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La Diada: Five things you need to know

Steve Tallantyre
Steve Tallantyre - [email protected]
La Diada: Five things you need to know
A good day to be a flag seller: Catalonia will be festooned with millions of 'senyeras' and 'esteladas' on September 11th. Photo: JOSEP LAGO / AFP

As crowds prepare to take to the streets for 'La Diada' on Sunday, the Catalan National Day. The Local's Barcelona correspondent Steve Tallantyre has put together an essential guide to the festival that's grabbing international headlines.

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Catalonia's National Day, known locally as La Diada Nacional de Catalunya, is a festa (festival) held in the region every year on September 11th. It has always been an occasion to celebrate Catalan culture and customs but the recent debate over Catalonia's right to vote on independence from Spain has transformed it into a politically charged event.

But why do Catalans celebrate la Diada? What happens during the festival? Read on to find out 5 things you need to know about the big day...

1. It commemorates a famous defeat

Very unusually for a massive holiday, la Diada marks the occasion of a military disaster. Catalan troops fighting the Bourbon King Philip V of Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession were finally defeated on September 11th 1714 after the 14-month Siege of Barcelona. The surrender marked the dissolution of autonomous Catalan institutions, the removal of Catalan as an official language and the imposition of new laws from the newly centralised Spain.

2. It was banned by General Franco

The first celebration of La Diada took place in 1886 but it was officially suppressed in 1939 and throughout the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The Catalan regional government reinstated the fiesta in 1980, five years after Franco's death.

3. It is a tribute to lost Catalan lives

4,000 people died defending the city during the Siege of Barcelona and are buried in a cemetery near the Santa Maria del Mar church in the Gothic Quarter. A memorial plaza, the Fossar de les Moreres, now covers the cemetery and thousands of Catalans lay flowers there every year on La Diada.

4. It's a great day to be a flag seller

La Senyera, the Catalan flag of four red stripes on a yellow background, is everywhere on La Diada. Giant versions are hung across entire buildings while innumerable smaller versions flutter from balconies or are draped across cars. A high percentage of people walking the streets either wear or carry a version of the flag, although many versions on sale are now rather unpatriotically made in China. A slightly different flag, la estelada, has surged in popularity in recent years. It features a white star on a blue triangle (or sometimes a red star on a yellow triangle) over the senyera's red-and-yellow stripes and is the unofficial symbol of the Catalan independence movement.

5. It's getting more popular

La Diada has always been a magnet for supporters of Catalan separatism. For many people the day is a simple celebration of their Catalan identity but many others use the occasion to express their political feelings. The numbers of those joining peaceful protests have surged in recent years after the Spanish Constitutional Court rewrote the Catalan Statute of Autonomy to severely limit the region's power. The first mass demonstration was held in 2012 when between 600,000 and 2 million people (depending on whose estimates you believe) gathered in Barcelona to demand independence from Spain. The following year, approximately 1.6 million people joined hands to form an unbroken human chain across the whole region. Last year organizers claimed more that 2 million people had taken part in the rally in Barcelona.

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