We’re back from Barcelona, but other commitments today have kept me from even attempting to sort my photos completely, so you’ll need to wait another day or so before the main tales from the journey commence. However, today is Father’s Day in Spain, which is worthy of note. Although we left Barcelona yesterday, luckily for us the traditional sweet for Father’s Day was already on offer over the weekend. So, of course we had to try it.

First, why is today, March 19th, Father’s Day in Spain? Go to the head of the class if you knew that today is St. Joseph’s Day in the Catholic Church. That’s Joseph as in Mary and Joseph, who was of course a rather famous father. Or step-father, I suppose. In any case, in Catholic countries like Spain, March 19th is Father’s Day.

Regarding the dessert for St. Joseph’s Day, consider that Barcelona is in the Catalan region of Spain. So, what’s a famous dessert from that region that you may already be familiar with? Why, Crema Catalana, of course. It turns out that Crema Catalana is actually the traditional St. Joseph’s Day dessert in Barcelona – it was originally made just for Father’s Day, although nowadays you can get it year-round. In one of the places where we tried it, it was designated as something special for St. Joseph’s day, although it tasted like a regular Crema Catalana to us, with perhaps a little bit more cinnamon than normal.

Back in Bolzano,  Father’s Day was also celebrated on March 19th, and it also marked a special brief reappearance during Lent of those Berliner doughnuts in honor of the occasion. Kind of like a special Father’s Day dessert, I guess.  Here’s a link to the post I wrote about that a couple of years ago.

To try to tie all this together, I’ll close today with a photo from Barcelona of a little boy listening to some men playing music in a square in Barcelona:

Musicians in the square, Barcelona

It turned out that this group, which we initially thought must be playing traditional Spanish music, was actually from Italy. Go figure.

But that seems perfect to tie together elements of a post that

• appears on a blog about life in Germany, yet
• talks about a special holiday in Spain, which is related to
• a longer post about the same holiday in Italy on a “life in Bolzano” blog

Of course, the little boy also adds the perfect touch to note that it is Father’s Day in Spain and Italy today, don’t you think?

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BTW, it’s not Father’s Day today in Germany. That comes later in the year. I’ll be sure to alert you to any special desserts here as they occur.