Saturday, April 7, 2012

"Mona de Pasqua", an Easter's Catalan Traditional Cake.

Today I want to present a Catalan Easter's Tradition to my international friends. It is a sweet and colourful one. It's about a cake we call "Mona de Pasqua", Easter Mona. The traditional one looks like this:



It is a sweet cake that was eaten togehter with boiled eggs, chocolate and a kind of dried pork sausage that we call "llonganissa". The name comes from "munus", which in ancient greek meant "Present". Or maybe from the arab word "munna", which means "food for the mouth". The Mona is known by its name since the XV th. century. It meant the end of the fasting period previous to Easter.

Un parrain offrant une mona à son filleul. Vers 1865-1866.


This evolved to the current Mona, which can be made with butter,candied fruits and chocolate. And it is usually decorated with colourful feathers and yellow chiks.







This tradition is specifical to Catalonia and Valencia. There, the Godfather  or the Granpa used to give the Mona as a present to Godsons  and Goddaughters or to Grandchildren on Easter's Day. And it was eaten as a dessert on Monday's Easter familie's celebrations. 

The Egg seams to be a symbol of the Resurrection of  the Earth in Spring. It is found from Catalonia to England to Ukraine. And we can relate it with the tradition of Easter Eggs in Northern Europe and USA.



Isn't this a sweet tradition? I hope you will love to know about it as much as we do.
By the way,I hope a resurrection of colours in Spring.!
Happy Easter to everybody!!!


Isabel de Yzaguirre,
La Colorista.

4 comments:

  1. That was a fascinating post Isabel. What a wonderful and colorful tradition. I enjoy readung your blog because you have so may lovely stories that I don't see anywhere else. Keep them coming my colorful friend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much, Teresa!!!
    I can't teach much of colour to English people, but I can explain our colourful traditions. I'm happy you enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. what a colorful Easter you have in Spain. my weekend is full of getting my taxes done and consulting on a beauty salon exterior. have a great day, I hope the sun's out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We do the taxes in May, Lynne. I have gone shopping the Mona for my son, with my sister. She is his Godmother :) He chose a chocolate Mona. We have a sunny day her, hope yours is sunny as well!
    Happy Easter, mu friend!

    ReplyDelete