(Image source: www.barcelona.cat)
Christmas in Barcelona, Spain has been replaced with a “different” kind of celebration that includes a “responsible consumption fair” and “recycling and sustainability-related” activities.
The website dedicated to the winter solstice celebration in Plaça de Catalunya reads, “Plaça de Catalunya will be the centre of a different kind of Christmas.”
According to the website, observing the winter solstice is a “good way of enjoying the festivities without highlighting their most consumerist aspects and of showing the people of Barcelona there are other ways of experiencing Christmas.”
Although this winter solstice celebration will be divorced from the “consumerist aspects,” there will be a fourteen-day “responsible consumption fair” with an emphasis on “solidarity-economy associations and businesses” that foster “responsible and local consumption.”
Activities at the winter solstice celebration include “recycling and sustainability-related ones to magic, circus performances, puppet shows, installations, sports displays and participatory games.” There will also be a light show involving fountains.
“All that, for experiencing the winter solstice,” the website reads.
The winter solstice celebration is described as a “different kind of Christmas” twice.
The Spanish language La Informacion notes there is no mention of religious festivities on the “Christmas in Plaça de Catalunya” page.
The celebration will run from Dec. 19-Jan. 4.