Chestnut Festival (All Saints)Castanyada

La Castanyada is a traditional Catalan festival held on All Saints’ Eve (Oct 31) to remember the dead by eating seasonal foods. Typical fare includes roasted chestnuts (castanyes), sweet potatoes, and 'panellets' (pine-nut marzipan balls) 1. In Barcelona and Catalonia, street vendors (castanyeres) sell hot chestnuts and cold sweet wine; families light bonfires and attend church. The festival blends Catholic and pagan elements, akin to Halloween, and is noted in Catalonia for its distinctive foods and customs 2 1. It is less about spectacle and more a quiet family tradition with schools often holding castanyada parties (sometimes with sangria and ball de bastons).

Castanyada has unclear origins but is deeply embedded in Catalan fall customs. Some link it to 18th-century funeral feasts or Gaelic Samhain; in Catalonia it coincided with the ancient 'vigil of All Saints' to honor the dead with food offerings 1. Over time, it became secularized into a community event with symbolic foods. The iconic 'la castanyera' (an old woman selling chestnuts in costume) has become a nostalgic symbol of Catalan identity 2.