susana tornero

Llegeix-me en Català
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Sometimes we do things without thinking why. For instance, to knock on wood for good luck. Rereading Tony Allan’s The Mythic Bestiary I discovered that this gesture comes from a German woodcutter’s habit: they used tap gently the trunk of a venerable tree, as if they knocked on the door, asking permission before beginning their task. It was a way of paying their respects to the Waldgeist, which literary means «spirit of the forest».

In many mythologies of the world appear similar characters, a sort of forest keepers, in charge of reminding us the need of protecting nature. Curiously, the cultures where these kind of myths are still alive are the ones which are fearing the most the climate change. Occidental culture, on the contrary, seems to have almost deleted them from their imaginary in order to exploit nature without regrets.

Fortunately, not everyone turn their backs on nature. There is people fighting for a new life model, with nature and for nature, like Fundació Emys, and I like to think that they are, in some way, the new forest keepers.

Next Saturday 27th April, Fundació Emys celebrates the second Festinat, an environmental meeting for learning to protect and enjoy nature in a respectful way. I will be there doing what I like the most: to tell stories from around the world. Maybe some of these stories will help us to see nature with other eyes, or at least, to think before doing things. I knock on wood for the success of the meeting, with the spirits of the forest’s permission.

Saturday 27th April at 11:30 h
Festinat, the nature meeting point
Folktales about nature (in Catalan)
Can Moragues – Riudarenes (La Selva, Girona)
Information and tickets: festinat.cat

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