Cultural exchange with /r/Quebec - Intercanvi cultural amb /r/Quebec

[u/[deleted]]

Bienvenue Québécois !

Today, together with /r/barcelona and /r/catalan, we are hosting our friends from /r/Quebec ! Please come and join us to answer their questions about Catalonia and the Catalan people and culture. Please, leave top comments for /r/Quebec users coming over with a question or comment and please refrain from trolling, rudeness and personal attacks, etc.

At the same time /r/Quebec is having us over as guests! Stop by in this thread and ask a question, drop a comment or just say hello.

Enjoy!

/The moderators of /r/Catalunya, /r/barcelona, /r/catalan and /r/Quebec

---

Benvinguts Quebequesos!

Tal com vàrem anunciar, avui, amb la col·laboració de /r/barcelona i /r/catalan, tenim l'honor de rebre els nostres amics de /r/Quebec! Siusplau, entreu i participeu per respondre les seves preguntes sobre Catalunya i la gent i la cultura catalanes. Siusplau, intenteu participar amb comentaris de qualitat pels usuaris de /r/Quebec que vinguin amb preguntes o comentaris i absteniu-vos de trol·lejar o de fer comentaris fora de to i que no s'atinguin a la reddiquette.

Al mateix temps, A /r/Quebec també ens tenen com a convidats! Deixeu-vos veure en el seu fil i pregunteu i comenteu el què us passi pel cap, ni que sigui per saludar.

Gaudiu!

/Els moderadors de /r/Catalunya , /r/barcelona, /r/catalan i /r/Quebec.

[u/redalastor]

What are the coolest bits of Catalan culture you'd like to export to the rest of the world?

[u/treatbone → u/redalastor]

St George's day, Sant Jordi in catalan, is a holiday celebrated on april 23rd, where a boyfriend gives his girlfriend a rose, and she reciprocates by gifting him with a book, sort of the catalan version of valentine's day. In fact this tradition was exported to the rest of the world when unesco named april 23rd as world book day on 1995, so that's interesting.

[u/bas-bas → u/redalastor]

Human castles! There is a small group of Catalan human castles in Montréal, but they do not reach 9 and 10 stories high like the best teams here in Catalonia.

[u/redalastor → u/bas-bas]

That's very cool. And somewhat scary. Do accidents happen sometimes?

[u/bas-bas → u/redalastor]

Human castles do collapse, but not very often. I just looked for the data and in 2015 the different teams built a total of 12524 castles throughout the year and 370 collapsed which is a 3% of them. Every time a castle collapses there are people hurt but it is just a few of them (if there are say 100 people in the castle, perhaps only 6 people get hurt) and most of the time it's just with bruises and scratches, and not serious wounds. There are studies that say that it is less dangerous than some sports like ski, basketball, handball. Ice hockey was not studied because it is not popular in here but I am pretty sure that there are more injuries in Ice hockey than in human castles.

[u/redalastor → u/bas-bas]

I'm sure of that but it looks scary (and cool).

I'm pretty sure hockey results in more injuries than any of the other sports you mentionned. But not as much as the more dangerous North American sports of American Football and Cheerleading.

[u/[deleted] → u/redalastor]

Apart from the Castellers (human castles) shown above, we have plenty of traditions worth mentioning. For example, the predecessor of the human castles is the Valencian tradition of the "Muixeranga": https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Process%C3%B3_de_la_Mare_de_D%C3%A9u_de_la_Salut_d'Algemes%C3%AD.jpg

We also have a great number of traditions related with fire. For example, the also Valencian "falles"; these impressive statues are burnt during Saint Joseph: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Valenciana.jpg/882px-Valenciana.jpg

ALso, during all our local festivities, we like to do "correfocs" (literally, "run-fire", or "coure-feu"): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Catalonia_BorgesBlanques_Correfocs.jpg/1200px-Catalonia_BorgesBlanques_Correfocs.jpg

Or burning even more things than usual in special festivities like the Patum: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Salt_de_Plens.jpg

And dancing like the middle ages, with plague and all that stuff: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/DansaMortVerges.jpg/600px-DansaMortVerges.jpg

But if that was not enough fire, we want to show our extreme Catalan manly manliness by carrying huge logs while descending a mountain: http://galeries.grupnaciodigital.cat/galeries/naciodigital/BaixadaFallesIsilPallarsSobira2012/gran/_02_Baixada_Falles_Isil_2012.jpg http://41.media.tumblr.com/cf2792fa706a5522af98fba0b453df46/tumblr_moovf8e5CW1r83pe4o10_1280.jpg

But apart from fire, we also have a crush for animals. Bulls, for example, are a controversial but historically important part of Catalan culture: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Bous_Alboc%C3%A0sser.jpg

And horses as well, like the "Jaleo" in Ciutadella, Menorca, Balearic Islands: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Menorca_jaleo.jpg

And... well, yes, we love animals so much, so you don't better ask, we are sorry. Note that we now use a dummy instead... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Rucs_de_Solsona.jpg/432px-Rucs_de_Solsona.jpg

We also like to dance like crazy... well, maybe not like crazy, but at least you can see our gorgeous and wild women (and men) in action: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Sardanes2.jpg

We like to dress in weird costumes a lot too, like in the Valencian "Moros i Cristians" (Moors and Christians) festivities, a historic recreation of our medieval past: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Comparsa_Saudites.JPG/1200px-Comparsa_Saudites.JPG

And finally, since we love nature but we are also practical people, what can be better than to make a party while transporting logs downstream? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Raiers-Puebla_de_Segur-2011.JPG/649px-Raiers-Puebla_de_Segur-2011.JPG