The Blood Of Sant Jordí

Spain and England's greatest literary figures are linked through death. Or they would be if the widely held belief that Miguel de Cervantes died on the same day as William Shakespeare wasn't apocryphal. Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616. Cervantes didn't. He died the day before and was buried on 23 April.

Many years earlier, in 303AD to be precise, there was an important death in the province of Bithynia, an ancient region of north-west Turkey. It was also on 23 April. On that day in history, Saint George, having already been subjected to appalling torture, was beheaded at the order of one of the Roman Empire's greatest psychopaths, the Emperor Diocletian.

Saint George, as I think we probably all know, went on to secure the gig as the patron saint of England and to bequeath to the country his cross, one to now typically be seen adorning hotel balcony railings in Mallorca during World Cup tournaments. Georgios, to give him his original Greek name, is a patron saint several times over, and included among his patronage are Aragon, Catalonia and the city of Barcelona, where he isn't of course referred to as George or Georgios but as Sant Jordí.

The Barcelona association is such that the city has something in common with England - the cross of Saint George. It is incorporated into the city's flag. For Mallorca, the association isn't as strong, but Sant Jordí is very much celebrated here. He is, after all, a former patron saint from the days when Mallorca was part of the Crown of Aragon.

Prior to sainthood, George, aka Jordí, was a knight of considerable talent, and his greatest achievement occurred in the village of Montblanc in what wasn't known as Catalonia all those hundreds of years ago. Back then, dragons were seemingly wandering the countryside wreaking mayhem wherever they breathed fire, and one dragon in particular was terrorising Montblanc. In order to placate the dragon, which apparently was angered because it had eaten all the local animals and so had nothing else to feast on, it was decided to offer it a human sacrifice. Unfortunately for the king's daughter, she drew the short straw. It would have been even more unfortunate for her had it not been for the intervention of our gallant knight, Jordí. He thrust his lance into the dragon and, as it died, it spewed out blood, and from that blood was to grow a rose bush.

This, at any rate, is the legend, and it is important for more than just the story of the slaying of the dragon. There was also the rose bush for, some time in the fifteenth century, it became common in Catalonia for a red rose to be given by a knight to his beloved. And, because Sant Jordí had met his terrible end on 23 April, this was the day when the roses were given.

The tradition survives, but it is one to which was added a more modern element. If "knights" were presenting their loved ones with a rose, what should the loved ones give in return? The contemporary tradition of the book and the rose on Sant Jordí's day was conceived in 1923 when book publishers decided to make 23 April the day of the book, not because of Sant Jordí so much but because of Cervantes. Nonetheless, it was useful to be able to come up with a commercial opportunity by playing a little fast and loose with the date of Cervantes' death and tying it in with the day of the rose. Book met rose, and publishers, bookshops and florists were delighted.

The celebration of Sant Jordí in Mallorca, in official ways, is mainly a celebration of the book part of the equation. There will, therefore, be book fairs in all sorts of places on 23 April, but no feast day in Mallorca is ever allowed to exist in isolation. Consequently, Sant Jordí's day can be more than one day or it can be a whole week or, in the case of Colonia Sant Jordí (where else), a week and a half.

Actually, this is stretching things a bit. The first act of the fiestas was on Thursday, the opening of a photography competition. Nothing else is in fact happening until Tuesday, but if they want to announce the fiestas as being from 16 to 25 April, then who is anyone to object?

So, if you are a knight and you have a loved one to whom you wish to give a book, which should you choose? What about something by Cervantes? Not "Don Quijote" but his short stories, "Novelas ejemplares", because one of these is called "La fuerza de la sangre" (the power of blood). And from blood grew a rose bush.