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"The Hail Mary (Pyrenees)" (L'Avemaria (Pirineus)), c. 1909 by the Catalan artist Nicolau Raurich.

People from Berga (Central Catalonia) jump and sing along to the nans (figure from some traditional Catalan festivities where dancers wear a hollow big head mask) during their local festivities called La Patum, which Berga has been celebrating annually on the day of Corpus Christi since the year 1452. Video by rosa_lafotografica on Instagram.

With this video, I wanted to comment on one of the most difficult aspects to show when I talk about traditions and festivities in this blog. Look at the way that people are dancing and singing and completely involved in the situation. After all, for an outsider it will look like what is happening at the moment is "only" four people dancing while wearing big heads, and might not understand the excitement and emotion of everyone who comes to see it in the square.

During the same holiday, in this same square, the guita dragon will dance its solemn dance while all the people watch in complete silence, and you can see some people with tears of emotion running down their cheeks.

Can you see the top layer? That's an element that you can find in many dishes of Catalan cuisine: the picada.

The word picada means "pounded" or "crushed", since it is made by pounding nuts, herbs, and more in a mortar. Then, the crushed mix is added to a more elaborate dish when it's near the end of its cooking time, so it will cook together adding flavour, making the broth/gravy thicker, and making all the solid and liquid elements of the dish come together more nicely.

Picades are commonly used in meat, fish, vegetables, legume, rice, and soups, making it one of the essential techniques of Catalan cuisine. Almond-based picades, like the one in this photo, are a common element in Catalan food since at least the Middle Ages, as it can be seen in Medieval Catalan recipe books.

There are many types of picades, but some of the most common ingredients are the following. The picada should have a combination of different elements:

Hard elements: toasted almonds or hazelnuts, pine nuts, toasted or lightly fried bread (bread from a couple days ago that has gone hard might be reused for this purpose), or carquinyoli (hard almond biscuit).

Flavourful herbs, spices, or others: garlic, fresh parsley, ñora pepper (dry kind of pepper), black pepper, saffron, cinnamon, chocolate, anchovy, cooked liver, dry orange peel.

Liquid: broth (from the dish you're cooking or other stock), olive oil, ratafia (herbs alcohol), ranci wine, hot water.

You can see an example of how it's made in this video from a Catalan recipe YouTube channel.

Montrebei canyon (Congost de Montrebei), the geographical feature that acts as a border between la Franja on the West and Catalonia on the East.

The dragon of La Geltrú's dance for festa major holiday. Video posted by this dragon's dancers' group on their Instagram.

Festa major is one of the most loved holidays in Catalan culture. Each town celebrates it on the day of their patron saint with traditional Catalan dances that change from area to area and sometimes even from town to town. They are especially celebrated in the Southern half of Catalonia, with fire dances (devils) and fire beasts (dragons and some other legendary creatures) as well as other dances.

Each dance is accompanied by their musician band, which includes different traditional instruments (gralles —a shawm wind instrument—, bagpipes, different kinds of drums, flabiol —a small flipple flute—, etc) but for the fire dances, because of their devilish nature, they're accompanied only by drums.

A beach in Comarques Gironines, Catalonia.

Clotilde Watching Venus of Milo (1897-1898) by the Valencian artist Joaquín Sorolla. Clotilde is Sorolla's wife.

When the Catalan folklorist Joan Amades (1890-1959) went around the Catalan Countries collecting beliefs, traditions, and superstitions, he found that in many places it was common to bury people with certain objects that the deceased could use to bribe Saint Peter.

Saint Peter is the saint who Christians believe guards the gates of Heaven. He decides who gets in and who stays out. So it's important to be on his good side!

Here are the traditions that Joan Amades compiled in his book about death customs:

Bury the dead with tobacco so they can give it to Saint Peter, because the saint loves to smoke with his pipe. Alternatively, in some places they said to put both the tobacco and a pipe in the dead person's pockets.

If a child dies, put sweets in their coffin so the kid can give them to Saint Peter and make sure to be let into Heaven.

For prostitutes, the ethnologist says: "Among brothel women, it is a widespread belief that, even with their sins, they will be allowed into Heaven if they preserve one of the graces that they refuse to cheerfully waste in their lifetimes, so that they can give it to the gravedigger -according to some- or to Saint Peter -according to others. It is a grace which we do not dare to specify". Oh well, we will have to imagine what it was!

The fact that we have as much as we do is the result of the fight of previous generations, as with everything we have!