A red rose for St Jordi (St George)

Today was 'La Diada de St Jordi' in Catalonia, a very important day where people give red roses to their loved ones and everyone buys books for everybody else. The atmosphere is great and there are roses and book stands everywhere.

The tradition of giving a rose to a loved one goes back to a legend dating back to the 12th Century.

According to this legend, once upon a time, a small village in Catalonia was terrorised by a ferocious dragon who was constantly attacking anything alive. In order to control the dragon’s attacks, the villagers started feeding the dragon with any animals they could find till they eventually run out. It was decided then that they would have to sacrifice a person every day to feed the dragon. As it was difficult to choose who was going to be sacrificed every day, they decided to have a draw where names would be picked at random. It so happened, though, that one day, the person that came up in the draw was the king’s daughter, a very beautiful princess.

The king decided it was only fair that if her daughter had been chosen by the draw, she should be fed to the dragon, same as anybody else. However, it was with much sadness that the king saw his daughter walking up the hill to be eaten by the dragon. As the princess approached the dragon though, a knight with a golden shield appeared who, after a long battle, managed to kill the dragon with his spear. This knight, who was actually St George, tied the beast with a rope and dragged it all the way to the village. From the dragon’s wound red roses started to grow and St George offered one of them to the princess.

There are many versions of this legend, but this is roughly what happened.

Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy 'La Diada de Sant Jordi' because I had to travel to Scotland. I had to leave my parents' flat at 8 in the morning to go to the airport.

I've spent all day travelling. Managed to get to the East Neuk of Fife at around 7 in the evening. Totally knackered. Not sure how I'm managing to write all this... to bed after that.

Thanks very much for all your lovely comments, stars and hearts during my holidays. I hope you're all enjoying your weekend! :)