Books and roses
It is very difficult to put an exact date which marks the beginning of the popular tradition of giving roses on the day of Sant Jordi. It must be very old as the Rose Fair has been held on the day of Sant Jordi since the 15th century. The age of this tradition tempts us to look for a link between a popular tradition and the symbolism of courtly love which the rose represents, although the custom of giving flowers existed before Christianity and, around April, the Romans used to celebrate a flower festival dedicated to the goddess Flora.
The festival we know today originated in the period of the Diputació del General and is linked to the nobility and the ruling classes who, on Saint George's Day, held a mass in the chapel of the Palau de la Generalitat, where the Rose Fair we have already mentioned was also held.
Although the modern festival maintains two medieval traditions - giving the rose and visiting the saint's chapel, other elements have been added to the day, which, more than anything, has become an extraordinary expression of popular culture.
The Dia del Llibre (the Book Day) is much more recent. According to some sources, it was first held on October 7th 1926. The original idea came from the Barcelona-based Valencian writer Vicent Clavel Andrés, who proposed it to the Cambra Oficial del Llibre de Barcelona. Shortly afterwards, in 1930, the date was changed to April 23rd, to commemorate the fact that the writers Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare both died on 23 April 1626, although according to different calendars. On April 23rd, other well-known writers such as Josep Pla (1981), Maurice Druon (1918), K. Laxness (1902), Vladimir Nabokov (1899) and Manuel Mejía Vallejo (1923) were also born or died.
The festival, which coincided with Saint George's Day, took root in Catalonia as it became confused with the Saint's Day celebrations, while it almost disappeared elsewhere in Spain, ceasing to be celebrated in many places, or continued in a residual way.
A quite considerable percentage of annual literary production is sold for Saint George's Day, a fact the publishing companies take advantage of to present the latest new books, especially those written in Catalan.
On November 15th, 1995, at a general conference which took place in Paris, the festival of April 23rd dedicated to literature was declared World Book and Copyright Day by the UNESCO.