June

The Corpus in l’Ametlla de Mar (9 th June)

L’Ametlla de Mar celebrates the festivity of the Corpus with traditional carpets of flowers. The neighbors and associations of the village work during weeks for being able to offer a kilometer of carpets with flowers and other products along the main streets of the village. There are several and varied designs which are really spectacular thanks to their forms and colours as well as the imagination of the drawings. This activity is visited by a crowd of people from all over the neighboring regions every year.

These traditional carpets can be admired until the afternoon when, after the mass, the procession of boys and girls who have celebrated the first communion that year will crush them and the carpets will disappear. Nowadays, floral carpets of Corpus are manufactured in about twenty Catalan towns with regard to the tourism thanks to the promotion of a recovery movement of the national traditions.

Pilgrimage of Saint Antoni in Ulldemolins (13rd June)

Every year part of the inhabitants of Ulldemolins goes in procession towards a hermitage which is near the village in order to celebrate a party which honors Saint Antoni de Pàdua. This demonstration of popular religiousness is a referent for the local identity and includes the distribution of the ‘ramillet’ or posy of woody herbs and a gastronomic meal. As we can see, the party, which is celebrated the day of Saint Antoni de Pàdua on the 13rd of June, is a demonstration of popular religiousness that also includes cultural and gastronomic acts.

The pilgrimage takes on foot the participants until the hermitage of Santa Bàrbara through an old path. Popularly known with the name of Saint Antoni de Pàdua, the hermitage is placed on the mountain range of the Montsant, 2 km away from Ulldemolins. It is a 15th century hermitage of medieval origin which is attached to the rock of the mountain and placed next to some fountains that have popular curative virtues. In the 16th century the building was the housing of some hermits who took care of its maintenance and replaced the old worship to Saint Bàrbara for that of Saint Antoni de Pàdua.

Once they arrive at the hermitage, they switch on candles under the image of the saint in order to ask him for favors and his protection in case of adversities. Later, a mass is celebrated in honor to the saint which ends after singing Goigs and the distribution of a posy of woody herbs called ‘ramillet’. Then, a mass meal starts in the camp site which is cooked with different neighbours’s ingredients. After the lunch an original and new poetry is recited in honor to the party, the village and the saint.

The Market of Craftsmanship of Cornudella

Cornudella is located in the region of El Priorat and a weekly market is celebrated every Wednesday. On the other side, since 1990 a sample of craft market is carried out every the first Sunday in month. This fair represents the first step towards the recovery of a long tradition with the goal to promote the genuine products of the zone. We can see the different processes of manufacture placed near the road, and it is possible to buy pottery, jams, cold meats, tapestries, baskets, jewelry.

Annually, the Market of Craftsmanship is celebrated the nearest Sunday from Saint Joan’s day. There we can find an extense gamma of products: pottery, leather, iron, cardboard, tapestries, dolls of cloth, foods and baskets. The stands are assembled freely by the town council, and all the participants receive a gift and they enjoy a free lunch. This fair has been sponsored by the Association of Tourism.