October 31, 2025
The Castanyada: fire, memory, and intangible heritage
Every 1st of November, the aroma of roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes fills the streets and homes of Catalonia. It is La Castanyada, a celebration that, beyond its popular and gastronomic appearance, is rooted in an ancient tradition linked to the memory of the departed.
From Tàrrega —land of autumn, fire, and roots— CIRCLE Corporation promotes a sustainable vision of funerary heritage and the customs that keep alive the connection between people, their land, and their ancestors.
A tradition with funerary origins
The origin of La Castanyada dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries, when families gathered on the eve of All Saints’ Day to keep vigil for the deceased. While rosaries were recited in their memory, embers were lit to warm the home, and simple foods were shared: chestnuts, sweet potatoes, panellets, and sweet wine.
The chestnuts, symbols of rebirth due to their rounded shape and hard shell, represented the soul passing through fire to reach eternal peace. In many rural areas, people believed that each roasted chestnut symbolized a soul freed from purgatory. Families offered them as both a spiritual and earthly nourishment.
During these vigils, known as vetlles de Tots Sants, neighbors took turns keeping candles lit in honor of the departed. On those long nights of prayer, roasted chestnuts helped people endure the cold and stay awake. Over time, the groups of bell ringers and volunteers who tolled the bells in remembrance of the dead were also given chestnuts, bread, and wine as tokens of gratitude.
Thus was born La Castanyada: a tradition that united the fire of remembrance with the food of community.
From intimate ritual to popular festivity
Over time, La Castanyada lost its strictly religious character and evolved into a family and autumn celebration, though its essence remains tied to remembrance. The castanyeres —women who roasted and sold chestnuts on the streets— became enduring symbols of both the season and Catalan culture.
Today, this tradition coexists with others of different origins, such as Halloween, but it maintains its Mediterranean warmth and humanity: families gather, share a meal, and remember those who are no longer here —without sadness, but with gratitude.
In this evolution lies an important lesson about funerary heritage: the customs born of death do not disappear; they transform to continue accompanying life.
Funerary heritage and cultural identity
In the recent 2024 Funeral Heritage Report by FIAT-IFTA, originally published in English and translated into Spanish thanks to the collaboration of PANASEF, this very dimension is highlighted: the value of intangible funerary heritage, composed of rituals, traditions, music, flavors, and gestures that keep collective memory alive.
The report emphasizes that preserving these practices does not mean being anchored in the past, but rather recognizing in them a shared language of respect, continuity, and humanity. From domestic altars to shared chestnuts, funerary heritage teaches us that memory, too, can be celebrated, cooked, and passed on.
Read the full FIAT-IFTA 2024 report
CIRCLE Corporation and memory as a sustainable horizon
For CIRCLE Corporation, La Castanyada symbolizes the balance between tradition, territory, and sustainability. A celebration born of silence and fire that today reminds us that honoring memory also means caring for the environment and strengthening human connections.
To remember those who came before us is, ultimately, an act of social and cultural responsibility. Every tradition we preserve contributes to a more conscious, inclusive, and humane model of development.
The fire that once accompanied prayers for the souls now illuminates our tables and conversations.
And within that flame lives on the idea that guides our work: to remember, to honor, and to celebrate — in harmony.
