* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
In La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos we can see how Girona encourages creativity among boys and girls by inviting them to create fanalets to connect with the tradition of waiting for the Three Wise Men.
In the images we can see some of the lanterns created by school students and that have been exposed to the public this Christmas.
As the City Council remembers, “many and many years ago, boys and girls went to wait for the Kings with a bunch of lit lavender that they made themselves.”
Lavender is a plant found in the forest and it smells very good. “But for about a hundred years, boys and girls have carried a lantern,” because “it seems that this custom began in the mountain villages of the Girona regions.”
Later, the tradition of lanterns expanded to the city of Girona and other cities in the Gironès valley and, finally, throughout Catalonia.
