It's the Day of the Book!

[Painter outside Parc Güell, Barcelona]

Today is the only saint-related holiday I’m truly fond of,* and maybe my favorite holiday of all. In Barcelona, it’s La Diada de Sant Jordi (Saint George’s Day). The tradition is sexist - men give women roses while women give men books – though that’s somewhat fallen away and books are exchanged amongst all. Book and flower sellers have special deals and set up hundreds of stands all along the Rambles. Perhaps best of all, the Catalan festival has spread, and today is now UNESCO’s International Day of the Book!

As much as I’d love to give everyone books in celebration of the holiday, that’s not possible, so I’ll just mention the fiction I’m reading at the moment, Hermann Broch’s The Death of Virgil:



Enjoy the holiday, and buy a book for someone you love!

* Though I admit to a fascination with patron saints due to an unhealthy interest in identity and categorization.

Anarchists, Gays to Protest Pope in Barcelona

The local of the anarchosyndicalist CGT will protest Ratzinger's visit to Barcelona this Saturday, November 6, at 3 PM in the plaça de la Catedral.


They argue that at the same time the powerful speak of an economic crisis and demand "austerity" measures (to which the workforce responded with a general strike little more than a month ago), the regional government has spent more than a million euros on Ratzinger's visit. The protest also expresses the fundamental anarchist rejection of religion and the god-concept as an affront to human freedom:

Since we promote the equality of people above all classes, we promote a self-managed society unfettered by any type of power, be it political or religious, and the freedom of individual thought and action towards a free society, in which the faith of the meek and resigned is a vestige of the greatest form of slavery: religion.

They protest in the name of of the victims of centuries of religious repression and injustice. "NO GOD, NO STATE, NO POPE."

USA Today reports* that there will also be a "queer kissing flashmob" as Ratzinger emerges from the Sagrada Familia on 10 AM on Sunday.

"We are hoping for a crowd of people of the same sex who will kiss each other for two minutes in front of the pope," one of the organizers, Marylene Carole, told AFP. "After two minutes, the flashmob will finish and each participant will leave as if nothing happened."

*The report contains a link to the event's Facebook page.