The festival program of la Mercè is extensive and I am sure that temporary visitors or newcomers to Barcelona feel a bit lost about where to focus. These days provide a rare opportunity to see living
Catalan folk culture in the centre of Barcelona and I therefore recommend you the activities as of below.
The name in Catalan (within brackets) takes you to a summary (in Catalan) about each activity where the exact address or route, respectively, can be found under the headline
lloc.
Friday, September 19At 19.00,
Giants, fire spitting beasts,
devils and other fictitious figures dance in a parade (
Seguici popular) from
Palau de la Virreina, on the
Rambla, to the
Plaça Sant Jaume. At 19.15, when all figures have left the
Rambla, members of the bakers’ guild hand out sweet bread (
La Festa del Pa). Later on, at 19.45 when all figures have reached the
Plaça Sant Jaume, they will be presented through short performances accompanied by bell ringing and fire works (
Toc d'inici i repic de campanes). Also, at 19.00, the musician Jaume Sisa will announce that the festa major has begun (
Pregó de festa major). The ceremony takes place inside the town hall but can be followed live on a TV screen in the
Plaça Sant Jaume.
Personally, I am not a big fan of the
sardana, but it is a cherished symbol of the Catalan culture. For that reason, I assume that many local people will join the dance in the
Avinguda del Catedral, at 19.00 (
Sardanes amb la Cobla de Sant Jordi - Ciutat de Barcelona).
On the contrary, during the
dragon parade (
Passejada de dracs i bèsties de foc), starting from
Plaça Sant Jaume at 21.30, heading for the
Rambla via
Plaça Nova, C/ Portaferrissa, and then going back again via
C/ Ferran, you will have an exciting but noisy experience.
Saturday, September 20
The
stick dance (
ball de bastons) is the most energetic but also most popular of all Catalan folk dances. Between 11.00 and 12.50 you will see a lot of bastoners on and around
Plaça Sant Jaume (
Ball de bastons i Cercavila bastonera).
From 12.00 to 14.00, several couples of
giant figures will be paraded through the Old Town (
Ciutat Vella) and the quay area (
moll) (
'Homenatge a Jaume I: Cercavila de Gegants'). Since it is now 800 years since king James I (
Jaume I) was born, the giants do not only come from Catalonia, but also from other cities which used to belong to his kingdom, eg. Perpignan in France and Valencia.
The afternoon will be dedicated to the
Fire Run (correfoc). At 17.00, the
timbales players (
Tabalada del Correfoc) drum their way from the
Rambla, via the
Avinguda del Catedral and later
Via Laietana to
C/ Manresa. From there, at 18.30,
children dressed up as
devils (
Cercavila de foc dels Petits Diables) will dance along
Via Laietana up to
Porta Cambó. This is an opportunity to show diables to small children, since the participants have sticks with spinning fires which spark, but do not crack.
At 19.30, when the
dragon parade (
Cercavila de Dracs i Bèsties del Correfoc) starts, you will hear the first loud explosions, and it will get even noisier at 20.15 in
Av. Francesc Combó where the so called
Gate of Hell (
La porta de l'Infern: Inici del Correfoc) marks the start of the
Fire Run. In the this (
Correfoc), finally, as many as 40 groups of
devils will dance through
Av. Combó to
Via Laietana and from there to
Plaça Antoni Lopez and provide cracking fire for anyone who wants to join them under the flames. If you plan to do so, make sure to wear a hat, a long sleeved shirt and a neck scarf to avoid serious burns.
Sunday, September 21This spectacular Sunday program starts at 10.30 with a parade of
Falcons – those who build the acrobatic version of
human towers (
Cercavila dels Falcons de Barcelona) – from the
Avinguda del Catedral to
Plaça Sant Jaume. In that square, at 11.15 there will be performances (
'Matí de falcons') by groups from Barcelona and Vilafranca del Penedès.
For those who prefer dance, at 11.00 in the
Avinguda del Catedral there will be a competition between different groups of
sardana dancers (
'58è Concurs de Colles Sardanistes').
The highlight of the day will be the castellers assembling
traditional Catalan human towers in the
Plaça Sant Jaume from 12.00 onwards (
Festa castellera de les colles convidades). Be prepared for a square full of people. Except for the local
Castellers de Barcelona, also the
Minyons de Terrassa and – the best ranked group – the
Castellers de Vilafranca, will take part.
The afternoon is rounded of with a
parade (
Processó de la Mare de Déu de la Mercè) where the entourage of dancers and monsters which follow the Patron Saint will provide entertainment for the audience. It starts at 17.00 from the
Plaça de la Mercè and takes the
carrers Ample, Avinyó, Ferran and
Bisbe in order to finish at the
Avinguda del Catedral.
Monday, September 22On the Monday, there are not any folk culture activities but, as during the other days, the
program is full of concerts, fairs and happenings etc. And the three exhibitions related to Catalan traditions - as described at the end of this entry - are of course open.
Tuesday and Wednesday, September 23-24The folk culture part of the festival program culminates during these two days, so I make my recommendations as a seprate entry, which you can find here.
Exhibitions
Throughout the days there are three exhibitions related to the popular culture of la Mercè. The opening hours are 10.00-20.00 and entry is free of charge.
Dragons and other fire spitting beasts are genuinely Catalan, and until September 23 there is an exhibition about them (
Mostra de dracs i bèsties de foc) in the vestibule of the Town Hall (
Ajuntament). Children will like this.
Figures of
giants are equally Catalan, and until September 23 some of them are exhibited at the Manning courtyard of the
Casa de caritat (
Mostra de gegants de Barcelona). Children will like this as well.
Until September 24, in the
Palau de la Virreina there is an exhibition about the dancers and typical characters who follow as the
Patron Saint Mercè’s entourage when she is being paraded (
'El Seguici Popular de Barcelona').
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N.B. The links to address descriptions are removed once the activity has taken place ('aquest acte està caducat'
, in Catalan).- - -Technorati tags: Barcelona, Catalonia, Festa
Many Catalan towns have competitions between castellers during their festa major, but the one of Tarragona on the day of la Mercè (September 24) is unique. Here, proper castells have been assembled since the end of the 18th century and the town musters as many as four local groups; the Xiquets de Tarragona (founded in 1970), the Colla Jove Xiquets de Tarragona (1979), the Xiquets del Serallo (1988) and the Colla Castellera de Sant Pere i Sant Pau (1990).
The first task on this day is to assemble traditional human towers and the groups (colles) take turns to make two each at the small square Plaça de les Cols. If you observe the movement of the crowd from the top of the cathedral stairs, it feels like colour streams of violet, pink, blue and green flowing back and forward, since the groups are easily recognised by their shirts of distinctive colours. The pink (on a closer look striped red and white) of the original Xiquets and the violet of the Jove dominate the scene since they have the most members. These two are also the most experienced groups, regularly assembling towers with up to eight levels.
In the second phase of the program – els pilars caminants de Tarragona – the task is to assemble a pillar (pilar; a human tower with one person per level) of four levels, walk up and down the 20 steps of the stairs in front of the cathedral and then continue, still in formation, through the narrow carrer Major down to the Plaça de la Font and the town hall. The age of each colla determinates the starting order, but while the oldest two groups started first and therefore had more spectators cheering for them, it was the stability and speed of the later two which really made an impression on me.
This discipline must be a Tarragona specialty. I am not yet an expert in the area of castells, but I doubt that, for example, Vilanova’s Bordegassos would be able to do this, although they outperform Serallo and Sant Pere i Sant Pau in classic castells.
To me, the walking pillars of Tarragona added a new dimension to the art of castellers and easily make it to the top positions of what people interested in Catalan popular culture must not miss.
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