Andorra la VellaThe first edition of The Mandongo sold out all available tickets, three hundred and fifty. Consul General, Eva Sansahas made a very good assessment of this popular day. “We thought that, being a new event, we would reach three hundred people at most, but we have seen that apart from exceeding the number, everyone has rated the party very well, both in terms of the gastronomic quality and in terms of the recovery of tradition”, said Sansa.
Early in the morning, the consuls delivered the aprons to the members of the new Brotherhood of the Mandongomade up of eighteen chefs or professional cooks, who from 10 am started to cut the different parts of the pig and prepare the guts and the mondongo to make the sausages.
While the food was being prepared, at 12 p.m., the opening ceremony took place, in which the Consul Major thanked Josep Maria Troguet, now president of both the Confraternity of Sant Antoni and the Confraternity of Mandongoin addition to having won the Tribute to the Citizen this 2024. Troguet has been very pleased with the recovery of this popular festival around the tradition of slaughtering the pig and has launched the proposal to celebrate – the one for Sant Asciscle and Santa Victòria, patrons of La Massana, a proposal that the Commune has already taken into consideration.
During the event, a tribute was paid to the actor, director and promoter of traditions, Xavi Fernandez. Eva Sansa assures that “Xavi has left his mark on La Massana, since apart from participating in different cultural actions he also created the character of Sisquet de Cal Sinquede, through which he brought us closer to the legends and traditions of the parish. We missed him today, because Mandongo is a party that aims to bring back the tradition of slaughtering the pig, which I’m sure he would have liked very much“. That’s why the gallows that Xavi Fernández had used to sing the Charms of Sant Antoni has been placed, with a big loop with the name of Sisquet de cal Sinquede, a character that has already taken root in the collective memory of country
The tribute act gave way to a panel discussion, moderated by the historian and journalist, Alfred LlahÃin which the godfathers and godmothers remembered how the pig was slaughtered in the past. It has been talked about the jobs that the men did, such as killing, quartering and cleaning the pig, as well as the tasks of the women butchers, who prepared the meat to make the sausages and sausages, as well as cleaning the guts and guts.
In addition, the women started working the day before, making other preparations, such as cooking the onion to integrate into the black sausage. They have also exposed various curiosities, such as the lunar cycles that governed the date of the party, or the fact that women who were menstruating that day could not prepare the sausages, because they believed that they would spoil. In addition, it was possible to see different photographs from more than forty years ago and old utensils that were used for the slaughter, thanks to the collaboration of the Grillaire Claveria, Sabaté and Cremat houses.
The central event of the day was the popular lunch which consisted of a trinxat, prepared by the Hotel Sant Gothard, accompanied by pork: loin, belly, jowl, sausage and pear sausage, which has been cooked with the stove ceded by Cal Sabaté. All the diners said that the dish was delicious and that they really enjoyed the day.