Legends of Girona - Pt4 El Tarlá

Hey guys and girls!

This week I'm bringing  two versions of the same story. Which one do you prefer?

Today I'm telling you the story of the “Tarlá”.

Version 1

The 28^th of August used to be the day when people celebrated the San Augustín day, and it was a huge party, with a lot of traditional and special moments. Each year, one person was elected to be the responsible and guardian of the image of the saint. They used to make some kind of procession, bringing the saint from the house of his guardian towards the Sant Feliu church, and then the party started. On a stage prepared for this event, there was a contest to decide who would be the king of the party, called “Tarlá”, which means “Crazy”. So, you can imagine the kind of performance they presented back then. He had as a mission, bringing laughter and happiness everywhere he went, for the whole period of the festivity.

 

 

 When the "craziest" Tarlá was chosen, he was treated like an actual king!  He had this kind of special car, where he sat on, and made this march through the city. On the next morning , the actual Saint’s day, there was a religious solemnity and then the Tarlá went to visit the houses of the neighbors in order to collect the money spent to prepare the party. After that, they went back to this big saloon where delicious food was served, and some people did sardanas (traditional Catalan dance) presentations while the Tarlá was watching and at the same time entertaining the people by making his crazy and funny stuff.

Version 2 (The best one!)

(Not trying to make your mind, but this version of the story is really great!)

Many years ago, around the 19^th century, a very severe plague had reached this region. People were all very sick and unable to leave their houses for weeks and weeks. The Argentería street was one of the saddest areas and the most affected by the plague.
Since the disease was so bad, people were isolated in quarantine, and the street was closed with some iron bars so nobody could pass.

 

Among all that depressing environment, there was one of the neighbors , who was a very cheerful and funny guy, who decided to try to distract people from all the disease and happiness, so he was making crazy and funny things to make people laugh, even hanging himself on the iron bars so people could see him and forget, at least for a brief moment about all the problems.

 

After a few years a straw puppet  was placed in Argentería street and he’s always there for the important festivities of Girona.  Now, the name Tarlá is not used anymore, now, he’s called Xato.
A lot of families come with their kids every time the Tarlá/Xato is hanging on Argentería street,so they can control the puppet and make him spin around the iron bar while they’re singing  “Viva el Xato!”

 

I hope you liked at least one of the stories! See you next week for  more legends!