Generalitat de Catalunya

Sant Jordi around the world

During the week of 17th to 26th April, the Centre Cultural Blanquerna, with the collaboration of the Institut Ramon Llull and the participation of several renowned cultural organizations in Madrid, such as the Museo Reina Sofia and the Instituto Cervantes, will organize the Catalan Culture Week in Madrid, with 48 events in 14 venues and various public areas of the city. The celebration will include readings, free concerts, exhibitions, tourist information points, book presentations, theatre, seminars and story telling. The central figure of the Catalan Culture Week in Madrid is the writer Josep Pla and also the Nova Cançó.

Friday, 23rd April, the Centre Cultural Blanquerna will be open from 10:00am to 11:00pm. Visitors will receive a glass of cava and a rose.

Anticipating Saint George's Day, the Government delegation in France, the Institut Ramon Llull and the Sorbone University in the University Centre of Malesherbes, organized on 14th April a concert by Raimon. The concert was sold out with an audience of 650 people, among whom were ambassadors and other representatives from the diplomatic corps, members of the French government, from the French university and cultural community as well as several Catalan residents in the French capital.

Friday, 23rd April. 4:30pm: the delegation, together with the Brussels Catalan Association, is organizing a poetry reading of the works of Jacint Verdaguer. The event will be held in the recently inaugurated venue Catalunya-Europa (Rue de la Loi, 227). As every year, representatives of the Government Delegation of the European Union will attend the celebration of Saint George's Day, which will be held in the bookshop Punto y Coma (Rue Stevin, 115, Brussels), at 1:00pm.

Friday, 23rd April: reading of texts representative of Catalan literature by Lluís Llach and the actress Hanna Schygulla. Llach will read in Catalan poems from "Suite de Parlavà", which his friend Miquel Martí i Pol wrote in 1991 during a visit to his home. Schygulla will read the German version of texts by authors such as Joanot Martorell, Josep Pla, Quim Monzó, Salvador Espriu, Joan Margarit and Maria Mercè Marçal. After the reading, there will be a concert by the group from La Garriga, Gertrudis. The event will be presented by the Generalitat delegate in Germany, Martí Estruch. 7:00pm. Palais de la Kulturbrauerei in Berlin.

Saturday, 24th April: The Government delegation in the USA will celebrate the day of "Books and Roses" together with the Institut Català d'Amèrica (the Catalan community in New York). The event will take place in the book store Barnes & Noble in the Upper East Side, on Saturday 24th April.

Early in the day there will be children's party with art workshops and manual activities for children from 2-10 years of age. Later, the former ambassador to the USA and currently Professor of International Studies at the University of Miami, Ambler Moss, will present his book (Quatre) Barres i Estrelles, Memòries d'un ambaixador nord-americà a Catalunya (Símbol Editors). Elizabeth Fordham from UNESCO in New York will also participate giving a lecture on the importance of Saint George's Day with respect to culture and music. After the talks, there will be a concert of Catalan music and a Catalan brunch.

Catalan Communities Abroad (CCE) have organized several events to transfer the Saint George's Day celebrations to the countries where they have settled. The Day of the Book and the Rose, which has been universally recognized by UNESCO since 1995, has thus become a festival celebrated in various places in the word through which thousands of people come into contact with the Catalan culture for the first time. The Saint George's Day has also been, since 1999, the Dia Internacional de la Catalunya Exterior.

Over 70 Catalan communities established in 41 countries around the world organize activities and events to celebrate Saint George's Day, with the participation of over 20,000 members of these organizations.

Some of the most important events are:

• Berlin: the Catalan community in the capital organizes the Fourth Edition of the "Jocs Florals" in the Casal Català in Berlin (Katalanischer Salon e.V.), an award that is given on 23rd April,
• Quebec: this year, the 15th anniversary of the proclamation of the "World Book and Copyright Day" (1995-2010) will be celebrated. This festival has also been celebrated since 1996 in Quebec and every year more book shops offer a rose on 23rd April. The celebration events this 2010 will be: book crossing, exchange of books in different languages; giving of roses; reading of texts from European authors that participate in the International Literature Festival in Montreal; an exhibition by the Castellers de Montreal, and the presentation (from 1st April to 9th May) of the exhibition "Catalan, the language of 10 million Europeans".
• New York: Saint George's Day, promoted by the Catalan community, has been incorporated into the cultural programme of the book store Barnes & Noble, one of the most important in the city. On 23rd April, the store will hold book presentations, give out roses and will exhibit books in Catalan, as well as organize a workshop for children on the legend of Saint George and the Dragon.
• Guayaquil (Ecuador): the Catalan community of this city, with the collaboration of the University of Guayaquil and the National Library System, will organize the Festival of the Book and the Rose on one of the city's avenues, where several publishers will exhibit their books. Other activities will be organized, such as children's games and poetry reading.