Barcelona: Past and Present: 5 Cultural Events

1. See my post about my Dad's visit (since this has many cultural sights in Spain, I also included some extras of other places I've visited in Europe).

2. See my post about my amazing trip to Istanbul, Turkey!

3. La Diada:

Wednesday, September 11th was La Diada de Catalunya, the national holiday of Catalonia. It commemorates the defeat of the Catalan people in trying to secede from Spain in 1714. As we have learned in class, the Aragon/Catalonian troops were defeated on this day by the hated Bourbon king Felipe V.

This year, there was a 1.6-million-person chain crossing all over Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia to show how united Catalan people are in wanting to become an independent nation. There were parades and concerts, and it was really cool to be a part of something so culturally important! Definitely one of the coolest experiences I’ve had here so far.


The Arc de Triomf and the Catalan flag

People linking hands to form part of the chain

These signs were all over the place!

Some more people linking hands - everyone was there, young and old!

Some adorable little kids full of spirit and pride

The set of pictures above is of a really awesome band that was going through and providing entertainment for all the people who were participating in the day's events.

It was all so cool to witness and be a part of, and it's definitely not something I will be forgetting any time soon.

4. The Festival of La Merce:

Around 6 pm on Sunday, September 23rd, I met up with 3 of my friends and we headed to the Placa St. Jaume to get dinner and watch the Correfoc of the festival La Merce. “La Merce” is Barcelona’s biggest festival that lasts about 4-5 days and honors their patron saint, the virgin of La Merce. The Correfoc is one of the biggest events that happens in the whole festival - it’s a “fire run” where different groups run around a street in a semi-civilized fire parade. It’s absolutely nuts and would never ever happen in the US because of legal issues (there would definitely be someone who would sue the crap out of these people with giant sparklers). Interestingly, here parents come to it with their children, and the little kids actually run around underneath the sparklers. They all wear thick protective hoodies and goggles, but it’s still a cultural shock to see these little kids playing in sparks… The event was probably one of the coolest things I have ever experienced and I seriously wish I had bought a cheap hoodie that I didn’t care about to run around in the sparklers too.

(In the above picture, the kids and their parents all are standing under a sort of umbrella of sparks because the sparkler/firework things that the members of the parade are holding spin around really quickly while they release the sparks.)

The pictures I took (above) were cool, but my friend Jordan had a much better camera with him (mine was my iPhone 4), so his look SO much cooler. He also went in the actual fire run:

(I think this one belongs on a poster…)

After our ears had had enough of the fire run, I ran into my roommate and her boyfriend and we headed towards carnival lights that we saw toward the beach. They had a cute carnival, just like the a yearly carnival we have in my town, called the Hindley Happening, with a ferris wheel, some prize booths with games, and some of the scarier rides.

It looked like a lot of fun, but the lines were long for the tame things, and the others weren’t feeling all that well from their crazy weekend trip - not that I was complaining, because I'm not a huge fan of spinning rides and things. After we wandered slowly through the whole scene, we sat for a while at a nearby restaurant where we could still people watch and observe all the carnival-goers.

5. Dachau Concentration Camp outside of Munich, Germany:

After a very interesting night at my first ever hostel in Munich, Germany, my friend and I woke up early to head to the Dachau concentration camp on the outskirts of Munich.

Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp ever opened in Germany. At many points in its history, the torturous camp held many more prisoners than it was ever intended to, including Jews, criminals, the mentally ill, homosexuals, and foreigners from areas that Germany invaded. This meant that the camp was almost constantly at several times its true capacity.

While it was definitely scary, I so enjoyed exploring such an amazing memorial site - I don’t even think I have adequate words to describe how moving and emotional the experience was. It was especially strange to see that on Friday, and then celebrate so fiercely on Saturday - a very weird pairing. I got a lot of amazing photos, although I’m sure they don’t nearly convey how I felt there!