La Mercé Festival
The capital of Catalonia has historically enjoyed the festive parades and traditional shows that have filled its streets with comedies and symbolic staging presentations since the Middle Ages. As the start to the traditional dances held in Barcelona during La Mercè (Mercèdance), all the groups invited to the festival participate in a joint parade to show the bonds that tie the cultures of this great region.
Legend has it that on the night of the 24th of September in 1218, the Virgin of Mercè appeared simultaneously to King Jaume I, Saint Pere Nolasc and Saint Ramon de Penyafort. She told all three to set up an order of monks dedicated to saving Christians held prisoner by the Sarracens. It was a time of religious wars. Centuries later, in 1687, Barcelona suffered a plague of locusts, and the people put themselves in the hands of the Virgen of Mercè. When the plague was over, the City Council named her the patron of Barcelona. However the Pope did not ratify this decision until two centuries later, in 1868.
After Pope Pius IX declared the Virgen of Mercè the patron of the city, Barcelona started to celebrate the festival on September 24th. On this day, the different popular groups go out into the street to celebrate and perform. We particularly recommend the performance of the castellers (typical Catalan human constructions) from 12:30pm in Barcelona’s la Plaza de Sant Jaume. As a festive close to La Mercè, giants, large headed figures, dragons and figures of all kinds come out in procession in a true moving show of the traditional culture of the city of Barcelona.
La Mercè is a Festival of festivals, which puts on hundreds of activities such as the following:
Barcelona Musical Action: to discover new sound proposals.
Barcelona Street Arts: with artists who perform within reach of the audience.
The Festival of Tradition: human towers, capgrossos (dwarves with big heads), giants and an entire menagerie of festive animals, accompanied by guests from Mediterranean countries.
The Festival in the Sky: acrobatic gathering including jets, balloons and gliders.
The Festival of Fire: all types of sparks, from the pyrotechnical music show to the correfoc (literally a fire-run).
