In Barcelona and catalunya All Saints Day is celebrated La Castanyada - chestnut time. This is tradition of eating roasted chestnuts, sweet potatoes and "panellets" and drinking sweet wine. You can get chestnuts and sweet potatoes from “castanyers i castanyeres" who roast them on charcoal grills and sell them from decrepit old street corner stalls. A bag of 12 chestnuts is around € 2,50 and a sweet potato goes for between €4. The idea is to eat something warm as the weather turns cold, but often when the first chestnut stalls appear on the streets of Barcelona in early October, many people on the street are still wearing short-sleeved shirts and need cooling down rather than warming up.
What are Panellets? Panellets are small, round and sweet cakes made in all different varieties. The most typical one is ground almonds in a dough and layered with pine nuts, but you can find many other delicious panellets with almonds, coconut, lemon, chocolate and many other flavours. You buy the panellets at your local Patisseria or baker. If you are near the Rambla de Catalunya above Plaza Catalunya, then a good place to have panellets is Pastelerias Mauri.
Many famiies celebrate All Saints day with a meal together and a church visit to honour Catholic Saints and a visit to the cemetary to honour departed family members with flowers and wreaths.
