The Eye

Barcelona, September 2017

Photo: ACN

Sep 11, 2017: the definitive Diada?

Oc­to­ber 1, 2017 could well turn out to be the most im­por­tant date of the year in Cat­alo­nia, if the in­de­pen­dence ref­er­en­dum promised by the Cata­lan gov­ern­ment goes ahead. Yet, be­fore that, an­other –equally im­por­tant– date come first: Sep­tem­ber 11.

Nat­u­rally, Cat­alo­nia’s na­tional day has al­ways been im­por­tant for the coun­try, but in the past few years it has taken on extra sig­nif­i­cance. Ever since al­most two mil­lion peo­ple spon­ta­neously took to the streets of Barcelona on Sep­tem­ber 11 2012 to call for self-de­ter­mi­na­tion, the Diada –as the na­tional day is called– has be­come a ral­ly­ing point for a coun­try de­ter­mined to have its say about its po­lit­i­cal fu­ture at the bal­lot box.

Each Sep­tem­ber 11 in the past few years has had a focus, to fos­ter unity and par­tic­i­pa­tion while at­tract­ing media at­ten­tion. In pre­vi­ous years, we have seen such things as a human chain across the coun­try, or a huge V-sign that could be seen from the air, formed by demon­stra­tors in the cen­tre of Barcelona. This year, just two weeks be­fore the ref­er­en­dum, par­tic­i­pants in the demon­stra­tion to take place in cen­tral Barcelona will at a given mo­ment re­move their tops to re­veal the 2017 protest t-shirt, thereby cre­at­ing a flo­res­cent yel­low wave de­scrib­ing a huge plus sign.

The t-shirts, which were pre­sented at the end of June (see pic­ture), were in­spired by the flu­o­res­cent yel­low tabards worn by the vol­un­teers who every year make the event pos­si­ble. The t-shirts, which have a large ’Sí’ on the front, en­cour­ag­ing peo­ple to vote yes in the ref­er­en­dum, are avail­able at the Cata­lan Na­tional As­sem­bly web­site shop: botiga.as­sem­blea.cat, and cost 15 euros for adult sizes and 8 euros for chil­dren’s sizes. Don’t go to the demo with­out one!

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