Sweet rain will be organized in Barcelona

Sweet rain will be organized in Barcelona

La Festa de Sant Medir holiday will be held in Barcelona on 3 March. It is the most popular holiday after Christmas and New Year. And it is not only because of festive processions and festivities, which are usually held in the Calle Grande de Gracia district. Fiesta San Medir is a dream of any child or just a sweet tooth because during the parade literally tons of candies are thrown into the crowd. Many spectators even take umbrellas with them to protect from the sweet rain, although some use inverted umbrellas as a net for sweets.

La Festa de Sant Medir has been annually celebrated in Spain for two centuries, and now, of course, a beautiful legend explains why the festival started. In the eighteenth century in a small village near Barcelona confectioner Jose Vidal got serious illness, and when local doctors failed to help him he turned in prayer to the holy Medir (Emeterio). Confectioner vowed that if he recovers, each year he would make the pilgrimage to the temple in the city of Santander, where the tomb of the saint is located, and during his travel would tell everyone about the miracle of people to make people’s faith stronger. After the recovery on March 3 Jose saddled his donkey and went to the temple. He also took with him a large bag full of homemade sweets and treated with them all people and talked about his miraculous healing. One year later Jose Vidal went for the pilgrimage with the whole family. This time the carriage was escorted by servants playing on musical instruments and, of course, there were a lot of sweets. Gradually the festival became more crowded and colorful until it reached the current state, which everyone can see on March 3 on the streets of Barcelona.

Ilya Kozlovskiy

Date: 21/02/2012