#sant donís

[useless-catalanfacts]

Video by curiosaire.vlc (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter) about the Valencian tradition of mocadorada or mocadorà on October 9th, day of love 🍈🥕🍉🍅🍆🫑🥔🥒

In the last years, the tradition of Saint Valentine's Day (a tradition from the USA to celebrate love giving chocolates) has arrived to our country too, pushed by the shops trying to sell more things. But here it's a root-less Americanizing tradition that is only celebrated by the shop chains and whose only purpose is making us feel like we need to buy things from shop chains, even though there are increasingly more young people who celebrate it. That's why there's that little joke about it in the video.

English transcription under the cut.

Video of a young white man speaking at the camera in Valencian, with captions in Valencian and English. Here are the English captions:

Saint Valentine, you're an invader! Because in València, the day of lovers is October 9th, Saint Dennis' Day. And we celebrate it with one of the prettiest traditions from the Valencian Country: the mocaorà. And it has been like this since the 15th century, when it's calculated that this tradition started. The legend says that its origin is in the offering that the farmers from Horta de València gave to king James I of Catalonia-Aragon and queen Violant of Hungary in 1238 after he conquered the city of València. What does the mocaorà consist of? It consists of giving your beloved a platter of sweets made of baked marzipan (in the shape of tiny vegetables and fruits), all wrapped in the prettiest shawl you could find. This way, the beloved can wear it in autumn, now that it starts being chilly. The platter's protagonists are two particular figures, named after two kinds of firecrackers. You don't need a master's degree in sexology to understand that they refer to male and female genitalia. King Philip V of Spain, the one who forbid speaking Valencian with the Nueva Planta decrees, didn't like this tradition, and he tried to ban it in the 18th century. Luckily, Valencians told him: (raising his middle finger) get up here and you'll see Paris (meaning go to hell) and continued celebrating it despite his pretentions. The tradition, unfortunately for the Bourbon king, still continues very alive and every year about 100,000 marzipan sweets are sold in València and the towns around it. And the truth is that it's very beautiful seeing the city's bakeries change and get colourful decorations so that lovers can celebrate their love in the sweetest way possible, not to say that they almost reach a sugar overdose, because those marzipans are so overly sweet. So remember, this October 9th is Valencian lovers' day. Saint Valentine's Day? That's a thing of the past! Celebrate Saint Dionís to be a Valencian with pedigree!

[brullarts]

La Mocadorà en Sant Dionís (Día de los enamorados valencianos)

La mocadorà (frutas y hortalizas de mazapán envueltas en un pañuelo) se regala como tradición entre enamorados valencianos el día de Sant Donís (San Dionisio).

Lo que hasta ahora no se conocía es como celebraban las frutas este día de la comunidad valenciana...

[perecomes]

9 d'Octubre Sant Donís "La Mocadorà", dia dels enamorats valencians. S'haveu enrrecordat de la parella?. #9doctubre #9octubre #santdonís #comunitatvalenciana #diadelsenamoratsvalencians (en Sueca, Valencia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUzGg6sMYIN/?utm_medium=tumblr

[inmaferragud]

Qué ilusión me hace recibir cada año, en Madrid, la Mocadorà por Sant Donís, el día de los enamorados en Valencia ❤️💛💚💙💜 #9doctubre

[actualitatvalenciana-blog]

La Diputació viu la mocadorà

La Diputació viu la mocadorà

El president del Gremi de Forners i Pastissers de València, Juanjo Rausell, i el secretari general d’aquest mateix col·lectiu, Vicent Martínez, han lliurat al president i vicepresidenta de la Diputació de València, Jorge Rodríguez i Maria Josep Amigó, la tradicional ‘Mocadorà’, amb motiu de la propera celebració de Sant Donís.

El president, Jorge Rodríguez, ha aprofitat aquesta ocasió per agrair…

[useless-catalanfacts]

October 9th is Saint Dennis's Day (Sant Donís), which is the day of love in the Horta area of the Valencian Country. On this day, lovers give each other the mocadorada (pronounced in the local accent as mocadorà or mocaorà): a shawl filled with little marzipan sweets in the shape of the fruits and vegetables grown in Horta and two larger sweets in the shape of firecrackers (and maybe an innuendo of something else 😳). Then, the lovers eat the sweets and keep all the shawls that their beloved has gifted them year after year.

Photo by Moisés Domínguez.

[useless-catalanfacts]

The 9th of October is Sant Donís (Saint Dennis’ Day), the day of love in the Valencian Country. The tradition is for lovers to gift each other the mocadorà, a neck handkerchief filled with sweets made of marzipan that represent fruits and vegetables. Each person will keep the handkerchief that their lover has given them year after year.

Photos by Mercat Central de València.

[useless-catalanfacts]

Sweets for the mocadorà 💕

On the day of Sant Donís (October 9th), it’s traditional in Valencia to give the mocadorà (a handkerchief filled with sweets in the shape of vegetables) to your significant other, who will keep the handkerchief year after year for all the years you are together.

The sweets included in the mocadorà are shaped like the vegetables that grow around Valencia, and there’s also two bigger sweets that officially are shaped like two kinds of firecrackers, but many people find another interpretation.

Photo: Tasta’l d’ací.