“Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit”
Jawaharial Nehru
It honestly shocks me how rich this country is with many festivals and activities in which they honor a person. This week we honored the co-patron saint of Barcelona who is commemorated with statues and street names throughout the city. Santa Eulalia is said to have been a 13 year-old girl who was tortured and killed during the Roman Empire in the early 4th century and has been honored as a martyr every since. Although a sad story, the festival is so lively with art that can only be seen in Spain.
On the other hand, in the United States we are very separated by specific days in which some of us celebrate some days and other do not. We do have festivals from time to time, but when you actually have a festival in the originally country that is belongs to, it just is ten times better. I got to see so much art in many different forms, some through paintings, street art, music, dancing, etc.
I gained a lot of insight while walking around the city streets of Barcelona through this festival. The culture here is much more closer than I expected. Even the locals of Barcelona admire and love the festivals that are put on for them. Many people gather around to support their local artists. The atmosphere in the streets is just a more unified energy that I was not expecting but I love!
Castellers (human towers) are made up of teams of Catalans that climb on top of each other to compete to build the biggest ‘castle’. This was the most eye catching moment for me! They even had little kids around 6 or 7 years old participating in climbing these human towers. The amount of strength and balance to be able to do stunts like these are crazy and this is actually very traditional in Spain. I learned more from the culture and the atmosphere what a real local city felt like. I feel like we don’t get that a lot in the United States, many people just got to watch and they just leave. In Spain people were dancing with one another, clapping for their artists, asking for an encore, etc. I felt very welcomed and at home.
I am really happy that I got to experience such a close energy with the local people today for this festival. I learned that Barcelona celebrates many of their saints with a huge festival in which they incorporate different ancient dances. I love that i am being exposed to another side to Spanish culture that is completely different from what I am used to. That is what I wanted, I wanted to be exposed to differences in culture so I can really see the differences between a culture that really values their history and their people.
Thalia's Blog in Barcelona, Spain 