My Sant Jordi 2009

At 10:30 a.m. the Ramblas in Barcelona were already full of people. Normally, it is still rather quiet at this hour as most of the shops don't open before 10 or 11 a.m. One could buy roses from a wide variety of sellers: kids trying to make money for their graduation journey, others selling roses for some charity, others trying to earn some extra euro with their small unemployment allowance, ... I would call it a sign of the current economic crisis that one could buy soft-cover books and not only expensive hard-cover editions (though in Spain you find few really "hard" covers). Apart from the rose and book sellers there were stalls by political parties, the Red Cross, Intermon Oxfam, etc. There were a lot of beggars trying to sell paper handkerchiefs by the single packet - and probably a lot of pickpockets.
The bestsellers of this year's Sant Jordi were the first two volumes of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy - the Spanish and Catalan editions' third volume will be published in June. I found it a comforting thought that a lot of people bought books written by "serious" authors - and not those published by football players, former fashion models, TV presenters, actors, chefs, etc. that steal a lot of attention that better went to real literature.
This year's Sant Jordi also saw the official beginning of "bookcrossing" in Catalonia. A BMW dealership sponsored a few hundred copies, the Miró museum placed books on art at various locations in Barcelona, etc. Hopefully, this will lead the Catalans to become not just leading entrepreneurs in the Spanish and Catalan language publishing world (that they already are) but also serious readers.

April 23, St. George's Day

The 23rd of April, Saint George's Day [La diada de Sant Jordi], is a special day here as Sant Jordi is Catalonia's patron saint, among many other countries according to the Wikipedia. The real George was a Roman soldier who died as martyr on April 23, 303 A.D. In the most popular legend, he saves a princess from being devoured by a feroucious dragon who wants a human sacrifice every day - and in the process kills the dragon. In Catalonia it is the day of the people in love, of roses and books. Everywhere in the centre of villages and cities, flowersellers and booksellers put up booths with roses and the latest offerings of the literary market respectively. The men give a red rose to the women they like, not just to their loved ones, and the women give books to the men, though not to everyone they receive a rose from. The book part was added after April 23 became "international day of the book" in 1930 in remembrance of Cervantes's death in 1616.
Not only lovers, flowersellers, and booksellers like this day but also the Kenian rose-growers who provide the millions of roses sold on this day alone...

The Gibraltar Chronicle

According to a newspiece in El País (8/3/09), The Gibraltar Chronicle is a very special newspaper for three reasons: it is the oldest periodical still in circulation on the Iberian peninsula; it had the exclusive news of admiral Nelson's death at the battle of Trafalgar; and it is one of the few newspapers that could not appear for a few weeks due to the fact that all of its editorial staff was killed by yellow fever.
The news in the Spanish newspaper was that the Instituto Cervantes (cultural institution similar to British Council or Goethe Institut) will open a seat in Gibraltar later this year. After reading this article, I opened Murakami's novel "Sputnik Sweetheart", and on the first page appeared a metaphor with Gibraltar - very Murakamiesque to me...