Pine Tree Festival in Centelles

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The "galejadors" firing rounds during the Festa del pi in Centelles. Photo by Miki Pons (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons.

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Image courtesy of Ajuntament de Centelles

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Festa del pi in Centelles. Photo by Miki Pons (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons.

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Every December for La Festa del Pi (Pine Tree Festival) the most beautiful pine tree in the area is cut down, decorated and offered to Santa Coloma, the town's patron saint. 

The festivities start early in the morning; after celebrating mass the gallejadors* wake the town with the explosive firing of shotguns and blunderbusses as they make their way into the forest in pursuit of the best tree. They feast on a hearty breakfast of bread and sausage cooked in the forest and then set to work cutting down the chosen tree. Once felled, it is lifted by hand onto a cart and pulled by two oxen straight to the town accompanied all the way by the galejadors announcing their progress with the ring of shotguns.

Once the tree reaches the Plaça Major, the weapons are silenced and the traditional ball del pi (pine tree dance) commences. Then the tree is taken from the cart and and carried up the landing in front of the church where is made to dance to the chords of the orchestra and the voices of the galejadors singing "Ara balla el pi!" (now the tree dances).

Then it is taken inside the church where it is hung upside down over the main altar with five branches of apples and walnuts tied to it and then hoisted to the height of the image of Santa Coloma behind the altar while the galejadors sing the hymn of Santa Coloma de Centelles.

The first written records of the Pine Tree Festival date back to 1751, and since then it has been linked to the festival of Santa Coloma, the patron saint of Centelles. The celebration is reminiscent of ancient of tree worship and pagan fertility rituals related to the winter solstice and the regeneration of nature, and its practice is assumed to go back much further than the documentation reflects. In 1987 the festival was awarded the title of Heritage Festival of National Interest by the Generalitat de Catalunya.

*A galejador is someone who fires a muzzle-loading weapon, usually a shotgun, carbine, rifle or blunderbuss in a festive tone, traditionally make lots of noise and "to show off."

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