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| National Day of Catalonia | |
|---|---|
| Official name | National Day of Catalonia Catalan: Diada Nacional de Catalunya |
| Also called | Diada, Onze de Setembre |
| Observed by | Catalonia (Spain) |
| Significance | Commemorates the fall of Barcelona during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714 and the subsequent lost of Catalan liberties, institutions and laws. |
| Date | 11 September |
| Next time | 11 September 2025 |
| Frequency | annual |
The National Day of Catalonia[1] (Catalan: Diada Nacional de Catalunya [diˈaðə nəsiuˈnaɫ də kətəˈɫuɲə]) is celebrated annually on 11 September as a festival and public holiday in Catalonia. It commemorates the military defeat of the Catalan capital Barcelona by the army of King Philip V of Spain on 11 September 1714, at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. Due to the subsequent abolition of Catalonia’s legal jurisdictions and institutions of self-government, the date marks the symbolic historical moment when many Catalans believe they lost their national sovereignty to Spain. The day was first commemorated in 1886, and the history of commemorations and protests on 11 September has tended to reflect the evolution of Catalan nationalism and the changes in the relationship between Catalonia and the Spanish state. In 1980, 11 September was officially declared the National Day of Catalonia. In the years since 2012, the day has been marked by extremely large and festive demonstrations called by Catalan pro-independence groups.
Nomenclature
[edit]The National Day of Catalonia is known officially in Catalan as La Diada Nacional de Catalunya and is also referred to as La Diada de l'Onze de Setembre. Popularly, it is often simply referred to as La Diada or sometimes in English as "the Diada". However, the Catalan word diada means simply an important day or festival, and while 11 September is probably the most important such day in Catalonia, there are many others, from Catalonia-wide celebrations such as La Diada de Sant Jordi to local and specific festivals (eg, a day of competition in the Catalan sport of castells is called a diada castellera).
History
[edit]The War of the Spanish Succession and the Siege of Barcelona
[edit]On 11 September 1714, the city of Barcelona fell to military invasion after 14 months of siege by the forces of Philip V, King of Spain. The battle was one of the last acts of the War of the Spanish Succession, in which two European royal houses, the French Bourbon dynasty, and the Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary, disputed the Spanish crown from 1701 to 1715, with battles fought across Europe and involving most of the European powers.
At the start of the war, Catalan allegiances were divided between the two candidates, the Bourbon Philip of Anjou and the Habsburg pretender, Archduke Charles. But subsequently, Catalonia and other parts of the Crown of Aragon became major strongholds of support for the Austrians and their main allies who included the British, the Dutch and the Portuguese. Meanwhile, the Crown of Castile (in alliance with France) supported Philip. One reason for growing Catalan opposition to the Bourbons was the punitive Nueva Planta Decrees imposed on the defeated Kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia in 1707, abolishing their constitutions and imposing a new centralised state structure. It was clear that Catalonia would undergo a similar fate if defeated. However, for European strategic reasons, most of the major powers in the war made peace at the Treaty of Utrecht in April 1713, accepting Philip’s authority in Spain and effectively abandoning Catalonia and Majorca to their fate.
In this context, many areas of Catalonia opted to capitulate to Philip’s combined Spanish and French forces. However, Barcelona decided to resist. The city was surrounded by 22 July 1713, but, led by Rafael Casanova for most of the next 14 months, withstood siege, bombardments and attacks. It was not until the summer of 1714, when Bourbon commander the Duke of Berwick took control of the invading forces and toughened the siege, that resistance broke down. Berwick massed his forces on the north-eastern side of Barcelona, close to the current location of the Parc de la Ciutadella, and after several attacks were resisted, the city fell to an assault on 11 September. (SOURCE)
The Nueva Planta Decrees and Reclamations of Catalonia’s Historic Rights
[edit]Following Philip V’s victory, the Nueva Planta Decrees already imposed on Valencia and Aragon were applied to the remaining components of the former Crown of Aragon, which had previously been structured as a confederation of individual polities or kingdoms, of which the Principality of Catalonia was one (XXX the most important? in some respects?).
Thus, Catalonia’s legal jurisdictions and institutions of self-government, many of which had existed for hundreds of years (Source?), were abolished by Philip V, in favour of a regime based on the more authoritarian monarchist system used in Castile, and which often discriminated in favour of Castilian interests. The centralist policies also included major attacks on the status and use of the Catalan language and the closure of Catalan universities. In addition, Philip ordered the construction of the huge Ciutadella fortress in Barcelona to control the city militarily, for which a large section of the neighbourhood of La Ribera was demolished. (sources generally)
The Decrees of Nueva Planta remained in force for most of the next century and were not definitively abolished until 1833, when the absolutist powers of the Bourbon monarchy came to an end. However, Spain subsequently retained the centralised political structure imposed on the Catalans and the rest of the Crown of Aragon by Philip V, although also paradoxically maintaining the exception of the Basque Country and Navarre which had not been forced to surrender all their own special rights and jurisdictions by the Bourbon monarchs.
Calls for the restoration of Catalonia’s historic rights were made as early as XXXX found a voice in a variety of contexts in the 18th and 19th centuries: ranging from the grievances expressed in the rarely convoked parliamentary Cortes in the absolutist era, to the popular sentiment of Barcelona residents against the continuing existence of the Ciutadella fortress on their doorstep, as well as the conservative Carlist movement, which was responsible for three wars in 19th century Spain and in Catalonia won support particularly from rural and conservative people who wanted a monarchy that was more sympathetic to Catalan interests.
It should also be said that one of the reasons the system imposed by the Nueva Planta decrees was so irritating to the Catalans was because it was only partially successful: while it imposed an enduring political structure, the actual control from Madrid was in the long run too weak either to crush Catalan language and culture or to have a strong limiting effect on the 19th century economic modernisation which made Catalonia one of the most prosperous areas in the Spanish state.
First commemorations of 11 September (1886-1909)
[edit]The first commemorations of Catalonia's 11 September took place in the late 19th century, in the broad context of the Renaixença, a revival of interest in Catalan culture, language and history which had begun in the 1830s. It was also concurrent with similar moves to create commemorative days with nationalist significance in other European countries: in 1880, France instituted its 14 July commemoration of the assault on the Bastille, while in the same year Portugal established 10 June as a national day to mark the third centenary of the death of the poet Luís de Camões.
The first act of commemoration of 11 September was a mass held on that day in 1886 in Barcelona's church of Santa Maria del Mar, in honour of those who died defending Catalan liberties in 1714, many of whom had been buried in a mass grave in the Fossar de les Moreres, the cemetery beside Santa Maria del Mar. The ceremony in 1886 was incomplete due to the prohibition of the sermon which was to have been delivered by the Canon of Vic, Jaume Collell, although it is not clear whether the removal of the sermon was an initiative of the Catholic church hierarchy, or whether there was also police pressure. At the same time, the act was criticised by Republicans on the grounds of its religious nature, and Jaume Collell was also the target of their criticism for the strongly pro-Catalan and pro-Catholic terms of his exposition. Thus, in this very first commemoration, two common and often-intertwined themes of 11 September events were present: censorship and repression of the celebration by the authorities, depending on their level of support for Catalan nationalism; and disagreement among different groups of Catalans about the most appropriate emphasis for the commemoration.
The mass on 11 September did not immediately become an annual event, and the next key date in the evolution of the day was in 1888, when the Barcelona City Council erected a statue of Rafael Casanova, leader of the besieged city of Barcelona in 1714. The statue, originally part of a group of eight statues of Catalan historical figures erected for the 1888 Universal Exposition and located in Saló Sant Joan (now Passeig de Lluís Companys), gradually became a key reference point for the acts of 11 September.
From 1890, a regular evening remembrance of the 1714 martyrs was organised in Barcelona by the group Foment Catalanista. Commemorative acts for 11 September expanded in the years that followed to other Catalan cities and towns, and over time the types of commemorative activities tended to be similar: masses in honour of those died defending Barcelona and Catalonia in 1714, historical conferences, learned speeches, musical performances, poetry readings and performances of plays based on the events of 1714. In Barcelona, when the meeting agenda was finished, it was common for those attending to leave the venue as a group and form a procession to the statue of Rafael Casanova, to pay homage. From 1899 there are press records of floral tributes being deposited at the Casanova statue, another element that was to become traditional. In the years that followed groups from all over Catalonia began to transport their wreaths and bouquets to the statue in Barcelona.
The holding of a special mass in honour of those who died in 1714, as had occurred in 1886, became an annual event from 1900 onwards at the central Barcelona church of Sants Just i Pastor.
The 1901 commemoration at the Rafael Casanova monument introduced another element that was to become a part of 11 September at some points in its history: confrontations with the police took place, which ended with 30 people being arrested. A further demonstration four days later to protest against the arrests attracted 12,000 people. With the arrests, the nature of the festival began to change from cultural and elegiac to an assertion of political rights, and attendance at 11 September events grew, especially among politicised Catalan youth.
The year 1905 saw the creation of a organising committee to coordinate the different events. A further innovation that year was that Barcelona residents were encouraged by the organisers to decorate their own balconies with senyera flags as well as depositing their own floral tributes to Casanova. The Civil Government responded by banning these practices, and severely fining the organisers, but these activities soon became popularly established.
Thus, by the first decade of the twentieth century, the 11 September celebrations had become consolidated as an annual popular expression of Catalan nationalist feeling. The only year in this decade when there was very little commemoration on 11 September was in 1909 – when the Barcelona authorities suspended the usual activities due to the extreme political tension remaining after the violent street confrontations of Tragic Week.
Popularity Alternating with Prohibition (1910-1975)
[edit]The central period of the 20th Century saw the 11 September commemorations alternately experiencing, on the one hand, waves of popularity (from 1910 until 1923, and then from 1931-38) and on the other hand, outright prohibition - under the Spanish dictatorships of Primo de Rivera (1924-30) and Franco (1939-75).
The growing popularity of the festival in the early part of the 20th century ensured that for the 1914 commemorations marking the bicentenary of the fall of Barcelona, special activities were planned, including the relocation of the Rafael Casanova statue to the spot where the Catalan leader fell wounded in the 1714 battle, corresponding to the intersection of the streets Ronda de Sant Pere and Carrer Alí Bei, the current location of the monument. The changing political context was reflected by the creation in 1914 of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, symbolically combining the four Catalan provinces into a single administrative unit for the first time since 1714, although this new grouping lacked any real power. In these years the participation of the Barcelona City Council and other municipalities in the events of 11 September was growing, although it varied according to the political make-up of the councils.
However, this era was also marked by political instability with conflict between the growing labour movement and the forces of conservative capitalism. There were supporters of Catalanist groups on both sides of this divide. The culmination of this period, the commemoration of 11 September, 1923, was a very large event, with more than a thousand floral offerings presented, celebration all over Catalonia and a level of institutional participation. In subsequent demonstrations, 17 people were injured - 5 police officers and 12 demonstrators. The President of the Mancomunitat made a personal complaint to the Civil Governor. However, the panorama almost immediately changed: on 13 September the Captain General of the army in Barcelona, Miguel Primo de Rivera, staged the coup d’étât which installed him as dictator of Spain. The coup was not prompted by the events of 11 September, although the disturbances in Barcelona caused sufficient outrage in the military that the takeover was brought forward two days from the date originally planned.
Under the dictatorship, the 11 September commemorations were prohibited. However, some clandestine activities continued. At one of these, on 11 September, 1924, the architect Antoni Gaudi was arrested while entering an unadvertised commemorative mass, outside the church of Sants Just i Pastor. He was taken to the police station and eventually fined 50 pessetes for refusing to switch languages from Spanish to Catalan when addressing the police.
With the fall of Primo de Rivera in 1930, the subsequent 1931 proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic and the restoration of Catalonia's own Generalitat government, the celebration of 11 September was not only restored to legality but also received its definitive push. The 1931 commemoration was preceded by the overwhelming-approved plebiscite on Catalonia’s planned Statute of Autonomy – defining Catalonia's status of self-government within Spain - and that of 1932 by the passing of the Statute itself only two days before, on September 9. At noon on 11 September 1932, it was estimated that there were two hundred thousand people gathered in front of the Casanova monument. An observer in 1933 commented on how the festive atmosphere of those years was something new: the attendance by entire families and huge multitudes in the early 1930s contrasted with earlier times when those who took part were convinced militants and passionate youths who thus “became strong candidates for a trip to the Modelo” – Barcelona’s prison. As well, left-wing views were now clearly dominant in the Catalan nationalist movement, with the Republican Left of Catalonia being the most important Catalan political party in the 1930s.
As the decade of the 1930s went on, the shadows over this new democratic dawn grew and this was also reflected in the commemorations of 11 September. The tone of the 1935 events to mark the day was quite different due to the fact that the Spanish government had suspended Catalonia’s autonomy and imprisoned its leaders following the Events of 6 October, 1934. The commemorations during the Spanish Civil War, from 1936 to 1938 were held under more austere conditions, and floral tributes were not made. There was a strong anti-fascist emphasis in proceedings, especially in the 1937 acts when the anarchist union CNT took part. By the 1938 commemorations, Catalonia was already militarily isolated from the rest of Republican Spain and discourses on 11 September drew analogies with the 1714 Siege of Barcelona.
During Franco’s dictatorship (1939-75) the commemoration was once again prohibited, and it was relegated to the family, private and clandestine spheres. The monument to Rafael Casanova was removed. The Catalan resistance group Front Nacional de Catalunya (FNC) illegally handed out leaflets, flew the senyera flag, and organised other symbolic activities, and on 11 September 1946, young FNC member Josep Corbella was shot dead by police while putting up posters. However, the imprisonment of most FNC members caused the organisation's efforts to decline.
It was not until the 1960s that new initiatives for public commemorations of 11 September saw the light of day. In 1964 a committee to celebrate the Diada was able to meet, taking advantage of the coincidence of the 250th anniversary of 1714 with the Francoist celebration of “25 Years of Peace” – since the end of the Civil War. As a result around 3,000 people gathered on 11 September 1964 in Barcelona. Isolated acts of defiance as well as clandestine commemorations continued to be the pattern for 11 September actions for the remaining years of the Franco regime. A feature of the organisation of these actions was the involvement of illegal left-wing political parties and trade unions, as well as a notable presence of post-war immigrants to Catalonia from other parts of Spain who had taken up the Catalan cause.
Transition to Democracy and Institutionalisation (1976-2011)
[edit]With the end of Franco’s dictatorship, it gradually became possible to commemorate 11 September freely. The first legal celebration of the Diada after Franco’s death was called by the Assemblea de Catalunya, a group representing a broad spectrum of Catalan civil society, and took place in the town of Sant Boi de Llobregat, on the outskirts of Barcelona, on 11 September 1976. The centre of this small town was completely choked by the tens of thousands of people attending. A year later, in 1977, the Assemblea organised the first celebration allowed in Barcelona itself, which undoubtedly had the largest attendance of any 11 September act up until then: an estimated one million people gathered in a completely peaceful and civic rally in central Barcelona under the slogan "Liberty, Amnesty and Statute of Autonomy". At a point in time when decisions were being made rapidly on the shape of post-Franco Spain, the expression of Catalan aspirations on such a massive scale appeared to have almost instant political consequences: on 29 September, the Generalitat of Catalonia was reinstated, to be provisionally headed by Josep Taradellas who returned from exile in France on 23 October. The new Catalan Statute of Autonomy was approved in 1979.
11 September was officially proclaimed as the National Day of Catalonia in 1980, in the first law passed by the reconstituted Parliament of Catalonia. The preamble to the law gives the following background:
“For the national revival of a people, one of the essential steps is, undoubtedly, the recovery of its institutions of self-government. It is also essential to assert and celebrate the importance of all those symbols that a community identifies with, since these symbols represent the full complexity of the historic, social and cultural factors that are the roots of a national reality. Among the most outstanding of these symbols is the existence of a national day, in which the nation celebrates its values, remembers its history and the people who were its protagonists, and makes plans for the future. During their times of struggle the Catalan people have come to celebrate a festive day, the day of 11 September, as the Day of Catalonia. A festive day which, despite symbolising the painful memory of the loss of Catalan freedoms, on 11 September 1714, and an attitude of self-assertion and active resistance to oppression, also represents the hope of a complete national revival. Now, as Catalonia resumes its pathway of liberty, the representatives of the people believe that the Legislative Chamber should give institutional approval to that which the Nation has already unanimously adopted.”
Barcelona’s Rafael Casanova statue was restored to its pre-Franco position in Ronda Sant Pere, and across Catalonia new monuments and places of remembrance were established. Once 11 September became officially the Catalan National Day, the commemorations were presided over by representatives of the different levels of government and other institutions. The tradition of laying floral tributes at key monuments (in Barcelona, at the statue of Casanova and the Fossar de les Moreres) once again became a key act of the ceremonies, while a range of different Catalan groups and organised rallies, concerts and other activities throughout the day. The tradition of hanging flags on their balconies for the day also returned: usually senyeres, although sometimes estelades.
Gradually, during the 1980s and 1990s, the floral tributes to Rafael Casanova acquired a more institutional character while the popular rallies on the afternoon of the National Day tended to attract smaller crowds, although there were some innovative activities such as the “Liberty Festival” organised annually since 2000 by the Catalan civil group Omnium Cultural. Since 2004, the main institutional act on 11 September has been a public ceremony organised by the Generalitat in Barcelona's Parc de la Ciutadella, combining speeches, performances and historical memory.
11 September and the Independence Movement since 2012
[edit]The National Day has taken on a renewed significance for Catalans in recent years, connected with the rise in support for Catalan independence. From 2010 onwards, the number of Catalans who say they favour the independence of Catalonia from Spain increased greatly, in some polls to more than 50%, and since 2012, the Day of 11 September has become key for the pro-independence movement.
On 11 September, 2012, a massive demonstration was held in Barcelona, organised by the pro-independence group Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC), based on the slogan “Catalunya, nou estat d'Europa” – “Catalonia, new European state”. Estimates for the size of the protest range from the organisers’ figure of 2 million, down to 600,000 as stated by the Spanish Government’s Catalonia delegation.
The success and scale of this pro-independence show of strength had a direct and immediate effect on political developments in Catalonia. Two weeks after the protest, Catalan President Artur Mas called a snap election in Catalonia for 11 November 2012 with independence as issue, committing his CiU party alliance to hold a referendum on the issue of independence from Spain. Although CiU lost votes, the election returned a clear parliamentary majority in favour of a referendum and this became a priority for the new Catalan government which Mas led.
Another symbolic consequence of the 2012 march was a change in Catalan flag-flying habits. After 11 September 2012, independence movement leaders suggested that Catalans leave their flags permanently on display until independence was won. This idea caught on and since then the sight of Catalan flags hanging on balconies has become common all year round in all parts of Catalonia (especially, the pro-independence Estelada flag).
The following year, in 2013, the ANC organized another mass event for the National Day. This time the plan was to create a human chain for independence, which was given the name of the Via Catalana –the Catalan Way. The chain stretched unbroken for more than 400 km across Catalonia from the French border in the north to the Valencian Community in the south, with 1.6 million participants according to Catalonia's Department of the Interior.
For 2014, to mark the 300th anniversary of the fall of Barcelona, a major programme of events was organised throughout the year, while the referendum promised in 2012 was set down to occur on 9 November, despite the opposition of the Spanish Government. On the National Day, the major pro-Catalonia civil groups ANC and Omnium organised a third consecutive mass rally. The “V” as it was popularly known, filled Barcelona’s Avinguda Diagonal and Gran Via on 11 September. As with the previous two year, the atmosphere was festive and relaxed, and again, the average crowd estimate was in the order of a million people, this time forming a giant red and yellow mosaic in the design of the senyera.
On 11 September 2015, the groups ANC and Omnium Cultural are planning another massive rally, this time in Barcelona’s AvingudaMeridiana.
See also
[edit]External links
[edit]- National Day of Catalonia
- Documents about the case of the catalans dated on 1714, at the House of Lords, UK.
- Journal of the House of Lords: volume 19, 2 August 1715, Further Articles of Impeachment against E. Oxford brought from H.C. Article VI.
Category:History of Catalonia Category:History of Spain Catalonia Category:September observances Category:Public holidays in Spain