Wednesday 25 June 2008

The Sound of Sant Joan / El so de Sant Joan

Last year I wrote extensively about the how Catalans celebrate the revetlla de Sant Joan. Since my wife had to work late on Monday evening we had decided to celebrate in a calm way.

In the afternoon, the children and I went out looking for groups of youngsters firing off crackers – while I consider them a nuisance, our five-year-old is totally excited with the bangs – but found surprisingly few of them this year. That all changed after the sun had set – from around ten o’clock there was a constant noise outside.

The fireworks in my You Tube clip are not impressive - what we see on the revetlla de Sant Joan in Vilanova is all paid for by individuals, i.e. the local authorities do not fund any show. Instead, what I want to draw your attention to is the constant sound of crackers and I can add that it comes from all around the town. At two o’clock, when we decided to go to bed, we still could not count more than three seconds in between the explosions.

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El nivell de so (o, a vegades, soroll), és una cosa a la qual un suec té grans problemes per adaptar-se a Catalunya. Per això, durarà molts anys abans que us digui que la revetlla de Sant Joan – una festa que vaig presentar ja l’any passat (només en anglès) - m’agradi.

Ara bé, enguany penso que Vilanova es va quedar relativament tranquil·la per la tarda. Al nostre fill gran li fa molta il·lusió els coets de Sant Joan, ja que n'havien parlat a la escola, i la veritat és que vaig haver de fer un passeig amb els nens, del qual l’únic objectiu era de trobar joves llençants petards.

A mitjanit, després d’haver passat molta estona al balcó mirant el cel, el fill gran va finalment tenir-ne prou. “Jo vull dormir. Que no pensen gaire a mi?”, ens va preguntar.



Technorati tags: Catalonia, Catalunya

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