Una conxorxa d'enzes

Publicat el 2 de maig de 2023 a DiariMes (Més Tarragona)

 

Boscos

Pubicat a DiariMés el 27 d'abril de 2023 

Camins de ferro

 Publicat a DiariMés el 20 d'abril de 2023

Festivitats i celebracions

 

Nivells

Publicat a DiariMés en 27 de març de 2023

 

Holidays in Tarragona

Holidays in Tarragona

Tarragona is a very festive community. Throughout the year, every five or six weeks we celebrate one festival or another.

Right after New Year’s, the 6th of January (Christmas Fortnight) we celebrate the coming of the Three Wise Men, and that is when children get their gifts. There is a very feisty cavalcade with thousands of people in the streets, The Three Wise men (“The Three Kings”) give away candy and they are received in the City Hall by the mayor.

A few weeks later we have the carnivals (“Mardí grass”, which lasts from Thursday to next Tuesday) with several parades and parties.

Next is the Holy Week, about Easter. Initially, is a religious festivity with processions of polychromed images reproducing the Passion of Christ, carried on the shoulders of de devotees and accompanied by members of the congregations dressed in tunics with peaked masks of penitents, carrying torches (main day Holy Friday). The Easter weekend lasts until the Monday after, when people celebrate eating outdoor grilled meat, and godfathers are supposed to present their godchildren with a special cake with chocolate eggs and chocolate figurines.

The 23rd of April is Saint George’s Day, the patron saint of Catalonia. Is the “festa” of the books and roses. People give each other a book and a rose (usually him to her…although that’s getting a bit politically incorrect and feminists reject it or do it both ways). There set up bookstands in the main walkways, and popular best-seller authors present their newest works. Local ones sign the books for customers.

By mid-May we have the Tarraco Viva festival, a two-week succession of shows, conferences, and other exhibitions recreating the Roman times, reenacting gladiator fights, military exercises by dressed-up Roman soldiers and centurions, and food stands serving “Roman” food.

The 24th of June is Saint John’s Day (Night ). Actually is a very ancient celebration of the summer solstice popular around the Mediterranean from before Christianism. There are bonfires and fireworks and rowdy parties on the beaches at night.

All through July and August there are “verbenas”, in Catalan “revetlles”, very popular night parties of music and dancing in different locations of the city and surrounding neighbourhoods.

The 19th of August is the so-called, “Little Big Feast”, supposedly Saint Magi’s Day (but I think rather that remembers the anniversary of the death of Caesar Augustus, just another piece of religious syncretism, and has been going on for some 2000 years). There are parades and exhibitions of a whole bunch of totemic animals (dragons, crowned eagles, monsters, and other beasts) as well as the human castles (“castells”), towers of up to nine people one on top of the other, every level manned by lighter individuals until the top, usually 5-year-olds brave enough to climb all the way up. There are “castells” all through the summer season all over Catalonia, with a biennial “world series” held every second October in Tarragona.

The 11 of September is Catalonia National Holiday, a political festivity. There are ceremonies dedicated to former leaders of the independent Catalonia, laying of flower wreaths at the monuments and, in the past ten years or so, the occasion for huge rallies with more than two million people in the streets, usually in Barcelona, claiming for the independence of our country from the Kingdom of Spain.

The week that ends on the 23rd of September is Festa Major of Saint Tecla, the big celebration of the city. There are parades, processions, art exhibitions, “castells”, concerts of rock or pop music, and other popular events, some of the old traditions only understood by locals (“Dames i Vells”, that is Ladies and Old Men, a sort of theatrical show called “ball parlat”, a dance without dancing, only words, criticising everyone and everything in the city in a very rude, coarse, mocking and obscene way), and quite a bit of drinking. Again another example of cultural syncretism, as the 23 of September is the anniversary of the birth of Caesar Augustus.

All Souls is also an ancient celebration, the 1st of November, dedicated to the dead (The Dead’s Day actually is the 2nd of November). Nowadays a bit adulterated by the influence of North American Halloween, used to be more of a family reunion celebrated by eating some very tasty pastries called “panellets” (little breads), and dry nuts, mainly hazelnuts and roasted chestnuts. Some people will go out to parks and woods for the celebration called “castanyada” (“castanya” is Catalan for chestnuts).

And then Christmas.

All throughout the year the citizens of Tarragona will use every opportunity to have a typical good meal that implies some sort of festivity or celebration. In winter are the “calçotades” and in spring and summer the “paellas”. Particularly over the weekend, as people have to work, there is always a good reason to enjoy a meal and friends or family around a table. 

Personal assistencial

 

El final del principi

Publicat a DiariMés el 23 de egener de 2023 

Tolerancia

Tolerància

Cuando todo indica que, en el lío de la realidad, te encuentras en la coherencia de lo que tú crees con lo que, también tú, puedes observar, te acercas a la razón. Es cierto que lo que observas puede ser erróneo o, al menos y casi siempre, parcial. La percepción tiende a hacerse selectiva y acomodar lo que percibimos con lo que pensamos. Aquí puede fallar la crítica y desviarnos de la realidad o derribarnos en errores notables.

A veces el recurso puede ser la comparación de lo que ideamos con lo que idean otros. Y, sobre todo, si esos otros son muchos. El poder de lo que piensa la mayoría es innegable.

Pero también ocurre que las mayorías yerran. O porque carecen de la información, o porque se les ha ofrecido sesgada o, también, porque en determinados momentos históricos, grandes mayorías tienden a instalarse en el error. Es entonces cuando el disidente es marginado.

Irremediablemente, es necesario moverse hacia situaciones o casos concretos, en el espacio y en el tiempo: una situación actual es la proliferación en Europa de fenómenos de lo que se conoce como "populismo", y que se percibe como indeseable.

Parecería como si ofrecer a la gente lo que la gente prefiere no debería ser malo. Sin embargo, el recurso a los sentimientos llamados "más bajos" conduce a catástrofes. La altura o la bajada de estos sentimientos varía según sean exclusivos, excluyentes, condicionados por pequeñeces de la vida diaria, contrapuestos a otros más amplios, abiertos, universales, compartidos y compartibles, transtemporales.

Los movimientos populistas europeos se mueven a la línea de una defensa a ultranza del statu quo y una limitación de los fenómenos que puedan moverlo, como los movimientos migratorios que se han ido desarrollando en los últimos dos o tres decenios, el acceso de las mujeres en puestos de responsabilidad, la libertad de expresión, la diversidad sexual y otros. No lo soportan.

De hecho, no lo toleran porque, por definición y designio, son intolerantes. Lo que nos lleva a ver que la principal condición, lo esencial para la convivencia, es la tolerancia. Sufren de la carencia de una calidad natural qué es el respeto a la diversidad. Al creer en la igualdad, lejos de la comodidad de la uniformidad, lo diferente les genera intranquilidad, desasosiego, desazón. De hecho, a muchas personalidades simples les da miedo que les puedan considerar "diferentes" a sí mismos, como si la diversidad fuera una enfermedad contagiosa.

De la tríada republicana: libertad, igualdad y fraternidad, no entienden que se necesitan las tres a la vez. De lo contrario, es una simplificación. La libertad debe permitir opciones, naturalmente diversas. La igualdad lo es de los derechos y obligaciones, éstas proporcionadas a cada uno. La fraternidad, teniendo en cuenta que, históricamente y desde los hermanos Caín y Abel, los lazos de sangre no la garantizan, puede fácilmente sustituirse por la solidaridad.

Pero es la tolerancia, contemplar que existen otras realidades y que todas pueden ser igualmente válidas, la que te acercará más a la razón y a la realidad.

Tolerance:

When everything indicates that, in the mess of reality, you find yourself in the coherence of what you believe with what you, too, can observe, you come closer to reason. It is true that what you observe can be wrong or, at least and almost always, partial. Perception tends to become selective and accommodate what we perceive with what we think. Here criticism can fail and deviate from reality or topple us in notable errors.

Sometimes the resource can be the comparison of what we devise with what others devise. And, above all, if those others are many. The power of what the majority thinks is undeniable.

But it also happens that majorities err. Or because they lack the information, or because it has been offered to them biased, or because at certain historical moments, great majorities tend to settle in error. It is then when the dissident is marginalized.

Inevitably, it is necessary to move towards specific situations or cases, in space and time: a current situation is the proliferation in Europe of the phenomenon known as "populism", which is perceived as undesirable.

It would seem as if offering people what people prefer shouldn't be a bad thing. However, the recourse to the so-called "lower" feelings leads to catastrophes. The height or descent of these feelings varies depending on whether they are exclusive, excluding, or conditioned by trifles of daily life, as opposed to other broader, open, universal, shared and shareable, transtemporal ones.

The European populist movements move to the line of a staunch defence of the status quo and a limitation of the phenomena that can move it, such as the migratory movements that have developed in the last two or three decades, the access of women in positions of responsibility, freedom of expression, sexual diversity and others. They can't stand it.

In fact, they don't tolerate it because, by definition and design, they are intolerant. This leads us to see that the main condition, essential for coexistence, is tolerance. They suffer from the lack of a natural quality which is respect for diversity. By believing in equality, far from the comfort of uniformity, what is different generates restlessness, restlessness, and discomfort. In fact, many simple personalities are afraid that they might be considered "different" to themselves as if diversity were a contagious disease.

From the republican triad: liberty, equality, and fraternity, they do not understand that all three are needed at the same time. Otherwise, it's a simplification. Freedom must allow options, naturally diverse. Equality is of rights and obligations, these provided to each one. Fraternity, taking into account that, historically, and since the brothers Cain and Abel, blood ties do not guarantee it, it can easily be replaced by solidarity.

But it is tolerance, contemplating that there are other realities and that they can all be equally valid, which will bring you closer to reason and reality.

Xavier Allué
Novembre 2022

El preu de la vida

 Publicat el 30 de novembre 2022, a DiariMés