The English and the Catalans share the same patron saint which is of course the chivalrous Saint George, the dragon slayer. Over here it's called Sant Jordi - La Diada de la Rosa (the day of the rose) and is somewhat akin to our own Valentine's day. You can barely walk down any street in Catalunya today without tripping over a quickly erected stall draped in the Senyera, the Catalan flag, selling fresh roses at €5 a chuck, or some entrepreneurial foreigner with a bucket of plastic roses. Every 5th stall or so is selling books instead of roses (or as well as). The Catalans instead of largely ignoring their patron saint's day as we do back in Anglaterra, give gifts, roses for the ladies, as according to legend a rosebush sprung from the blood of the dragon that good old Georgie boy killed, George/Jordi then picked the prettiest bloom to give to the princess. And books for the boys, nope, I've not got a scoobies what that has to do with dragons either, although it is also International Book Day so it's probably some sort of amalgamation between old and new traditions.
Hopefully this sharing of saints will serve us in good stead over the summer, most Catalans whilst being football crazy do not in any way shape or form support the Spanish national side, despite the fact that many Catalonians actually play for the team. Most youngsters will adopt a team for the duration of the World Cup and because of our shared interest in St George a lot of the locals will support England, that is until we get knocked out in the semi's and then all the Brazil tops will be dusted down, again. Me? Well I will obviously be wearing my heart on my English sleeve but also edging my bets on the sly by punting a tenner on Spain to win the tournament, then like in the Euro 08' finals I will be the only person in the village happy and maybe €60 up.
