Bon Nadal!

Dear students,

Now that Christmas is around the corner, I would like to wish you all a

Bon Nadal i feliç 2010!

Here's a wee present that I hope will make you laugh: it's a video from Stephen Fry's QI programme, which featured a rather funny aspect of Catalan culture. Watch it by clicking here.

And here's the Christmas game: what word is Stephen Fry not pronouncing correctly? ;)

Que tingueu unes vacances fabuloses, i que torneu amb moltes forces per al segon semestre!

Laia

El Cor de la Ciutat

I remember Laia touching upon Catalan soap operas one lesson, and I thought, seeing as it is such a big part of British culture, with Coronation Street and Emmerdale and all of that [rubbish] ;] i would take a look at the influence soap operas have on Catalan society.

Now, I'm not really a fan of soap operas in the UK, there are plenty of other things that I would rather watch, but it's something different to look at I suppose, and if I'm correct, Laia did mention they were a bit odd!

Oh, and I apologise for the excessive amount of cutting&pasting!

• El cor de la ciutat is a Catalan television soap opera first broadcast on TV3 on 11th September, 2000 and continues to date.
• The show is the most watched fiction program in Catalonia, especially among female audiences, drawing around 28-33% of the audience with as much as 40% during season finales. The show receives almost 800,000 viewers and near season endings some episodes have had over one million viewers.
• El cor de la ciutat follows the lives of the people who live and work in the neighbourhood of Sants and Sant Andreu in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It's full of the usual 'storylines' that British soaps tackle - romance, affairs, gay relationships, personal struggles, family fall outs and all the rest.
• Eight complete seasons have been broadcast up until July 2008, with Season 9 currently airing.Five episodes are broadcast each week, one on each weekday, on TV3. Nearly 1,800 episodes of the programme have been produced, making El cor de la Ciutat the longest-running television series TVC has produced.
• At the end of each season, a special night of programming is dedicated to the soap opera, known as La Nit del Cor (The Night of the Heart)

La Nit del Cor (The Night of The Heart) is an evening of programming and live content associated with the show. The special evening of programming takes place on the Sunday evening following the broadcast of the final episode of a season of the soap opera. The evening begins with an hour-long special episode of the soap opera which wraps up many of the storylines whilst also creating a cliffhanger ending which will be returned to during the next series.
After the hour-long special, a special evening is held at the National Theatre of Catalonia (TNC), Barcelona, which is attended by all of the cast from the series, including a few that will join the series during the next season as new characters Prizes are also awarded to actors, actresses and scriptwriters throughout the evening.

Official website - http://www.tv3.cat/pprogrames/elcordelaciutat/corSeccio.jsp

Is it just me, or are some of the characters all slightly odd looking!?

It's strange to see that the Catalan soap opera is not a continuous story in the way that it is on British television. Yes, the story may continue from one season to the other, but it is not very often that British soap operas take such a long break, sometimes they are even priority, with two or three episodes in one night! I wonder if anyone could tell me how long this break is between seasons? I had a look but found it hard to find any answers!

La Nit del Cor seems similar to the British Soap Awards, with awards dished out left, right and centre!

That's about all from el Cor de la Ciutat, I found it difficult to find any other soaps on Catalan television, I imagine there are many regional ones, but these all fade into obscurity when compared to this very popular programme!

Christina x.

correfoc

Correfoc is one of the most extreme of the Catalan festivals. It involves 'trained professionals' dressing up as dimonis (demons) and setting off a series of spectacular fireworks whilst the crowd runs away/stands in the way and dances.

It translates literally as run away from fire. So you get the idea :) Correfoc is a joyous celebration. Few festivals can top the pure excitement and adrenaline rush that you get from loud explotions coupled with dancing a jig. (What is it with the Iberians and incredible danger?)

It's an odd celebration in so far as each town seems to celebrate it at a different time. The ins and outs however, roughly speaking, remain the same throughout Catalonia.

It is celebrated in the street. Most shops board up their windows to stop fire damage. Usually there is a percussion band hammering out the classic latin rhythms and basically you dance drink and avoid the demon with the firework strapped to a stick (they are similar to a Catherine wheel mounted horizontally, and the sticks are quite long so they are above your head) The whole town turns out women and children alike. The demons tour the centre of the town and the celebration ends in the town square. A huge Firework display often finishes off the occasion and the whole thing is very spectacular indeed.

They sure do win the award for most interesting celebrations, correfoc puts English Morris dancing to shame. We should have a Catalan version were the morrismen have rockets strapped to their feet :D

This is a correfoc that I went to in La Bisbal, it's not the biggest but it was still very scary ah tell thee!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB6ca80Aqtc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcA0-KIhoN8

Enjoy!
John

Hey
As I haven't wrote anything on here for a while...i thought i would do a short entry of MUSIC- i've probably done this before, but i really like music- thats the only reason!

Barcelona has many venues for live music of all genres. But I thought i would research two music festivals that take place in the city each year, Sonar Festival and Primavera Sound Festival.

Sonar runs for 3 days- normally in june. It is described as a festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art, mostly including the broadest genre of music- electronica. There have been international and also Spanish artists that have played this festival, including, Bjork, The Chemical Brothers and Pet Shop Boys, etc.
http://2010.sonar.es/es/

Primavera Sound Fesival
It normally takes place during May and June, at the Parc del Forum site in Barcelona. It is like Sonar Festival, having international and local artists playing, e.g from last years line up- Jarvis Cocker and Bloc Party.

These festivals seem to be the Leeds fest for Barcelona!!!
I think I will have to go at some point, and experience a festival that isn't muddy!! :)
Sian xx

El Nadal

I thought I’d carry on the theme of Christmas...especially now it’s only 21 days away!!

I’ve been looking at how Christmas is celebrated in Catalunya and the differences compared to how we celebrate. The Catalan Christmas lasts a lot longert han our Christmas.

December 25th and 31st are not the only important days; the festivities are spread out over a number of days that all have considerable importance. Family parties start on the 24th, la nit de Nadal, especially in religious households where the celebration of the midnight missa delgall (mass of the rooster) is followed by cavaand ressopó, a sweet night-time snack of hot chocolate and torró (Spanish nougat).
The 25th is celebrated with a huge lunchtime feast involving the whole family. It is normally a three course meal Starting with canopés, king prawns and little tapas dishes before escudella is served.

This three-part dish consists of a broth with huge pasta shells, a plate of meat (carn d’olla) including botifarra sausage and a pilota (giant meatball), and a variety of vegetables including potatoes, cabbage and chickpeas. Then there is roasted poultry such ascapon, turkey or chicken. Dessert is normally torrón (sweet slabs of nougat that come in lots of different flavours) and neules (tube-shaped biscuits).

The same type of things happen on the 26th, Sant Esteban (Saint Steven’s day), but on a smaller scale.
The 28th, dia dels Sants Innocents (Innocent Saints’ day), is not a formal occasion but is a day when people play jokes on one other, similar to our April fool’s Day.
Then, on New Year’s Eve, la nitde Cap d’Any, the main event comes with the 12 strokes of the clock at midnight that welcome in the New Year; everyone tries to eat a grape in time with every bell chime for good luck. January1st, Cap d’Any (head of the year), involves another family dinner before the final celebration on the 6th, Reis (Kings’ Day or Epiphany), this is when children receive presents.
Children are traditionally left presents by the Three Wise Men, the Reis Mags d’Orient, and they write their Christmas lists to the Kings, not to Father Christmas.
In catalunya Christmas cards are not really a traditional part of Christmas and their January sales don’t start on Boxing Day...they have to wait until January 7th after The Kings’ Day.

Steph

http://www.genevieveshaw.com/Resident%20Magazine%202007.pdf

El Nadal - segon parte

Ok, the second of my Christmassy posts is about another Catalan Christmas tradition which is a little less potentially profane yet still related to poo. I spent a good portion of my time in Barcelona desperately asking people 'why the obsession with it?!', and I never really got an answer but I think it's interesting nonetheless.

As well as a 'caganer' for the crib, Catalans also have a 'cagatió' in their home at Christmas. They come in varying sizes and are made from a log or stick with legs, a very happy face and a traditional Catalan hat. This bit isn't so odd. Until you find out that 'cagatió' means 'pooing log'. The log is hollowed out and over advent the log is fed various treats/small gifts (nuts, fruits, sweets, turrón etc.) and on Christmas Eve or Day the log is hit so that he poops out the treats whilst shouting 'cagatió!' (a command to 'poo log!') and songs are sung. The Catalan word 'tió' (log) is not related to the Castilian for uncle (though hitting a log and shouting 'poo uncle, poo uncle!' would be equally amusing I think.) I saw a massive version of the cagatió with chidren queuing up to hit him in the same way we would go to a Santa's grotto and it really was quite bizarre!




I also brought some mini ones back for friends and they were just totally baffled as to why I had brought them a little log that traditionally poos things, and also as to why this had anything to do with Christmas. Here is an example of a cagatio song,

Caga tió,
caga torró,
avellanes i mató,
si no cagues bé
et daré un cop de bastó.
caga tió!

Which translates as,

Poop log,
poop turrón,
hazelnuts and cottage cheese,
If you don't poop well,
I'll hit you with a stick.
Poo log!



The tradition also extends to Aragon where it is called 'tizón de Nadal' and Occitania where it is called 'cachafuòc', although it is less faeces orientated here! A log comes in and distributes presents to people and the oldest and youngest people in the room say the following rhyme:

Bota fuòc, cachafuòc - Light Up, Yule Log

(Occitan)
Bota fuòc, cachafuòc,
que nos alegre,
que nos fague la jòia d'èstre aquí l'an que ven,
e se sèm pas mai,
que siaguem pas mens!

(English)
Light up, Yule log,
Delight us,
Give us the joy to be here next year,
And if we aren't more numerous,
Let us not be less!

I think it's interesting how logs have become a part of Christmas traditions the world over, even if not in this context: we have a yule log cake, as does France and Spain. I imagine its origins are something to do with a log traditionally being a good thing to be given as a gift because of it's use as a heat source, but I love how nobody else has used their logs like the Catalans!

El Nadal - primera part

Ok, I haven't done a blog for AGGGEEESS so I'm (hopefully) going to make up for it now by doing a few in one go. I'm going to do them about Catalan Christmas because I find it fascinating and hilarious at the same time (Chris, it should appeal to your apparently childish sense of humour).

A lot of Catalan Christmas traditions are centred around...poo. The most popular manifestation of this being the 'caganer' (it translates as pooper). This is a small figurine of a boy dressed in traditional Catalan costume and hat ('barretina'), "in the act of defacation".



I was in Barcelona this time last year and caganers are sold everywhere, particularly at a big Christmas market outside Catedral de Santa Eulalia and they leave nothing to the imagination in terms of the defamating act! Caganers are placed in the corner of cribs and nativity scenes (el pessebre) far away from the trinity and other traditional figures. Some say the reason for this is that it is a fun game to find the caganer hidden in the nativity scene (however in the case of the one I took home for my mum, it's so that nobody can see that there's somebody defecating in her nativity scene). As well as the traditionally dressed ones, caganers are also made to look like famous or political figures and it's possible to find a caganer of literally anybody (the Spanish royal family, the Pope, Barack Obama, the entire FC Barca team, Don Quijote, Dalí, smurfs, a tower of castellers...the list goes on.) Check out this website to have a look at some of the famous people ones http://www.caganer.com/novedades-2009-c-57.html, or here's one of Gordon Brown...



At first I was quite shocked that it was seen as acceptable to make caganers of members of the royal family and respected figures but I actually think it's quite nice and shows a difference in Catalan and British attitudes to political correctness and when it's appropriate and when it's not. I also think it shows how strong the tradition is behind caganers, as although it is clearly a humorous custom and viewed as such, it is very traditional and is not meant in anyway to be offensive or derogatory. The extent to which this is viewed as an integral part of Catalan culture was demonstrated in 2005 when a nativity scene was erected in Barcelona which did not contain a caganer and there was public outcry and claims that it was an attack on Catalan customs. Barcelona council stated that it was due to the fact that a law had been passed that year which made urinating and defecating publicly illegal but the caganer returned in 2006 after a campaign 'Salvem el Caganer' was launched.

The origins of the caganer are relatively unknown and there are various reasons given for its being. The most popular is that he will fertilise the earth and bring a good harvest for the coming year, and buying a caganer is said to bring good luck. Another is that it promotes the equality of all people as a peasant in the midst of a very primitive act is included next to the holy family in the nativity scene. Going along with this theme, another reason is that the caganer provides a sense of naturalism to the nativity scene, originating from the time when they could only be afforded by the upper classes who decorated them in an opulent and over the top fashion. Personally, I quite like this explanation the best: the idea that the caganer is a representation of the common man as I think it best relates the tradition back to the meaning of Christmas.

I think a lot of Brits would be shocked to know that there are figurines of our most famous public figures in the middle of their daily act, and at first I thought caganers were really odd but now I LOVE them! I think it's not only funny, but sentimental as well and says a lot about Catalans which I like.