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| Carpaccio’s St. George and the Dragon (1502) |
At the conclusion of our Barcelona bike tour we
learned about a famous regional story of "George and the Dragon" and
it's local significance. We were told that you can't visit Barcelona and not know about this story.
And we learned that April 23rd is a day called "St. George's Day." It is celebrated in the Aragon region of Spain. Here's the Legend :
In Montblanc there was a dragon attacking the kingdom. Scared to death, the
inhabitants decided to give two lambs every day to the dragon to satisfy its
hunger and prevent attack on the village. But when the animals became scarce it
was decided to send a person, chosen by drawing lots, and a lamb. When a family
member was devoured by the dragon, the family received a rich compensation from
the Kingdom's Treasury.
There are two versions of the legend at this
juncture: the first one involves people getting tired of no member of the royal
family being sent and therefore decide that the princess should be sent to the
Dragon; while the second version says that one day a princess was chosen by
drawing lots to accompany the lamb.
In any case, on the cave of the dragon, the
princess found a gentleman or knight of the name Jordi (George) and he slew the
dragon by stabbing his sword into it and rescued her. From the blood that
flowed from the lifeless body of the monster was born a red rose which the
gentleman handed to the princess.
The king offered the gentleman all the riches
imaginable but he preferred that the riches be allocated to the inhabitants of
the kingdom. In addition, a church was built in his name, from which flowed
miraculous water that was able to heal the sick. (Source: Wikipedia)
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| Día de San Jorge, Plaza de Aragón, Zaragoza |
THE APRIL 23RD CUSTOM TODAY - Today in Catalonia, Balearic and parts of
Valencia, it is customary on 23 April for men give away roses to women, like
the knight who addressed the princess. The women give the men a book,
remembering the death and burial respectively of two great European literary
personalities, Miguel de Cervantes and Shakespeare, and the Spanish notable
literary personality, Inca Garcilaso.
WHY APRIL 23RD? St. George's Day is celebrated annually on 23 April, as this is the generally accepted date of St. George's death.
WHO WAS GEORGE? Saint George became the patron saint of the former Crown of Aragon, when King Peter I of Aragon won the Battle of Alcoraz in 1096. Tradition says that St George appeared at a critical moment for the Christian Army, aiding them to win the battle for the "True Faith". St George is also the patron saint of England, Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, and many cities across Europe. St. George was a cavalryman in the Roman army at Lydda, now in modern-day Israel. He was a Christian at a time when Rome was ruled by the emperor Diocletian, who was anti-Christian. He refused to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. As a result, he was tortured over several years and eventually suffered a martyr's death, when he was beheaded in 303 AD. He began to be venerated around the fifth century when a monastery was built and dedicated to him in Jerusalem.
For more information: https://www.officeholidays.com/countries/spain/spain-stgeorgesday.php
NEXT: EUROPE'S MOST VISITED BASILICA: SAGRADA FAMILIA
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