Each province in Spain has a patron saint and that saint's day is a holiday for the province. The patron saint of Catalonia (the province that contains Barcelona) is Jordi and his day is today. It is the Catalan equivalent of Valentine's Day - so with every book purchase in Barcelona, you also received a red rose. The patron saint of Sevilla is Ferdinand whose feast day is May 30th. But, like any good government, they realized that people would prefer to have a day off during fair week - so the holiday in Sevilla has been moved from the actual feast day of Ferdinand to May 8th. Many cities and countries in Europe have patron saints, but there are also lots of other things with patron saints as well. My favorite is the patron saint of the internet - Saint Isidore of Sevilla - sadly, I missed his feast day on April 4th. Not sure how I would have celebrated.... lots of time looking at youtube videos?
In other news, things in the downtown area are slowly getting back to normal. Many squares are currently in the ugly stage between being decorated for Easter and being large open spaces surrounded by beautiful buildings and statues.
It was cool, windy, and overcast most of the day. It rained a little but not too much. However it was cool and rainy enough to move intercambio back inside for the week.
