The Diada Nacional de Catalunya, 2006

Catalunya is the only place I know that celebrates its own defeat: on September 11, 1714, Barcelona surrendered to Spain in the nine- year- long War of Succession.

Today, Catalunya commemorates this with memorials, speeches and gatherings.

You truly feel the pride of the Catalonian and their wish to be independent from Spain, even today. This pride is shown by displaying the flag everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

carrer Verdi, Barcelona, 2006

The flag of Catalunya is called the senyera, meaning sign and is treasured by many Catalans.

I have been told the senyera’s stripes represent four bloodied fingers smeared on a shield. In my research for this blog I found inconsistencies in how the flag’s design originated. Click HERE to read one of its colorful stories.

Anyway, while taking a walk we found ourselves at the Plaça de la Revolució, in the barrio Gràcia, where there was a wonderful crowd mostly of young persons, listening to Catalan music.

Plaça de la Revolució, Barcelona, 2006

I shot a video where you will hear the music, a speech in Catalan, (even if you don’t understand it, hearing the language is a treat), see a little of the plaça and the attentive crowd.

So click HERE for the QuickTime video.

Enjoy!!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Catalunya’s carrer de Verdi y Robí, 2006

THE WINNER!!!!

Verdi Rocks!

Last in a series of the Festa Major de Gràcia, 2006!!

Placed 1st in the Best Decorated Street entry category and 1st for Creativity and Best Decorated Ceiling at the Festa Major de Gràcia, 2006.

What a night it was the night I went to see the displays at carrer de Verdi/Robí.

The night before the very last night, my camera, my partner and I barreled over to Verdi: How exhilarating, invigorating, enlivening, exciting and electrifying the evening was! It was also a turn-on.

So different was this street when the neighbors (vecinos) were setting everything up for the festa. We saw the workers slaving away on their displays and putting together the ghooly Star-Trekky-type-space-aliens.

There were jillions of folks of all ages, sizes, shapes and genders holding hands, dancing, and singing.

You could feel the music, thunderous, pulsating, fresh-from-the-jungle music that made it a veritable moral obligation to shimmy, sway and swing.

If you don’t believe me, think I’ve gone berserk with my verbs, check out my video proof.



Click HERE!

Did I forget to mention the gigantic hullabaloos of balloons, gargantuan portions of eats and oceans of drink everywhere the eye could hear, the ears to sing to?

If I don’t mention the lights, you’ll send a firing squad up before me. And what would happen then?? Lights lit up the Aliens, (definitely not of this or any other world), breathtaking lights that made these Un-humans appear to be aflame with fun and fun-loving.

Ah … check out the video, click HERE for the cine.

I invite you to click the link below for additional photos on FLICKR.

View barcalunacy's Catalunya’s carre de Verdi y Robi, 2006 FLCKR photoset.

Catalunya’s carrer de Joan Blanques y Congost, 2006

Placed 3th in the Best Decorated Street category at the Festa Major de Gràcia, 2006.

I Love what was done.

My Konica Minolta Dimage Z2 loves it also.

I find vivid colors and shadows irresistible and on carre Joan Blanques y Congost, colors and shadows were everywhere.

carre de Joan Blanques y Congost Barcelona, 2006

The vecinos (neighbors) took great care in decorating their street, and you can feel it.

Even I, a grown-up, enjoyed this wonderful display.

There are times when I’m at a loss for words, and this, being one of those times, is when I hope my photos will speak for me.

Click on the link below to view more photos.

View barcalunacy's Catalunya’s carre de Joan Blanques y Congost, 2006 FLICKR photoset.

Enjoy!