The day after Christmas is Boxing Day.

Or is it?
Here it is the Feast of Sant Esteve – St Stephen. As in the song Good King Wenceslas.  Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the feast of Stephen.
In Catalunya it is a public holiday and traditionally a day for families to visit and have lunch together. Yes you probably met each other the day before and the day before that,  but why not do it all again, but in a different house?
It was an excuse for me to borrow the wonderful cutlery again.

I love rolling out these parcels….

And to deck the table with pine cones and candles and a beautiful Christmassy table cloth borrowed from Tiffany

My friend Caren kindly dropped by to show me how to make the napkins into little fans. We sat on the sofa folding and fanning and the gorgeous Joel, who is about 9 months old, took his first crawl between us.

A wonderful moment and a nice memory of this day

Here as in many Catholic countries you have not only a birthday but a saints day to celebrate your namesake.

Saints days mean parties and presents.

So if you are called Esteve you get a second hit of gifts on December 26th.

Personally this would put me off calling my child Esteve as it seems to encourage greed at an already overloaded time of year but when I voiced this to ‘someone’  they seemed surprised that the thought had passed through my mind.  You see, it is usual here to name your child after someone else in your family and if your father was called Esteve then it is highly likely you will name your son after him.  Esteve/Stephen is a common name so I suppose thousands of little boys every year receive presents on December 24th and then again two days later. And if they have also adopted the northern custom of Santa Claus there will also be presents on December 25th.

Three days of presents!

Looking for information on this saint I found his name in Greek is Stephanos which means crown and he is the patron saint of horses, coffin makers, stone masons and against headaches.

What exactly is a Saints Day?

I like the idea of having one.

It is the celebration of the saint that shares your name.   I am playing with the idea of adopting Saint Catherine (of Alexandria) as mine. But what it means I am really not sure. Surely it must be more than presents and a meal with the family?  Is there some magic in a name which links us with ‘our’ saint?

And with all the other people with the same name?

For birthdays people here say ‘ Per molt anys’ (for many years) and I was surprised that they say it on the saint day too.
As an outsider – not only in nationality but in religion – I can’t quite get under the skin of these saints days and what they mean but one thing is clear to me – it is easier to remember someone’s saints day than their birthday and it is a nice custom to think today of all the Stephens I know