ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on what Nora refers to as symbolic sites. It examines speeches of Jordi Pujol (the President of the Catalan Autonomous Government) delivered on National Day commemorations. The chapter proposes to consider the centenary commemorations of the First Convention for Catalan Autonomy (Bases de Manresa). The reason why commemorations are so important from the perspective of nation-building is because they strengthen what Halbwachs called the ‘habits of mind’, bringing about specific recollections of the past in the form of images. Commemorations are particularly useful when the sense of continuity of a nation has been lost through conquest or occupation or has been changed through revolution. The towns of Catalonia, but particularly Barcelona, awaken to hectic cultural activity which will last until late in the day. That historical memory seems to be one of the central components of national identity seems to be amply demonstrated by the recent experience of stateless nations both in Western and in Eastern Europe.
