Trade Shows, Chessnuts and Lots of "Panellets"

This October we continued growing, working in new places, new challenges, new trade shows and meeting new people. The happiness we feel every time we see your satisfied face when you like the result of our work is the best reward we can have. 

The recipe of all our bespoke designs contains a lot of simmered professionalism and experience, without forgetting our special and distinctive ingredient:  love. Speaking of recipes, we would love to share with you our October tradition, a festivity called “La Castanyada” in Catalan. 

Catalan traditions: “la Castanyada”

In Catalonia (and also in Aragon, the Balearic Islands and Valencia), for many years (end of the 18th Century), we have had a tradition on the 31st of October (the Eve of All Saints' Day,  November 1st). In many places, the well-known Halloween festival is celebrated, but here we celebrate la Castanyada. This pagan festival linked the end of the harvest and the good weather with the worship of the souls of dead relatives. At these funeral feasts, dried fruits were eaten; mainly chestnuts, which were roasted while the three parts of the rosary were prayed. The bells were rung constantly on the eve of All Saints' Day, and so that the bell ringers would have enough strength to ring them all night long, they also ate chestnuts, sweet potatoes and panellets (small sweets made essentially of marzipan and decorated with pine nuts). These were a great source of energy. They accompanied these foods with sweet wine called “moscatell” to keep the cold out of their bodies. 

Today, children associate this festivity with “la Castanyera”, an elderly woman, full of kindness and dressed in modest clothes (long wide skirt, black apron, headscarf and woollen scarf tied around her neck). Nowadays, there is also a male version, “el Castanyer”, who wears trousers, an apron and a beret. Both characters roast chestnuts in an oven and give them to the people inside a newspaper cone to warm them up.

We also continue with the tradition of panellets, which are nowadays cooked, moulded and decorated with the family and especially with the children, so that this tradition lasts over time. 

Between fairs and festivals

After sharing with you a little bit of our traditions, we would like to tell you about all the stops we have made along the way to help you with your stand projects, and to ensure that the design meets your needs. 

The first stop last October was in Granada, to celebrate the SECOT (SOCIEDAD ESPAÑOLA DE CIRUGÍA ORTOPÉDICA Y TRAUMATOLOGÍA) congress at el Palacio de Congresos de Granada. From there we took a plane to Palma de Mallorca, where we attended the 17th ANECORM (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MATERIAL RESOURCE COORDINATING NURSES) congress at the “Palacio de Congresos” in Palma de Mallorca. 

From the Balearic Islands, we travelled to Italy, specifically to Milan, to build a few stands at the CPHI GLOBAL (CONVENTION ON PHARMACEUTICAL INGREDIENTS) fair at the Fiera Milano exhibition centre, which hosted more than 2000 exhibitors. 

Next stop, Prague. There we participated in the FFF NATO (FUTURE FORCES FORUM of NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION) at PVA EXPO PRAGUE. And we return home to attend MRO EUROPE (commercial air transport maintenance, repair and overhaul event) and build another stand at the Fira de Barcelona. 
The “Palacio de Ferias y Congresos de Málaga” was waiting for us to shine with another of our stands at the 75th edition of the SEORL (SOCIEDAD ESPAÑOLA DE OTORRINOLARINGOLOGÍA Y CIRUGÍA DE CABEZA Y CABEZA Y CUELLO). 

We ended the month of October quite far from home, but happy for the new opportunities in other parts of the world. We travelled to Qatar to give shape to one of our custom designs at the MILIPOL QATAR fair (a major event of the security and defence sector) at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC). 

“La Castanyada” was waiting for us on our return home. Between chestnuts, panellets, sweet potatoes, laughter and the company of our families and friends, the Smart Room Barcelona team was able to recover energy to start the month of November with even more strength. 

Our services in the Middle East

If you are interested in a stand project for trade fairs or congresses in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia or Qatar, we can help you. Although we have been working in Dubai for 3 years, we can now tell you that we have had the opportunity to work in other fairs in the Middle East, so we can offer you our services in these countries. We will be happy to create a tailor-made stand design proposal according to your needs to make your products/services shine and dazzle at the show.

Get in contact with Smart Room Barcelona!