Traditions and anniversaries in La Mercè's popular culture programme

Tradition is celebrating. And not only because Barcelona is celebrating the Festa Major, but also because some of the popular culture events scheduled for this year refer to important anniversaries, including the celebration of the six hundredth anniversary of the first documented appearance of the Gegants in a Barcelona procession and the six hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the City Eagle. Come and celebrate it in the traditional programme of La Mercè.

Tradition will be the protagonist of a festival that begins after the Festa Major proclamation, which will be given by the illustrator Carme Solé Vendrell. This year’s celebrations recall the first appearances of large figures in religious processions. These figures, they say, allude to biblical episodes, starting with the well-known confrontation between David and Goliath. From here to the Gegants we know today is only one step. In Barcelona there was the first documented appearance on the planet of a Gegant, and that was six hundred years ago today. What better way to celebrate it than to bring together gegants from all over the world?

In the streets of Barcelona you will see characters that are part of cultures from all over the world: from warriors and samurai from Asia to African ritual totems, from the gigantonas of Nicaragua to the Carnival giants of Brazil and the Samsons of Austria. If you want to know how this tradition, which is especially linked to the history of Barcelona, is expressed in other parts of the world, don’t miss the International Giant Meeting on 21 and 22 September in Plaça de Sant Jaume.

Among the events not to be missed are the Cavalcade of La Mercè on 24 September, but also the 74th Sardanes contest (22 September in the avinguda de la Catedral) and, on the same day, the Diada Històrica Castellera, as this year the guests are the Colla Jove Xiquets de Valls and the Minyons de Terrassa. Finally, the 24th of September is the traditional Diada Castellera de la Mercè, in which all the Barcelona’s castle groups take part.

Some celebrations remind us of other important anniversaries: one is the two-hundredth anniversary of Josep Anselm Clavé, a musician to whom one of the exhibitions of La Mercè 2024 will be dedicated, and to whom the zarzuela L’aplec del Remei will be performed on the 23rd.

Now, if you like anniversary celebrations, come and dance at the one organised by L’Àliga de la Ciutat, which is celebrating its 650th anniversary in Plaça de Sant Jaume on Sunday 22 September.  It’s L’Àliga se’n va de festa a ball and parade and a new festive experience in which the most important thing (after the Eagle) is your participation.

If you don’t want to miss the traditional events of La Mercè 2024, you can find all the information about the programmed activities at this link.