som i serem

Welcome! Benvinguts! This blog is a place to share the culture and history (and occassionally current events under the tag #actualitat) of the Catalan Countries, explained by Catalans. Yes, we still exist. Part of the useless-[country]facts blogs. This blog condemns the genocide in Gaza 🇵🇸

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Introduction & FAQs - Where to learn Catalan online

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Traditions/holidays  -  Catalan language  -  Food  -  Arts  -  History  -  Legends  -  Nature  -  Jokes and memes  -  News and current events  -  Photos.

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More communities: Catalan Romani people  -  Catalan Jewish people  -  LGBTQIA+.

Do you want to ask a question?: the ask box is open!

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These are considered the most classic Catalan style of earrings. They're long earrings made of gold or silver with incrusted gems and were very popular in Catalonia in the 18th and 19th centuries.

They we nicknamed "herring earrings" (arracades d'arengada in Catalan) because its shape looks kind of like a hanging herring fish.

They are usually made up of 3 or 4 different parts (the button on the earlobe, the central piece, two side pieces, and a final little one hanging from the bottom of the central piece) that could be mounted or dismounted at will. The longest versions would be worn only on special occasions, and in those days they could be quite long (the longest ones reaching 15 cm). On everyday occasions, they could wear only the top part, shaped like a button.

Left: Gold and garnet 19th century Catalan earrings from Auctionet. Right: Gold and emeralds 19th century Catalan earrings from Auctionet.

Left: Gold and garnet 19th century Catalan earrings from Auctionet. Right: Gold and silver with emeralds 19th century Catalan earrings from Auctionet.

Left: Gold and emeralds 19th century Catalan earrings from Auctionet. Right: Gold and emeralds late 18th century Catalan earrings from TodoColección.

Info source: Enciclopèdia Catalana, L'herència de la joieria catalana - Pilar Vélez.

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I saw these ones recently in a museum and took a photo because you can see what they look like separated, when only the top bit was worn. They're not exactly the same type but they work the same way.

Bride earrings from Vilanova de la Barca (Ponent, Catalonia), c. 1905. Collection Ester Llop. Seen in the temporary exhibition "Ara canto per a mi. Les majorales del Roser i les cançons de pandero" at the Music Museum, Barcelona.

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@fuckblast i hope it's okay to add your tags, I like this concept!

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When I made this post, I couldn't find good-ish quality photos where you could see someone wearing them, to be able to see the size. Now, looking for something completely different, I saw a video where a woman is wearing them. So here's a screenshot!

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The oldest door of València'a cathedral, known as Porta de l'Almoina or Porta de Palau. It's easily recognisable because, being the oldest part of the building, it was built in the Romanesque style. Most of the cathedral was built in Gothic style, with some Baroque additions centuries later.

Photo by artfolch on Instagram.

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The AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington DC (USA) in 1996. Photo source: AIDS Memorial Quilt social media.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt was started in 1987 in the USA to show all the lives that were lost to AIDS representing them humanely and not just as a statistic. It was nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. The idea spread to other countries, and it was also done here in Catalonia starting in 1993.

An event with the local AIDS Memorial Quilt in Barcelona (Catalonia) in the 1990s.

Other parts of the quilt. Photos from Catalonia History Museum.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is present in over 40 countries, where about 100,000 tapestries have been made to commemorate loved ones who died due to this illness. It is the largest piece of community folk art in the world.

The Quilt has the objective of keeping alive the memory of the people who died of AIDS, but it also has an educational purpose, showing the diversity of people who were affected by it. AIDS was an extremely stigmatised illness because of its association to gay men, drug users, and prostitutes (even though it affected -and still affects- other people, too), that led to some religious leaders and conservative politicians to state that it was divine punishment and that nothing should be done to help the ill people. People with AIDS, their friends and family, and the queer community as a whole had to fight just to be treated like other ill people would.

Nowadays, it is known that the most important tool to not get or spread HIV is to be protected during sex and not share needles. If a person catches HIV, it can be treated with medication that slows down the virus from developing into AIDS so much that it extends the life expectancy to a standard level, so a person can have a normal life while being HIV-positive. For this, it's important to be tested to find it early. For this reason, the people most affected by AIDS in the present are people from countries with little medical resources, with the highest death rates in Africa.

In 2017, the Catalan AIDS Memorial Quilt was donated to the Catalonia History Museum. On World AIDS Day (December 1st) part of it is lent to the Government of Catalonia and the Barcelona City Hall to hang it from the balconies, and it's also exhibited in other occasions.

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The "written bush"

Even though Ramon Llull was a real historical person, there are many legends that talk about him. Born in the year 1232 in Mallorca, he was a prolific writer, philosopher, and theologist, who became the first European writer to use a folk language to write about science, instead of Latin. He wrote mostly in his mother language Catalan, but also in Arabic, Latin, and Occitan. He is one of the founding figures of Catalan literature and was very influential throughout the Christendom for centuries.

But added to the historical facts, many legends and folktales circulate about him or where he shows up, especially in his home island Mallorca.

Around the year 1274, Ramon Llull retired to the Randa mountain (in Mallorca) to meditate, where received the divine illumination to write his Ars. Also in all the area of Randa, you can find many bushes that look like this:

Photos from toponimiamallorca.net and Rafel Bauza Verd.

This is a kind of lentisk bush (Pistacia lentiscus) where the leafs have a change in pigmentation. In Mallorcan Catalan, this bush is called mata escrita, which means "written bush".

Some people say that these are the words dictated by God to Ramon Llull, which spread through nature written in a sacred Eastern alphabet.

Others tell a more mundane story: Ramon Llull used to meditate among the nature of Randa, where he used to get carried away writing. Some times, he would run out of paper, but he didn't want to stop writing his inspired words, before they got out of his head. Then, he would continue writing on the leafs around him. This happened so many times that many bushed in the area were written. When these bushes grew, the leafs would grow still with the text. Centuries later, the bushes still keep the wise man's words.

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Sunrise behind the Marimurtra gardens. Comarques Gironines, Catalonia.

Photo from Blanes turisme.

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Do people in the Catalan countries have any important funeral traditions? In my culture we keep pictures of deceased relatives in our homes with incense and oranges

We have important unique traditions related to keeping the memory of our dead relatives (especially the ones related to the Day of the Dead), but they are not done in the moment of the funeral. I explain below the funeral parts, but they are generally the same as other Catholic cultures.

The most important moment of remembrance for the dead people, like in the rest of cultures with a Christian background, is the Night of Souls (October 31st), All Saints' Day (November 1st), and the Day of the Dead (November 2nd). The tradition says that on these days the souls of the dead visit the living. Technically, according to the religion on All Saints' Day the living visit the dead (people go to the cemeteries) and on the Day of the Dead it is the dead who visit the living, but both dates have gotten merged over time and now everything is done at once on November 1st.

Here are some traditions that happen on these dates in Catalan culture. When I have talked about them previously in the blog, I will link the post where I explain it in more detail so this post doesn't get too long.

On the night of October 31st, we celebrate the Castanyada or Souls' Night. People meet with the family or friends for this meal. Traditionally, when serving dinner, an extra place is set at the table for the dead person that we wish to remember. We eat special sweets for this holiday (panellets everywhere + other local ones in each area) and roasted chestnuts, and drink moscatell sweet wine.

Every year on November 1st, people go take flowers to the cemeteries and clean or decorate the tombs of their loved ones. Cities and towns put extra public transport to go to the cemeteries on these days because they know they're going to be very busy. This is still very widespread, the other things I will include on this list are done almost exclusively by old people nowadays.

Candles are placed at the windows to guide the souls home for the night. Other people make tealight candles floating on water. They are left lit all night long. Sometimes instead of on the windows they can be left in the room of the person who died. Nowadays it has also become more common to light the candle in front of a photo of the person.

Eating pomegranate around these days, because each pomegranate seed eaten is said to be a soul in purgatory that goes to Heaven.

In natural places where someone has died -or a legend says that someone died- as a result of a crime or an accident, people who walked by would throw a stone to that place as a show of respect.

Back in the day, parent used to hide the traditional sweets of this holiday (panellets) around the house, and the next morning children could play to look for them. Children were told that these sweets were left by the souls of relatives who visited them at night (works similar to Christmas).

Other moments where the dead people are brought up:

Other moments when the person is remembered and relatives take flowers to the grave include the anniversary of their death and their birthday.

For people who are religious, when they need help with something, it has been historically common to light a candle to a specific dead relative to ask for their help. This little altar works the same way as a when asking help to a saint, because it's understood that the relative is in Heaven too.

Same as in other countries, here too in the past it has been widespread to believe that the stars in the night sky are souls. When thinking of a dead loved one, people used to look for a particularly bright star and they could think that's them. Some said that very bright stars are souls in purgatory who can't cross to Heaven and are calling for attention (prayers can make souls in purgatory go to Heaven sooner), while the dim stars are souls in Heaven who are satisfied. Shooting stars were said to be souls who are leaving Purgatory who are ascending to Heaven.

For the funeral process itself, we don't have unique funerary traditions, as far as I know, except for some songs and dance that used to be done when a newborn died, but we don't do those anymore, infant mortality is very low, so for once we are lucky to have lost those traditions. Some musicians who do traditional music still pass them down.

When a child died, people used to dance to the "wake songs". This was done until the 1930s in the Valencian Country and the south of Catalonia (Terres de l'Ebre region), and it seems like it was lost in the rest of Catalonia much earlier.

The French artist Gustave Doré drew it in 1890, because he saw it happen in the town of Xixona (Valencian Country) when he was travelling there and he found it very surprising that people threw a party when a kid had died.

Here's some examples of wake songs. The lyrics are allegorical to the death of their loved child or talk about the ritual itself.

I translated this song in the post linked here.

Our funeral process follows the way it works in Catholic countries, even though more people do non-religious funerals nowadays it still follows the old Catholic structure: bell ringing, wake, ceremony, transport, and burial. I explain this process under the cut.

Announcing that someone has died: this has traditionally been done with special bell ringing played from the church bell tower. It can start in a different way to call attention, but the distinctive element of the bell ringing for death (campanes a morts) is that it's a slow and serious way of playing, where the bell ringer alternates two bells with different pitch. He rings a bell once, lets its sound go down slowly, and only once it has dimmed completely he rings the other bell, in the same way letting it extinguish its sound by itself before playing anything else. You can see it in these videos: bell ringer from Vilaplana, bell tower in Vistabella del Maestrat. They can be done differently in different areas of the country, but the important thing is that it's always consistent in the same place because it is recognisable by the inhabitants. Back in the day, they used to play it differently if the person who died was a man, a woman, a little boy, or a little girl. You can hear the child bell ringing in this video: toc d'albat in Banyeres de Mariola (first he plays the one for a little girl and later for a little boy). Now, in most places this bell ringing tends to be done to signal a mass for a dead person is about to begin.

2. The wake (vetlla): when someone has just died, their closest relatives are visited by friends, family, and neighbours to give their condolences and show support. Basically, people will come by throughout the day and stay for a while, talking to the relatives and sharing fond memories of the person who died. The wake is traditionally done in the deceased person's home with the body there present, so people can say their last goodbye. Nowadays, it's often done in a wake room of a funeral parlour, with the deceased person inside the casket (the casket can be open so people can say the last goodbye or it can be closed, it's up to the family). The wake lasts 1 day or at most 2 days.

Here's an unexpected thing I found. I searched on google to see if I could find any image of a wake room to illustrate this, and I found something I didn't know. Apparently, funerary parlours in Barcelona rent both "Catalan-style wake rooms" and "Castilian/Spanish-style wake rooms", which are slightly different. According to the funeral parlour workers interviewed in that article, almost everyone prefers to do it in the Catalan-style ones "because it allows for more proximity to the deceased and because it's how it's always been done", but the larger funerary parlours offer both options to adapt to both cultural groups.

The difference is that in Catalan-style wake rooms the dead person is in a refrigerated barrow that allows the relatives to surround them and get close if they choose to (to leave flowers, to whisper something to them, whatever). In the Spanish-style, the dead person is inside a glass box, which is also refrigerated, but it keeps the person clearly separated from the living.

According to one of the experts interviewed, the origin of this difference is because in Southern Spain it's hotter than in Catalonia, so the flowers die more quickly and need extra refrigeration. I assume this difference is very recent, only since we have refrigeration in the 20th century, because older Spanish paintings show wakes looking the same as the Catalan ones.

Painting Look How Pretty She Was by the Southern Spanish artist Julio Romero de Torres, c. 1895.

2. Ceremony: two days after the person has died, they are buried. First, there is a ceremony. Traditionally, this was a mass done in church, nowadays it depends on how religious the person who died was. It's most often done in a non-religious funerary parlour and the family can choose to include a priest for a part of it or not. The main thing in the ceremony is that the closest relatives stand up to speak about them. Everyone wears black clothes in the ceremony and the funeral, to show they are in mourning. (Relatives may choose to continue wearing mourning clothes for as long as they feel like it after the funeral, back in the day widows specially were expected to wear black for a year or sometimes for the rest of their lives! My grandma has told me that her grandma wore mourning clothes all her life since her father died when she was 9 years old, because after less than a year another relative died, so she started the next mourning, and this happened a few times and by then it was difficult to take the public decision of stop being in mourning).

3. Transport to the burial. Like in all Christian societies, for most of history we used to bury the dead next to the the church. In the early 1800s, it was decided that for hygienic reasons all the cemeteries would be moved outside of the cities/towns. Since then, moving the dead from the place of the ceremony (back then, the church) to the cemetery they would be buried became a very visible part of the process. It was also where you could see the social status and the popularity of the person who had died. The richest people would have very elegant and very decorated funerary carriages with many, many people walking in procession behind them, holding flowers and candles. (My mother has told me before that this is one of the things she remembers a lot in her childhood, seeing the long processions leaving the town to go to the cemetery behind the beach, she described as something that would be very impactful to see). Nowadays, the ceremony is done in funerary parlours, which are usually next to the cemeteries, so the transport is easy and quick. In addition, lots of people are cremated, so the ceremony is done with the ashes urn, which makes it even easier to transport.

4. Burial: while everyone who knew the deceased and their relatives is welcome to the ceremony, the burial is a more intimate moment reserved for the family and the closest friends. People are usually buried in a family niche, though wealthier families might have a family pantheon, and in rural areas you might get buried directly on the ground. Nowadays, there's also other options. One that is becoming increasingly popular is to be buried in the ground with tree seeds in the ash urn, so a tree will grow from the ashes.

Example of a cemetery with its niches. This one is in L'Espluga de Francolí.

I think these steps are the same in all Catholic countries or Southern European countries. It's different from Protestant countries like the USA or England because we do it very quickly (the person is buried 2 or 3 days after the day they died, while in Anglo countries it might take over a month!) and we don't have the cheerful meals we see in American movies, it would feel out of place for us. A meal with the priests, grave-digger, and all the family used to be done 100+ years ago, but it was humble food (lots of areas had their own traditional food for funeral meals but it was always humble, like rice with cod, escudella soup, or dishes based on lentils or chickpeas) and it was a sad situation where people didn't speak much or spoke in a low voice.

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I love these illustrations of Mallorcan traditions.

The first one is Sant Joan Pelut i les Àguiles drawn by Bartolomé Seguí and the second one is the Cossiers dance drawn by Margalida Vinyes. From the exhibition Les festes (il·lustrades) de Mallorca (source).

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This song may be one of the most beautiful anthems in the world, in my opinion.

La Balanguera. Inspired on a traditional Mallorcan song, the lyrics are a poem by Joan Alcover (1854-1926) to which Amadeu Vives added music to in 1926. It became so popular and significant for Mallorcan people -especially in the 1960s when Mallorcans and other Catalans were using music as an instrument in their fight against fascism which has persecuted our culture and language- that in 1996 it was recognised as the official anthem of Mallorca.

It talks about a woman referred to as the “balanguera”. The Balanguera is a character from a traditional Mallorcan song who spins and weaves. The name comes from a confusion of the word “bolangera” (“baker”, a figure that appears in different folk dances of Catalonia and the Valencian Country) and “Berenguera” (the name of some dances of the Mallorcan “cossiers” folk dance).

Here are the lyrics in Catalan and the translation of each stanza to English.

La balanguera, misteriosa, com una aranya d'art subtil, buida que buida sa filosa, de nostra vida treu el fil. Com un parca bé cavil·la, teixint la tela per a demà. La balanguera fila, fila… La balanguera filarà.

The mysterious Balanguera, like a spider of subtle art, empties, oh, empties her spinning wheel and pulls off the thread of our lives. Like a Parca she ponders well, weaving the cloth for tomorrow. The Balanguera spins, spins… the Balanguera will spin.

Girant l'ullada cap enrere, guaita les ombres de l'avior, i de la nova primavera sap on s'amaga la llavor. Sap que la soca més s'enfila com més endins pot arrelar. La balanguera fila, fila. La balanguera filarà.

Turning her glance to the past, she guards the shades of ancestry and of the new spring she knows where the seed is hidden. She knows that the vine-stock climbs up higher the deeper its roots can go. The Balanguera spins, spins, the Balanguera will spin.

De tradicions i d'esperances tix la senyera pel jovent, com qui fa un vel de nuviances amb cabelleres d'or i argent. De la infantesa qui s'enfila, de la vellura qui se'n va. La balanguera fila, fila. La balanguera filarà.

From traditions and from hopes she weaves the flag for the youth [note: the word for “flag” used here is the word that refers to the flag of the Catalans] as one who prepares a wedding veil with hairs of gold and silver. Of the childhood that climbs up, of the old age who goes away. The Balanguera spins, spins, the Balanguera will spin.

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Today, May 29th, marks 100 years since this beautiful song was played in public for the first time ❤️

Today at 8 pm, there are initiatives to sing this song all at the same time in every town and city of Mallorca.

[deathbyoctopi]

Molt interessant!!

Una pregunta, a veure si en saps res… La Balanguera apareix a la façana del Palau de la música, però aquest edifici és força anterior a quan es va afegir la múisca al poema d'Alcover.

Tenia la Balanguera alguna relació amb la música, abans de 1926? (A més, l'Amadeu Vivies era un dels fundadors de l'Orfeó Català, cosa que el conecta encara més al Palau…)

Gràcies per tots aquest fets no gens inútils que comparteixes!!

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No ho coneixia! Gràcies per compartir-ho!

Aquest mosaic (de l'any 1909, com posa al mosaic mateix) és el lloc del Palau de la Música Catalana on hi apareix la Balanguera.

Mira que he passat molts cops per davant del Palau i mai havia vist aquests mosaics! Com que és a un carrer molt estret, costa veure el que hi ha tan amunt.

Tal com descriu la web del Palau de la Música Catalana:

A la part superior d'aquesta façana, un gran frontó en mosaic de Lluís Bru simbolitza la senyera de l'Orfeó, obra d'Antoni Maria Gallissà, i al centre una reina presidint una festa amb una filosa, en al·lusió a La Balanguera, poema de Joan Alcover i Maspons, amb música del compositor Amadeu Vives, una de les peces més interpretades per l'Orfeó i que des del 1996 és l'himne oficial de Mallorca.

Com has dit @deathbyoctopi, al moment en què es va fer aquest mosaic La Balanguera encara era un poema, no una cançó.

No he pogut trobar gaire informació, però imagino que van agafar aquesta imatge com a símbol catalanista. Tot el Palau sempre va fent referències a la música tradicional catalana i a la música clàssica i moderna internacional, amb la idea que el Palau ha de ser un lloc que ens faci arribar la innovació musical del món a Catalunya però també un lloc on hi tingui igual presència la nostra pròpia música d'arrel tradicional (una qüestió de classe, també, ja que la cançó popular de transmissió oral és la pròpia de la classe treballadora durant segles i el Palau es construeix al barri de Sant Pere, un dels barris més obrers de la Barcelona de l'època). Per això la preciosa escultura d'en Miquel Blay, que representa a tot el poble català (sota la protecció de Sant Jordi) darrere la figura que representa la Cançó: homes i dones de totes les edats, vestits representant diferents oficis (pagesos, pescadors...). Tota la població és qui ha fet la Cançó Popular.

Al mosaic de la Balanguera es veu també molt clara la referència catalanista: representa un concert de l'Orfeó (es veuen els cantants en fila, ben vestits, aguantant la partitura i la Senyera de l'Orfeó, amb el públic davant) amb Montserrat al fons, la senyera al mig... La idea de la Balanguera com a "reina" em fa pensar molt en els Jocs Florals, que els presidia una dona jove que havia estat escollida com a reina.

Suposo que a l'hora de buscar com representar una al·legoria que encaixés en aquesta escena, la Balanguera del poema és la imatge perfecta. La veritat és que és un poema que dibuixa una imatge molt clara i bonica, així que té sentit!

Però em sembla súper curiós que s'inclogués la Balanguera a la façana abans de saber que la versió musicada, que acabaria convertint-se en l'himne que és, s'estrenaria justament allà!

(Les fotos són extretes de la web del Palau de la Música)

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Corpus holiday being celebrated in the city of Badalona, Catalonia.

Many towns and cities in Catalonia and other historically-Catholic countries celebrate Corpus creating flower carpets.

Video by vidabadalona on Instagram.

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Like in the other parts of the Catalan countries, Valencians celebrate Corpus Christi with parades of the locals dancing traditional dances and carrying religious statues. But some towns and cities in the Valencian Country have a unique dance: la dansa de la Moma.

The Moma is a figure dressed in white that symbolizes Virtue, and is surrounded by the 7 momos, figures dressed in red and black that represent the 7 Vices. They dance to a very simple song played only with dolçaina (a kind of flute) and tabal (a kind of drum). The dance represents the fight between Virtue and the Sins.

You can watch a video of the dance here.

Photos from Xàtiva, Valencian Country.

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Photos and short video showing the Dance of the Eagles and Hairy Saint John (Ball de les àguiles i Sant Joan Pelós) parading in Pollença, Mallorca (Balearic Islands).

The most characteristic element in Pollença's procession for the festivity of Corpus Sunday is this dance. The procession walks the streets and squares of the town which inhabitants decorate with palm and pine leafs, and is met with flower petals that the inhabitants throw from the windows and balconies.

What does the dance represent?

There are three characters. First, Hairy Saint John. He's a barefoot man with long hair wearing the Saint John costume, a wooden mask, with red lines drawn on his feet and legs to represent sandals, and carrying a wooden cross and a shepherd's bag with a lamb inside it. He represents Saint John the Baptist, a preacher who lived an austere life and lead the ritual of baptism in Jesus's times. He dances for the whole time the procession lasts.

He is followed by the eagles: two girls who have the figure of an eagle attached to their waist. The girls are selected to look as similar to each other as possible, with twins being preferred. They perform a very simple dance while playing the castanets (they will perform a more complex dance in the church and in the houses of important people of the town).

These girls wear a dress with many embroidered jewels on the head, torso, and hands. These jewels are given by people from Pollença as offerings some days before Corpus when the girls go house by house performing a dance. The jewels then are embroidered on the clothes and will be returned to their owners after the holiday. As a result of these jewels, the clothes the girls wear weight up to 5 kg.

Why so many jewels?

This has to do with the origin of this dance. Originally, this dance used to be performed on the festivity of Saint John (Midsummer) instead of Corpus. Around the Catalan Countries, it used to be common to lay coins and other gold objects under the sun on the festivity of Saint John, which was said to propitiate the wealth to multiply. It's thought that the eagles wear all these golden jewels because of this.

Photos and information from festes.org.

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One of the groups that take part in València's traditional procession on the festivity of Corpus Christi is the "Cirialots". These 26 kings dressed in a tunic, long white wigs and beards, and a crown represent the elderly men of the Apocalypse as narrated in Saint John's gospel. The procession candles they carry are 2,65 meters tall and weight 15 kilos!

Video and information from A Punt. More information from Festes de València.

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June is apricot season 🍑

One of the ways to use this fruit is in coques (Catalan sweet brioche). Though they're also eaten in other parts of the Catalan Countries, apricot coques are most common in the Balearic Islands, where they are one of the most typical summer pastries.

Photo by Lola Escudero in Calendari l'Ermità. Recipe (in Catalan) in the link.

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Hello, I saw some news that the government of Catalunya wants to require knowledge of catalan for renewal after the giant regularization coming up for migrants in Spain. I was wondering how Catalan people feel about this or if you have any thoughts? Thank you!!

Hi! I wouldn't be able to say how most Catalan people feel about it because it's not a topic that has been widely discussed afaik, probably because of how unrealistic it is. In the Spanish system, the competencies on immigration are held by the central Spanish Government, not by the regional governments, so Catalonia doesn't have competencies on immigration. The vote that was going to be held in the Government of Catalonia was a symbolic vote to spark a debate about how to include newly arrived immigrants into our language community, but it wasn't binding. Either way, it didn't pass because most parties voted demanding it.

So things continue the way they were: it is mandatory for immigrants to pass a Spanish exam (unless they're here through marriage or are given a high-paying job). So it's mandatory for them to learn Spanish but not the language of the place they actually move to, if they move to any of the nations that have their own language outside Spanish. This means that when they have to prioritize which language to learn, they will have to prioritize Spanish even if they live in areas that are mostly Catalan-speaking.

There is a lot of talk about how to make immigrants want to learn our language and become part of our community, because quite a lot of them see it as useless since most Catalan people also speak the dominant language (Spanish) and they think we can just change our language when they're around. But the opinions about it are more about making classes more easily accessible (the first levels are already offered for free in every city and county, but some people point out that there should be more courses available at different hours so they can be compatible with all sorts of work schedules, which is difficult with the limited funding we get for language), saying that employers should offer classes as well to their workers, raising awareness, promoting the language volunteer programmes, asking employers to demand the workers who work facing the public (like waiters or retail) know the basics to be able to do their jobs in Catalan when it's the case, demanding that doctors and nurses know Catalan to reduce the medical discrimination against Catalan speakers, etc. but it's not common to hear people bring up making it mandatory through law besides the case of doctors and nurses.

Either way, what is undoubtable is that the future of the Catalan language depends on being able to convince immigrants to join our community. 1 out of 4 people living in Catalonia were born outside of the state of Spain, higher if we look at young people (42% of young people —between ages 20 and 44— living in Catalonia were born outside the state of Spain). The numbers would be higher if we counted the people born in Spain outside of Catalonia or Catalan-speaking areas, but that data isn't included in the statistics. The number of immigration is likely to continue the trend of going up, so you see it's a high number and that's why it's important to focus effort on convincing them to join the Catalan language community, not only Spanish one.

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I just wanted to thank you for running this blog!! It's been a really indispensable source for finding digestible information about Catalonia for writing purposes for my TTRPG character who's from Barcelona 💕 (And being able to share cool facts with other players about my character's home culture!!!)

Thank you! I'm glad to see you enjoy it and it is useful for you ☺️

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Getting dressed to perform the traditional Valencian dance of La Moma (read about it in this post).

Photo by Indumentat