
Ah, the Catalans and their toasts. Ready? Lift your glass and bellow the following:
Sant Hilari, sant Hilari, fill de puta, qui no se l’acabi! — Saint Hilari, Saint Hilari, oh he’s a son of a whore, he who won’t finish up!
There’s no particular reason to call on poor Saint Hilari to make everyone guzzle their beers, of course, nor does anyone even seem to know to which of the Catholics’ many Saint Hilaris (in English, they are Hilary and Hilarus) this famous, frequently proffered toast refers. Rather, it appears to be part of the general reflex in Catholic cultures to mutter a religious figure’s name before daring to hope for something important:
Que santa Llúcia et conservi la vista! — May Saint Lucy conserve your eyesight. (Said, for example, when you fail to see a step and fall.)
Virgencita, virgencita, que me quede como estoy. — (Spanish) Mother Mary, Mother Mary, let things stay just like this.
Dels pecats del piu nostro senyor se’n riu. — God just laughs at the sins of the dick.
Getting back to the more important subject of drinking, you may also toast in Catalan in the following ways:
Salut! — Health!
Salut i força al canut! — Health, and power to the wallet! (Canut is a very old term for a money-purse. That it is revered in this very popular toast does not help ward off the Catalans’ reputation for stinginess.)
Salut al cony pelut! — To the health of the hairy cunt! (A vulgar parody on the more popular toast preceding, though not quite as vulgar as it sounds in English.)
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