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 iving,
spontaneous and renewed, the Catalan popular culture is present
north and south of the Pyrénées. This culture
holds an ethnological content for the scholar and an exotic
content in the eyes of the tourist spectators. In reality, the
Catalan culture is playful and social. Once a year the women
and men who wish to participate in community life assemble for
la festa major. Originally bound to the patron saints of each
town or village in North Catalonia, the festa major follows
a programme which includes sardanes (traditional Catalan dances),
balls, sporting tournaments and various meetings. This celebration,
the highlight of the year, plays a role of liberty and takes
place regardless of the public authorities. The festa major
was revived to maintain Catalan traditions and is open to modernity
because it is the contemporary aspects that will enable it to
perpetuate.
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| The
correfoc |
The
revival of Catalan culture is demonstrated by the correfoc,
large fireworks displays animated more by diables and grallers
(street musicians). Unknown in North Catalonia at the start
of the 1990s, the correfoc is influenced by South Catalonia
and now features in many festa majors. The renewal of the traditions
is also characterised by the gegants (giants) of Perpignan,
Les Angles and Villefranche. These great figures of history
have been fully restored to active life through the push from
the south, giving them the chance to meet with the gegants of
South Catalonia on the occasion of the trobades geganteres.
The range of popular culture is completed by a single event
which was formally held throughout the Pyrenees and is now perpetuated
only in North Catalonia, Andorra and the Caucase region. The
Festa de l’Os (the Festival of the Bear) climaxes in all the
crazy tumultuousness of the carnival in the Vallespir region.
This festival illustrates the bear coming out of hibernation
and into the world of man in a ritualistic and exact parade.
A bear hunt puts an end to the festival which makes for an emotional
rediscovery in the towns of Prats de Molló, Arles and
Saint Llorenc de Cerda.
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