Sant Jordi confined
East April 23, 2020 will go down in history as the first Sant Jordi in many decades in which we will not be able to share roses on the street . Barcelona for the first time in a long time will remain silent without the crowds, the book signings and the roses that adorn every corner of the city. We won't say we won't miss him , as it is one of the unavoidable appointments for lovers of the city and of reading.
But that's not why we're going to stop celebrating the Day of the Book and the Rose , even if it's virtually and in our homes. Because yes, there will be a way to celebrate Sant Jordi this 2020 and we will tell you how.
That you don't feel like doing it this April 23? Don't worry because the Town Hall has postponed the party to on July 23, 2020 , although it is not yet known how it will be organized or if it will be done with sanitary measures.
But if you are in the mood and you want to fill your home with roses the guild of florists of Barcelona has launched an initiative called #rosadesantjordiacasa with which it intends to release all the cultivation roses that were prepared for April 23.
The guild has calculated that this year around about 300,000 roses , a figure well below the 7 million that are usually marketed each year. For the occasion they have prepared a map with the florists that will be active throughout Catalonia and that they will distribute roses that day. It can be consulted here.
SANT JORDI ON THE BALCONIES
The initiative #SantJordialsbalcons (Sant Jordi en los Balcones) is another of the initiatives thought up by the Guild of Booksellers and Florists of Barcelona.** In this sense, they invite everyone to celebrate Sant Jordi on their balconies**.
“We suggest that you decorate your balconies with drawings of dragons, roses, stories or book covers For the smallest of the house. We will encourage educators to upload tutorials on social networks to learn how to make paper roses or materials that we have at home”, they underline.
If you dare take a photo and upload it to Instagram with the hashtag #santjordialsbalcons . 10 of them will have a prize: a batch of children's books from the booksellers' guild.
One of the most admired places in Sant Jordi is the facade of the Casa Batllo , which surprises every year with an exciting floral decoration. This year is not going to be less, that is why Casa Batlló encourages everyone to decorate their balconies with the initiative #TotsfemSantJordi.
“How can we run out of Sant Jordi if we have more love than ever? ” is the campaign launched by Casa Batlló to encourage collective participation by filling our balconies with roses. From their social networks they are sharing different tutorials to learn how to make them with recyclable materials if you can't have fresh roses.
“In a year when there will be no rose parades or book signings on April 23, we have developed educational videos that explain different creative crafts to design roses with recycled materials that we all have at home”, they explain. Thus they join the call by UNESCO in which they encourage World Heritage sites, such as Casa Batlló, to make visible actions in order to reduce the negative impact of the pandemic.
For its part, Barcelona City Council has launched a series of activities under the motto Sant Jordi from home . "Barcelona City of Literature has brought together renowned authors who, from home and through videos, make us their recommendations to share the essential books that we can acquire when confinement allows us to return to our usual bookstore," they point out in their Web.
Among these initiatives stand out Por Sant Jordi draw the cover of your favorite book, dedicated to the little ones. To participate you have to go to the website*** Estimat diari*** or upload a photo to the networks with the hashtag #EstimatdiariBCN.
And in Barcelona Llibres you can download books online for free so you don't run out of Sant Jordi books. Here are the ones you can find.
SANT JORDI IN BOOKSTORES AND PUBLISHERS
Undoubtedly, the most ambitious initiatives come from the bookstores that continue to work this year, even if it is behind closed doors. If you want to buy books, go to your usual bookstore, since **you will surely be able to buy your Sant Jordi book and pick it up later. **
On the other hand, some publishers have organized ** virtual appointments ** to publicize news, talks with authors or online book sales. These are some of them:
Penguin Randomhouse. Through their Instagram channel @megustaleer they will organize The House taken , a great literary event that will bring together more than 80 authors on April 23, from 09:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The final culmination will be a meeting of Isabel Allende with her readers from all over the world.
Spain . One of the possibilities that Sant Jordi offers and that we love is that the authors themselves sign the copies for us. As that is not going to be possible, this year Fnac has prepared a list of copies signed by the writers of this Sant Jordi 2020. Discover it here.
planet books . Throughout the day of April 23, it will hold online talks with its authors of this Sant Jordi. Here you can see all the schedules and more details.
A MUSICAL SANT JORDI
The musical note will be put by the Old Factory of Estrella Damm but, of course, this year from home. He has prepared a playlist and online concerts from 6:00 p.m. on April 23. Do you want to spend an afternoon of music? Find the entire concert poster here.