So here we go again, rolling out the Christmas stuff. Last year, you may recall, I got my act together enough to write a post about the caganer, and very popular and well-received it was. For newbies, or those too lazy to click on the old post to refresh their memories, the caganer is one [...]

Have you seen the video of flamenco artists protesting with all their hallmark defiant passion and sensuality at the Banco de Santander? Banquero, banquero… How we loved their threatening wails. We shared it on Facebook and someone commented : we won’t see this in Catalunya.  But there’s lots of flamenco in Catalunya, someone else responded. [...]

And for those of you who have requested a post about that other Catalan Christmas tradition, the Tió: go here – you get all the other Spanish Christmas stuff too. Go here for Part 2 and here for Part 3. By the way: it’s tió (teeOH) meaning log,  not tío (as in uncle /guy’ – [...]

Every Christmas I say to myself:  I must write a post about the caganers. And every Christmas, by the time I get my act together, every other Catalunya-related blogger and feature writer has already done it. Anyway, this time, here we go. The caganer is a small figure, traditionally depicted as a Catalan peasant, in, [...]

Summer in the city. You lie around in your underwear, eyes glazed, watching TV adverts for canned iced tea, air conditioners, mosquito machines and indefinably pornographic ice creams.  It’s time to head for the hills for the Catalan Picnic Experience, an elaborate ritual that bears no resemblance to the consumption, in the car in a [...]