In 1868, Pope Pius IX approved the decision to make La Mercè the patron saint of Barcelona. Since then, the citizens of Barcelona started celebrating their patronal festivals in September, at the same time that they also celebrated the end of the agricultural harvests they had had.
But it is in 1902, with Francesc Cambó, when the festival of La Mercè begins to be celebrated as a “Festa Major” and becomes the model for all the other major festivals that are celebrated in Catalonia. The festival of La Mercè faltered for a few years due to the civil war, the post-war period and during the Franco regime, but once it entered the era of democracy, La Mercè truly became a popular festival. Currently, during the days that La Mercè is celebrated, a great variety of fun activities can be found in the city of Barcelona such as concerts, parades, traditional dances, street art, “castellers” (human towers), giants and “capgrossos”, etc. And there are also La Mercè parades, which are particularly typical of Barcelona, that derived from the processions that were celebrated for Corpus Christi centuries ago.
In the religious sphere, a few years ago the traditional procession of our Mare de Deu de la Mercè was revived, which goes from the Basilica of La Mercè to the Cathedral, where the culmination of the procession takes place with the Holy Mass. In addition, on the Day of La Mercè, the Mass presided over by the Archbishop takes place in the Basilica and is attended by the civil and military authorities of Barcelona.
(Source: www.basilicadelamerce.com)
