For 50 years now, the Occitan cultural center of Albigeois has organized the Saint-Jean festival (Janada in Occitan) in Albi. This year again, a gigantic fire will crackle on Saturday June 29 at 10 p.m., Place Sainte-Cécile. It is co-organized with the city’s French-Occitan bilingual schools.
To celebrate this fiftieth anniversary, two exceptional days of celebration are offered to the children of these schools and to the Albigensians on June 28 and 29.
From the beginning, the idea of the Occitan cultural center of Albigeois was to be closer to a celebration given in Albi in 1492. That year all the towns of the Kingdom celebrated the birth of the Dauphin, Charles- Orlant, son of King Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany. This text specifies all the festivities offered to the Albigensians, with strolls (ressega), costumes and music, meals, processions.
The Tarn music and dance conservatory, the Cordais group La Talvera, the Bufarèls de Castres, the Albigensian group BrindAir’Oc and the Aveyron groups Charpentier /Delclaux and M’Braia will bring Occitan culture to life in the streets and squares of Albigensian . They all draw from the popular Occitan repertoire an energy that triggers the dancing machine. Songs or farandoles in a simple, friendly, cheerful atmosphere, inviting all audiences to participate.
Traditional instruments will be in the spotlight such as the Black Mountain bagpipes, made of goatskin (craba in oc) and the oboe of the Lacaune mountains (graile in oc).
As soon as the children carrying torches arrive on Place Sainte-Cécile, the consuls, as usual, will launch their famous “que la Janada s’abrande” (may Saint John’s Day be set ablaze) and everyone, big and small, will surround the fire of a joyous frenzied round.
