BY GEORGE

St. George, or St. Jordi as he is known hereabouts, is the patron saint of many places: England, Egypt, Bulgaria, Romania, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Iraq, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Serbia, Ukraine and Russia, and also Catalonia, and in particular Barcelona. 

Not bad going for a bloke who was never actually canonised and whose main claim to fame is the slaying of a beast that never existed (and if it did, I am sure dragon slaying would be frowned upon nowadays by the animal rights brigade).

The Roman soldier and early Christian martyr apparently did make a miraculous intervention during the crusades, but by and large it is the dragon slaying made him famous. 

His feast day, April 23,  is celebrated in many ways. The English like to paint their faces and drink lots of beer, while in Barcelona the tradition is to give books and roses, in prodigious quantities. 

The tradition has gone global in the guise of International Book Day.

All over the city little street corner stalls spring up, all decorated with the colours ot the flag of Catalunya. 

Strangely given the fuss that that is made of the event, St. Jordi’s Day is not actually a holiday, so it is not until the evening that crowds throng to the city centre where authors pitch their tents to sign copies of their works, and all manner of rose themed knick knacks are available.

Amongst the jostling and commerce there is also a distinctly romantic air to the day, as St. Jordi serves a similar role to the Catalans as St. Valentine does elsewhere.