Sant Jordi, 23 April, and I’m still waiting for that rose that will make me fall in love for ever. And with a book in my hands, the book of my life, gathering dust as time goes by, I dream of filling the pages still to come with happiness.

The diada of Sant Jordi (St George’s Day), whose origins few of us know, is a celebration of rebirth, of spring, of life, of love. And in Barcelona, as every year, everyone takes to the streets to celebrate it with roses and books in hand. Fleeting flowers and lasting words come knocking at the door of the present.

The tills ring all day long, and ‘Barcelona és bona si la bossa sona, però tant si sona com si no sona, Barcelona és bona’ (Barcelona is good if your purse jingles, but whether it jingles or not, Barcelona is good).

We celebrate all our traditions, but sometimes we forget where they come from. So let’s see where our brave Sant Jordi comes from.

Let’s go back to the 3rd century, in Roman times, when Saint George, a Roman soldier, refused to obey Diocletian’s orders to persecute Christians. For that he was martyred and executed.

This legend gradually changed, and fantastic stories began to appear about Sant Jordi and the dragon, which became popular all over Europe. The story told in Catalonia is that a terrible dragon lived in Montblanc and had to be fed every day with one of the townspeople, chosen at random. One day the lot fell on the town’s princess, and Saint George appeared to save her. He pierced the dragon’s heart with his lance, and from its blood a rose bush grew. And that, as they say, is the end of this well-known tale.

So we can see that, like many of the traditions we keep, it comes from a Christian legend: legends that were probably used to spread Christianity around the world, and that give us our identity and have gradually shaped our culture.

And the books? Book Day came from the idea of a Valencian writer who proposed the celebration to Barcelona’s Official Book Chamber. In 1930, 23 April was established as Book Day; it took root in Barcelona, spread throughout Catalonia and is now celebrated in more and more countries, with the aim of promoting reading and the protection of intellectual property.

Happy Sant Jordi!