Life in Barcelona

Easter is coming in only 2 weeks…and, certainly, Barcelona will be ready to welcome this holiday, which is noted in all Spanish calendars. It is a religious holiday, and it is amazing if you have the chance to see the numerous processions that take place every year throughout Spain.

Barcelona celebrates Easter enthusiastically (normally accompanied with very nice weather), the city is crowded with people celebrating these religious days. There are a lot of activities organized during the holidays that you cannot miss!

When I was younger, I remember going to church and spending my Sunday morning shaking the palm leaves, which signify palm sunday or ‘Domingo de Ramos’. My family is very catholic and obviously, I used to participate in all of the many religious activities. However, what I appreciate the most when Easter is coming is, without any doubt, “la Mona de Pascua”. La Mona is a Catalan tradition and normally involves exchanging large chocolate eggs and cakes - normally between a godparent and their godchild.

You do find chocolate eggs throughout the world at Easter time, but things have evolved in Barcelona, and nowadays you can find many different shapes and sizes. For example, you can find famous personalities made out of chocolate such as politicians, sports people or actors. I remember seeing some amazing and big “monas” like Ronaldinho, Fernando Alonso, Antonio Banderas or even a chocolate Camp Nou stadium!!

What it is also surprising is the price of the “monas”. The big ones of famous people are very very expensive, but it’s quiet understandable if you imagine all the chocolate they need to make them. No doubt, they are made by famous artists!!

So now i’m looking forward to have an amazing time during semana santa in my city, Barcelona…and you can be sure that I will! Also, I’m going to start thinking about what kind of “mona” I would like this year…The Camp Nou would be nice, it has to be great to eat The Camp Nou

/Iñaki

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Festivities, General Barcelona. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.