Holiday of the May Tree Planting
Some towns in our country celebrate this tradition in early May. It's related to the May Day festivities that can be found around Europe that celebrate spring. It's unknown how old the May Tree festivities are, but they are documented since the Middle Ages, when they were very widespread in the Catalan Countries, but nowadays it only survives in little more than 30 towns in Catalonia and a handful of towns in the Valencian Country and La Franja.
The festivity goes like this: the townspeople go get a tall tree from the woods around their hometown, they cut it down and collectively carry it to the town's main square. There, we find the most iconic moment: the Planting of the May Tree. The tree is planted on the square and will remain there for some days, all the duration of the holiday. Around the tree, many celebrations are held, including dances, concerts, contests, community meals, even sports events or other cultural activities. In most places, the tree is taken down after the festivities end, only very few places keep the old tradition of keeping the tree in that place for the whole year to be replaced next May with a new one.
On top of these common elements, each town adds their own local traditions. For example, in Òrrius (Barcelona Metropolitan Ambit, Catalonia), at night people go around the town stealing objects from the houses' courtyards and leave them at the base of the tree as an offering. The owners go get their things back on Sunday morning. Another example: in Cornellà del Terri (Comarques Gironines, Catalonia), they dance a specific traditional dance for this holiday called the Horned Man's Dance (ball del cornut) which is believed to represent the moment where the town was freed from the feudal lord.
People from Cornellà del Terri dancing the Horned Man's Dance. Photos by Jordi Güell and Patrimoni Festiu de Catalunya.
When exactly the festivity happens depends on the town. It usually starts on the night between April 30th and May 1st, on May 1st, or on the first weekend of May.
I made this map with the towns I found that celebrate this festivity, but there might be some that I'm missing. You can zoom in the map here.
There are many ancestral traditions in the Catalan Countries related to trees. In winter, one of our most beloved traditions is Tió de Nadal ("Christmas Log": children take care of a log during December, feeding it and keeping it warm, and on Christmas it poops them presents) which is widespread in all Catalonia and Andorra, the Saint Anthony bonfires are also done in many places, and there's more local ones like Burning the May or Burning Winter (one tree is burned at the end of January to ask for winter to end), the Pine Tree holidays like Santa Coloma and U Pi, and the Fia-Faia (carrying burning logs down the mountain). In spring, the May Tree Planting, palms, and the Cross. And in summer, Saint John's bonfires and the Pyrenean falles (similar to fia-faia but more widespread). Many of these trees are called "mai" or "maio", not only the one in spring.
Information sources: Tallar-lo per després plantar-lo: aproximació etnogràfica de la Plantada de l'Arbre Maig a Òrrius, Departament de Cultura / Generalitat de Catalunya, Xarxa d'Arxius Comarcals, Patrimoni Festiu de Catalunya. Photo sources: Mapes del Patrimoni Cultural, Departament de Cultura / Generalitat de Catalunya (Folgueroles), Regió7 (Igualada), Ajuntament de Cornellà del Terri.
