{"id":47775,"date":"2023-12-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.11onze.cat\/?p=47775"},"modified":"2023-12-28T08:09:22","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T07:09:22","slug":"origins-sant-esteve-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.11onze.cat\/en\/magazine\/origins-sant-esteve-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"The origins of the Sant Esteve festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Where does the tradition of celebrating Sant Esteve come from, and why is it such a deeply-rooted festival in Catalonia? S\u00edlvia Garriga, 11Onze agent, explains the origins of this festivity, both in terms of holidays and gastronomy.<\/b><\/h3>\n

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At Christmas, every sheep to its pen, and for Sant Esteve, every person to his house. This popular saying places the celebration of the festival of Sant Esteve immediately after the Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus, which falls on 25 December. This is <\/span>a unique tradition in the Catalan calendar that links us to our Carolingian past in the 8th and 9th centuries.<\/b><\/p>\n

Unlike the rest of the Christian Iberian Peninsula, which was governed by the Goths and had the bishopric of Toledo as a reference point, during the 9th century, <\/span>Catalonia was under the protection of the Carolingian empire, founded by Charlemagne, and depended on the bishopric of Narbonne.<\/b><\/p>\n

As S\u00edlvia Garriga explains, “<\/span>The Carolingian family concept was very extensive, they understood the family as a clan,<\/b> and this meant that, at Christmas and other important festivities, the whole family had to meet in the family of the original peasant”. In other words, whenever there was an important festivity, they had to go to the ancestral home, no matter how far away it was.<\/span><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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