Thursday 30 June 2011

Chorpus Christi and Sitges’ Love for Flowers


Among the more unusual things which people in Sitges (Garraf) claim to love dearly, we find carnations (clavells, in Catalan). These emotions take their expression in large amounts of this type of flower being spread out in the streets in colourful so called carpets (catifes de flors) in connection with Corpus Christi. This year, however, even this even this wealthy Catalan town had to cut back on its level of ambition, due to limitations in the budget.

The tradition has a long history linked to the church but has reached its current splendour after 1952 when the Sitges Tourism Agency started to promote it actively. Nowadays it is one of the folk festivities which attract the biggest number of non-local visitors.

The celebration ends with a procession which walks over - and thus destroys - the flower carpets until it reaches the altar standing in the middle of the decoration on Cap de Vila. The task to decorate this natural hub of the town is by tradition dedicated to a local organization which has achieved something special. In 2011 this honor went to the library Santiago Rusiñol, celebrating its 75th anniversary.






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Read more in Catalan: Festes.org

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