{"id":2381,"date":"2017-09-21T21:02:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T19:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devourbarcelonafoodtours.com\/?p=2381"},"modified":"2022-02-25T19:03:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T19:03:12","slug":"10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Emblematic Traditions of Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

This blog post was originally posted on March 4, 2016, and was updated on September 21, 2017. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Every region in Spain has traditions to call their own, and the traditions of Barcelona and Catalonia can sometimes be surprising!<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While every place in the world\u2014and especially in Spain\u2014has its own traditions that might sometimes seem a bit odd to outsiders, it seems like here in Catalonia we really do have our fair share. While some are simpler\u2014think folkloric dance and festivals\u2014some of them definitely could also fall into the weird and wonderful variety. Read about the age-old and sometimes quirky traditions of Barcelona!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Castellers<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One of Barcelona and Catalonia’s most famous traditions involves a group of people, children included, climbing on top of each other to make human castles. Castellers<\/em>, as they’re known, practice this official sport on any given weekend, holiday or festival throughout the year, and they can get up to eight, nine, even ten layers high! The most dazzling part? The small child who crawls to the top! Take a look at these terrific guys in action in the video below!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

[mv_video key=”ffqmhe8dkufgmxynukds” title=”Incredible Human Castle with Expert Castellers” thumbnail=”https:\/\/mediavine-res.cloudinary.com\/video\/upload\/ffqmhe8dkufgmxynukds.jpg” volume=”70″ doNotOptimizePlacement=”false” doNotAutoplayNorOptimizePlacement=”false” ratio=”” jsonLd=true]<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Correfoc<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Listen up, pyromaniacs! Nobody loves fire quite like the Catalans do, and the correfoc<\/em>, which literally translates to fire-run, is just that! They are a group of people dressed as devils, shooting off fireworks without abandon. This is one of the most exciting traditions of Barcelona and you can find them during neighborhood and city festivals.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Gegants<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Gegants<\/em>, or giants, play an important role in Catalan tradition and folklore<\/a>. Usually representing neighborhood characters like the butcher, baker or fisherman, the giants parade around during festivals and also many special city events. There are hundreds of different characters, each one belonging to a different district or neighborhood of the city, and their twirling dance will be sure to impress!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Giants<\/a>
A parade of giants!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Capsgrossos<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Along with the giants come the capsgrossos<\/em>, which literally means big heads. Fitting, as these dolls have some seriously enormous heads! Used in the past to scare away small children, nowadays you will find that most kids don’t even blink an eye. Still, they tend to be a bit on the uglier side!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Caganer<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The caganer<\/em>, which means crapper, is a special Christmas tradition<\/a> that celebrates the most important character of the nativity scene but it’s not Jesus in this case! As families decorate their annual bel\u00e9n, <\/em>the nativity scene, there is no figure as important as the peasant dropping his pants somewhere near the farm animals and other characters present that night. Find the caganer<\/em> in celebrity form as well, from Bar\u00e7a players to politicians.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Don't<\/a>
You will surely see this little figurine all around Barcelona, especially at Christmas time!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Cagatio<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The poo-related Christmas traditions are not limited to the caganer<\/em>! The cagatio<\/em>, or crapping log, is a special, smiley log that children feed throughout the month of December. As Christmas approaches, they dance around him, hitting him with a stick and singing a song about his defecation of their Christmas treats. Did we mention quirky traditions of Barcelona?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sardana<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

No list of Barcelona traditions would be complete without a folkloric dance! While you can certainly catch a flamenco show around town<\/a>, this is actually more typical of Andalusia in the south of Spain. The true, traditional Catalan dance is the sardana<\/em><\/a>, a light, circular jig.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

La Merce<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Some of the most important traditions of Barcelona involve the many festivals throughout the year. And La Merce, the celebration of Barcelona’s patron saint, is by far the grandest of them all. This week-long fiesta falls at the end of September<\/a>. It combines many of the traditions listed above. The most impressive of it all? The city-wide correfoc<\/em>, where hundreds of pyromaniacs unite for a three-hour fire parade.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"La<\/a>
The beginnings of the fire parade at La Merce!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sant Jordi<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Barcelona’s version of Valentine’s Day, Sant Jordi is a day of romance, and funnily enough, literature, as the city celebrates the legend of Saint George as well as the anniversary of the deaths of Shakespeare and Cervantes. Read all about this lovely day on our full post about celebrating La Diada de Sant Jordi in Barcelona.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

La Nit de Sant Joan<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Another wonderful festival in Barcelona is La Nit de Sant Joan<\/em>, or Saint John’s Eve. The longest night of the year on June 24th is celebrated in Barcelona and all of Catalonia with bonfires, firecrackers and a lot of noise! Check out our suggestions about how to celebrate Sant Joan in Barcelona!<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog post was originally posted on March 4, 2016, and was updated on September 21, 2017. Every region in Spain has traditions to call their own, and the traditions of Barcelona and Catalonia can sometimes be surprising! While every place in the world\u2014and especially in Spain\u2014has its own traditions that might sometimes seem a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[363],"tags":[637,638,462,639,463,466,640,641,643,644],"ppma_author":[2310],"class_list":["post-2381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barcelona-travel","tag-caganer","tag-cagatio","tag-capsgrossos","tag-castellers","tag-correfoc","tag-gegants","tag-la-merce","tag-la-nit-de-sant-joan","tag-sant-jordi","tag-sardana"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDevour Tours<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fire parades, human castles, giants, dancing dolls...the list goes on! Read about the strange, unique and often surprising traditions of Barcelona!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Fire-Runners to Human Towers, Barcelona is Full of Incredible Traditions!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fire parades, human castles, giants, dancing dolls...the list goes on! Read about the strange, unique and often surprising traditions of Barcelona!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Devour Tours\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DevourToursCo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-21T19:02:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-25T19:03:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wordpress-assets-devourtours.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Barcelona-Traditions-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"315\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Devour Tours\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@devourtours\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@devourtours\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Devour Tours\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/\",\"name\":\"10 Emblematic Traditions of Barcelona - Devour Tours\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets2.devourtours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/bcntradtionsPIN-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-21T19:02:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-25T19:03:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#\/schema\/person\/43b955d283fe4d3fe574038009d0440e\"},\"description\":\"Fire parades, human castles, giants, dancing dolls...the list goes on! Read about the strange, unique and often surprising traditions of Barcelona!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/assets2.devourtours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/bcntradtionsPIN-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets2.devourtours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/bcntradtionsPIN-1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"10 Emblematic Traditions of Barcelona\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/\",\"name\":\"Devour Tours\",\"description\":\"Food & Drink Tours In Europe & USA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#\/schema\/person\/43b955d283fe4d3fe574038009d0440e\",\"name\":\"Devour Tours\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/bdeb852c65ee84d755cb9294976b6438\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9fe12f7625e49d33fd58b98201d1d16?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9fe12f7625e49d33fd58b98201d1d16?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Devour Tours\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/author\/ashley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Devour Tours","description":"Fire parades, human castles, giants, dancing dolls...the list goes on! Read about the strange, unique and often surprising traditions of Barcelona!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From Fire-Runners to Human Towers, Barcelona is Full of Incredible Traditions!","og_description":"Fire parades, human castles, giants, dancing dolls...the list goes on! Read about the strange, unique and often surprising traditions of Barcelona!","og_url":"devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/","og_site_name":"Devour Tours","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DevourToursCo\/","article_published_time":"2017-09-21T19:02:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-02-25T19:03:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":315,"url":"https:\/\/wordpress-assets-devourtours.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Barcelona-Traditions-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Devour Tours","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@devourtours","twitter_site":"@devourtours","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Devour Tours","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/","url":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/","name":"10 Emblematic Traditions of Barcelona - Devour Tours","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/assets2.devourtours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/bcntradtionsPIN-1.jpg","datePublished":"2017-09-21T19:02:55+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-25T19:03:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#\/schema\/person\/43b955d283fe4d3fe574038009d0440e"},"description":"Fire parades, human castles, giants, dancing dolls...the list goes on! Read about the strange, unique and often surprising traditions of Barcelona!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/assets2.devourtours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/bcntradtionsPIN-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/assets2.devourtours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/bcntradtionsPIN-1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/10-emblematic-traditions-of-barcelona\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10 Emblematic Traditions of Barcelona"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/","name":"Devour Tours","description":"Food & Drink Tours In Europe & USA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#\/schema\/person\/43b955d283fe4d3fe574038009d0440e","name":"Devour Tours","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/bdeb852c65ee84d755cb9294976b6438","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9fe12f7625e49d33fd58b98201d1d16?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9fe12f7625e49d33fd58b98201d1d16?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Devour Tours"},"url":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/blog\/author\/ashley\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":2310,"user_id":48,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ashley","display_name":"Devour Tours","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9fe12f7625e49d33fd58b98201d1d16?s=96&d=mm&r=g","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20595,"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/revisions\/20595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2381"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devourtours.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}