St. Jordi 2006 (1a edicio dels Jocs Florals a Pittsburgh)

For those of you who don't know, St. Jordi is a very special day in Catalunya, is the cultural version of St. Valentine's, also called the day of the rose and the book.

Legend has it that chevalier St George killed a dragon to save a princess, and from the blood of the dragon, grew a rose tree. St. George gave one rose, the most beautiful one, to the princess. Since then, Catalan men give a red rose to the women they love for St George's day, April 23. At some point, someone also commercialized it as the day of the book, and so for St. Jordi, women started giving a book to the man they love. It's the most beautiful day of the year, everyone is out in the streets, strolling, lovers hand in hand, streets crowded with rose and book stalls... sigh, it's hard to be in exile in moments like this!

But luckily today a bunch of Catalans in exile, as well as friends from Spain and Mexico, came to celebrate this very special day and Sandra even made the "pa de St. Jordi" (St. George's bread)
that you see in the picture, spectacular!!!

Following a very ancient tradition, we also had a poem competition, the first edition of "els Jocs Florals" in Pittsburgh. It was great, and even the Spanish-speaking friends read their poems in Catalan!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arijuan/sets/72057594115218086/

Ah, and Juan won the first prize!