4/23/2013

La Diada de Sant Jordi


We received beautiful rose from Paquita to remind us about Saint George`s Day!
La Diada de Sant Jordi  - Saint George's Day is a Catalan holiday held on 23 April. The main event is the exchange of gifts between sweethearts, loved ones and colleagues. Historically, men gave women roses, and women gave men a book to celebrate the occasion—"a rose for love and a book forever." In modern times, the mutual exchange of books is also customary. Roses have been associated with this day since medieval times, but the giving of books is a more recent tradition originating in 1923, when a bookseller started to promote the holiday as a way to commemorate the nearly simultaneous deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare on 23 April 1616.Barcelona is the publishing capital of both Catalan and Spanish languages and the combination of love and literacy was quickly adopted.Catalonia exported its tradition of the book and the rose to the rest of the world. In 1995, the UNESCO adopted 23 April as World Book and Copyright Day.
source:wikipedia