The patronal festivities of Tortosa (Terres de l’Ebre, Catalonia), called Festes de la Cinta for being dedicated to the local image of the Virgin Mary known as Mare de Déu de la Cinta, celebrated on the first Sunday of September.
Each town and city in the Catalan Countries has a festa major, which is a local celebration on the day of their patron saint or Madonna. They involve dancing folk dances, the correfoc with the town’s mythical animals and devil dances, a big family lunch, fireworks, concerts, etc. The dances, music and clothes change from area to area, making each festa major unique.
Many towns also have their own specific traditons for their festa major. Tortosa has a few of those. One of them is the panoli.
In Tortosa, the festivities start with about 100 pubilles (girls elected as cultural representatives of the city) going around the city accompanied by musicians playing traditional “flutes” (gralles and dolçaines) and drums. The pubilles hand out a traditional flat cake called panoli.
[Photos from Diari de Tarragona and Setmanari l’Ebre]