Sant Jordi - The legend

Every 23rd of April the catalan people celebrates Sant Jordi. It is a holiday where men give their beloved women a rose; they, in return, offer books to their knights. Therefore, the main streets of the different villages and cities are filled with stands, some of them with roses, some of them with books. It is also a date when the writers sign their books. 

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This tradition has its beginnings in a legend that goes…

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful village terrified by a dragon that lived in a cave nearby. The villagers were afraid since the day the dragon went down the hill demanding them for food.

First, they start giving it the chickens they had, but that was not enough, as the dragon was very big. The chickens were soon finished and the dragon went down the hill, again, asking for more food. Thus, the inhabitants decided to give away their sheep and goats, but that was still not enough to soothe the dragon’s hunger. Therefore, they tried with the cows, as they are bigger and the dwellers thought it would fill the dragon’s stomach. That neither worked, and the cows were soon finished too. The time passed and the village ran out of animals to offer to the dragon and it was getting really angry and hungry.               

One day, the dragon, weary of waiting for more food, went down to the village; the major explained that they had no more animals to offer him and beg the dragon to leave. The dragon, after thinking for a while, said:

-         I won’t disturb you as long as one of your children is waiting in front of my cave every Sunday morning. Otherwise, I will set your entire village in flames!

There was nothing to do but to obey and so the inhabitants, after long time thinking, agreed that there was just one way to decide who would be given to the dragon each week: the fortune will choose:

The first Saturday arrived and all the villagers met at the main square and the names of the children of the village were written down and put into a bag. The king took out one of the papers and he couldn’t believe it. His daughter was the one destined to be eaten by the dragon! But they had an agreement and, although she was deeply scared, she bravely accepted her destiny and set to the dragon’s cave.

When the princess arrived to the cave, the dragon was outside waiting for her. It was getting close and about to reach her when a knight riding a horse appeared. He was wearing a white costume with a red cross on it and was armed with a sword; the princess couldn’t believe it and the neither could dragon.

The knight pushed his horse forward and drew out the sword, aiming it at the dragon, which, at the same time, blew a ball of fire towards the courageous boy but he put up his shield to stop the impact as he kept approaching the dragon. When he was close enough, with all the strength he was able to gather, gave the dragon a hard blow with the sword right into its heart. The dragon screamed and fell hard onto the floor.

The princess ran to him and, while they were embraced, from the red blood coming from the dragon’s heart, a rose tree sprouted. Little by little, the tree grew and wonderful red roses appeared. The knight went to the tree and took the biggest and most lovely rose to give it to the king's daughter.

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