We’ve been talking a lot about saints in our recent podcasts, “What the Halo?!” and “Halo2,” and St. George is among my favorites. Of course, slaying dragons is cool. (OK, maybe that didn’t happen.) Yet, it is also on his feast day in 2001 that I slayed bachelorhood. (That did happen. Kristine and I became engaged.)
Why get engaged on his feast day? It was during a visit to Barcelona for Taizé’s European Gathering that I recognized Kristine was my true one and only. In Barcelona, St. George’s Day is a kind of St. Valentine’s Day, a day for romance.
Spain’s tourism department explains why: “This curious festival comes from a mixture of traditions from different periods. It coincides, on one hand, with the fact that Sant Jordi has been the patron saint of Catalonia since the 15th century and on the other hand, it comes from the famous legend of Saint George and the dragon (the knight defeats the dragon, who was terrorizing the village and the princess, and after penetrating the dragon with his sword, Saint George gave the princess one of the beautiful red roses that spilled out of the beast’s body) and the old medieval tradition of visiting the Chapel of Sant Jordi in the Palacio de la Generalitat, where a rose fair or ‘lovers fair’ used to take place. This is why Sant Jordi is also the patron saint of lovers in Catalonia.”
In 1926, Spain declared the 23rd of April, the anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, the most famous Spanish writer, as Book Day. These two notable anniversaries (St. George’s Day and Book Day) became marked as one celebration. The most common gifts between those in love remains books and roses often wrapped in the colors of the Catalonian flag.
Although this year’s public celebration is hampered during this time of COVID-19, love need not be. Enjoy your day and the sites and sounds of last year’s festival in Barcelona below.
© 2020 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.
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