|La mona de Pasqua|
| In Catalonia, the most important Easter tradition is the “mona”.
The origin of the word “mona” comes probably from Morocco where “mona” means “present”. This word probably originated the latin “muna” with the same meaning”. In Catalonia, the “mona” is the present that the godfather (or the godmother) give to his godson in Easter.
This is a tradition from the 15th century. In its origins the “mona” was a round cake similar as a big donut with some boiled eggs in it. The number of eggs was the same of the age of de godson (no less than 2 and no more than 12).
During the Lent (40 days before Easter) the Catholic Church prohibited to his faithful to eat meat and eggs. People kept all the eggs from the hens until Easter and put some of them on the “mona”.
Later, confectioners made cakes more sophisticated and the eggs were substituted by figures made in chocolate. The first ones were figures of monkeys (in Catalan, monkey is also “mona”).
Actually, we can buy the traditional “mona” at the south of Catalonia and in the Valencia Community, and in all Catalonia the modern cakes with chocolate or sugar figures from TV cartoons, Disney movies or the symbols of our football teams.
Some confectioners are very good artists who make his works in chocolate.
Rafael Badia i Berga, Spain