Festes De Santa Eulàlia i Espectacles de Llum
The second weekend of February is the three day celebration of the patron Saint of Barcelona, Santa Eulàlia. She was a Christian martyr and was buried in the Cathedral of Barcelona. To celebrate the patron there were many Catalan traditions displayed.
There was a parade of giant figures that were made by each barrio and represented public figure or traditional custom from the barrio. There was also a Santa Eulàlia. Inside of the figure or puppet there was a person hold it up and walking with them.
During the night I walked around Barrio Gótico to see the different light shows and illuminated buildings decorated with lights for the Espectacles de Llum. I usually do not walk around this part of town at night because I do not feel safe but it was fun to experience this part of the city at night with lots of people out.
Saturday night was the correfoc de Santa Eulàlia. This is a parade of fire and fireworks that traveled through Barrio Gótico and ended with a literal bang in Plaça San Jaume in front of the Palau de Generalitat. There were people dressed as devils running into the crowd carrying fireworks that they swung over our heads. in addition, there were figurines such as a horse and dragon that represents the crusader San Jordi who fought and defeated the mighty dragon. People would run under the spinning fireworks and try and get as close as they could before they got scared. Although I was scared I would get a spark in my eye or catch my hair on fire, there was a lot of fun energy with fireworks exploding everywhere in the plaza where the parade ended. It was like nothing I have ever experienced back at home.
On Sunday morning in Plaça San Jaume, the castells or human towers were constructed. There were four teams, which represented four different parts of Barcelona. While we were in Tarragona at the beginning of the semester, we learned about the tradition of castells, how they are formed, and we even built our own with the help of the workshop directors. I learned that it takes an incredibly amount of people and support to build a supportive castell. The first level or the pinya is made of several hundred people all supporting each other in order for the people around them to remain stable. Castells can be a pillar with just one person at each level, torre with two people, tres with three people, quatre with four people, or cinc with five people. Most towers are six to ten levels tall. The castelleras cannot look up during the construction because if someone falls they cold land on them and break their neck so there is always music playing to inform the builders of the level being built. The top two levels are usually children who create a bridge that the agulla or needle climbs on, kisses their hand, and throws their hand in the air. In order for a castell to be complete, the tower must be built and deconstructed without falling a apart. After participating in the castells in Tarragona, I was excited to see professional castelleras form different types of castells and compete against each other for speed and completion. When the tower is completed, everyone celebrates and cheers because it is an impressive feat of teamwork, practice, strength, and communication. Each person rely on another for support.