Walk down any busy street today in Barcelona and you are sure to see vendors selling books and flowers on the streets. That is because today is St. George’s Day (La Diada de Sant Jordi in Catalan), a holiday for lovers and readers. Like Valentine’s Day in the U.S., the holiday is meant to be spent with your special someone.
But instead of chocolates, according to Catalan tradition, today is about books and roses. Specifically, a man buys a rose for his special lady and a woman buys a book for the man in her life. (While it may sound a bit sexist, the tradition is sometimes broken and everybody gets a book and a rose).
Where did the tradition begin? Cervantes.org explains: “A smart bookseller began to promote the holiday in 1923 as a way to honor the simultaneous deaths of the two greatest men of literature: Spain’s Miguel de Cervantes and Britain’s William Shakespeare, both deceased on April 23, 1616 … In Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s principal street, as well as all over the city, hundreds of flower stands selling roses and makeshift bookstalls are hastily set up for the occasion. By the end of the day, some four million roses and 400,000 books are purchased in the name of love, registering half of the total yearly book sales of Catalonia on this day alone!”