useless-catalanfacts: [Image: Three girls from Massalió (Matarranya, Franja de Ponent) wearin
useless-catalanfacts:[Image: Three girls from Massalió (Matarranya, Franja de Ponent) wearing the traditional clothes of Franja and a part of Aragon and the traditional headpiece to carry the bread of Santa Àgueda festivity. (Photo by F. Javier Sáenz Guallar).]Santa Àgueda (Saint Agatha) is the festivity of Matarranya (la Franja de Ponent) and some towns of Terres de l’Ebre (Catalonia) as a celebration of women, since Saint Agatha is the patron saint of women.The festivity is always organized by a group of only women. The traditions of this festivity include the nomination of a woman as mayor and an all-women city hall for 24 hours, the speech given by the day mayor from the balcony of the city hall, dressing in traditional clothes for the important events, concerts and dance in the evening, popular meals only for women (in some towns there are also popular meals for everyone)…[Image: the all-women city hall for the day in Calaceit, Franja de Ponent.]In Matarranya, some girls wear the headpiece you can see it in the photo above. It’s called “panistre” and it’s used to carry bread. The girls bring this bread to mass, where it is blessed. After that, they hand out the bread to the rest of people. Something similar is done in the Terres de l’Ebre where women carry the blessed bread on their heads during Saint Agatha’s processon, but in Terres de l’Ebre they don’t wear the “panistre” hat.[Image: women carrying blessed breads in Saint Agatha’s procession in Riba-roja d’Ebre, Terres de l’Ebre, Catalonia. Photo by immaterialebre.]And sweets! In the day of Saint Agatha it’s also typical to eat a cake in the shape of a breast called “mamelletes”. This comes from the legend of Saint Agatha, which says that she was tortured by the Romans who cut her breasts off. -- source link
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