Silencis de Sara, at Santiago Rusiñol Library (Biblioteca) 20:00h a 21:00h

  Biblioteca Santiago Rusiñol

• 21/04/2012 Saturday 12pm (12 hrs) Book Presentation: Papá espia, at Santiago Rusiñol Library (Biblioteca)
• 22/04/2012 Sunday 1.30pm (13.30 hrs) Human Towers : Young Castellers of Sitges (La Colla Jove de Castellers de Sitges i els Castellers de Sants compartiran plaça), at Cap de la Vila

  More on the Sitges Human Towers event here

Biblioteca Santiago Rusiñol

Telèfon: 93 894 11 49

Fax: 93 811 06 04

Correu electrònic: b.sitges.sr@diba.cat

Web: www.diba.cat/biblioteques

Bloc: bibliositgessr.wordpress.com

Book giving celebrates the lives of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare who died on 23 April (1616). Barcelona is also the publishing power house of both Catalan and Spanish languages.

Countries that celebrate St George’s Day include:

England, Bulgaria, Canada, Catalonia, Croatia, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia. Cities include Moscow in Russia, Genova in Italy, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Beirut in Lebanon, Qormi and Victoria in Malta and many others. It is also celebrated in the old Crown of Aragon in Spain—Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and Majorca