L’ou com balla is one of those traditions to which we Barcelonians have become accustomed and yet, seen from the outside, it is a resounding extravagance. For several days an egg “dances” on the vertical jet of a fountain, maintaining its balance without falling. The tradition, which dates back to 1637, is one of the stars of Barcelona’s Corpus Christi, a festival that is celebrated 60 days after Palm Sunday, and which in 2022, after two years of pandemic, celebrated the 700th anniversary of its first celebration.
One of the best known events of this festival is L’ou com balla, a custom that has an uncertain origin but is undoubtedly one of the most deeply rooted traditions of the city.
what is the origin of l’Ou com balla?
According to the City Council’s popular culture website,the ritual is documented for the first time in 1440 in the story books of the Obreria de la Seu, where an annotation speaks of the expenses to fix the chapel for the feast of Corpus Christi and also records the cost of a batch of eggs for the spring.
However, beyond this, there are few other certainties, and it is unknown whether this tradition, proper to Corpus Christi, predates it or not. One of the theories that goes back to the similarities between the l’ou com balla and the water games played by the Muslims in the springs of the interior courtyards of their houses, since one of these games would consist, precisely, in swinging a little ball over the water jet of a fountain.
Another theory speaks of the Italian origin of the tradition. From an Italian Dominican friar who would have imported l’uovo che danzava to a Neapolitan custom that arrived in the city at the time of King Alfonso the Magnanimous.
Not much is known about its meaning either. Some say that the egg and the water represent the Eucharistic host and the chalice, closing the chain of symbolism that celebrates the dogma of the incarnation of Jesus in bread and wine or who sees a metaphor for the fullness of Primavera, with the egg and the springs decorated with flowers symbolizing fertility.