Easter in Barcelona: La Mona de Pascua

Today we celebrated the end of Easter our own way. Easter Monday is a holiday in Catalonia and in other parts of Spain while in Madrid for example it is a normal working day. For this special celebration it is customary that the Godfather or Godmother brings La Mona de Pascua to kids in the family. Monas may adopt many different shapes and are built on top of a cake or look like tortell de reis (a sort of roll making a circle) although lately the design is so sophisticated that the base is less important and it ends up being an haute cuisine work of art made of dark chocolate and nothing else. Of course it can simply consist of a chocolate egg or animals like those in today's picture but most of them resemble toys either representing famous characters or elaborate houses, ships and a long etc. Small chicks and colored feathers are very common as decoration. There are slight variations in traditions, ingredients and shapes depending on the region so I have sticked to the case of Catalonia. By the way, the word mona comes from Arabic munna meaning provision to the mouth. I hope you have enjoyed these Easter holidays.