The five shop windows of the La Colmena pastry shop in Barcelona (Plaza del Ángel, 12) are decorated with chocolate 'monas', chicks, and feathers. There is one, the corner shop window, which is under construction, and has its blind down. When it is fixed, they will also decorate it with Easter 'monas'. In the past, assures Josep Maria Roig, the father of the current generation of La Colmena pastry chefs, there were queues of people to observe what they had put out, and the urban guard had to maintain order. "Now there are no longer godparents to give 'monas' to, nor do people go for strolls, and 'monas' are sold on supermarket shelves, at petrol stations," says Josep Maria with a twinkle in his eye, who is a great expert in sweet traditions, as demonstrated by the exhaustive library he has on pastry making. He knows so much that he is preparing a book, but we will explain that later; let's talk about the prize now. La Colmena has won the 'La Mejor Mona de Pascua' (The Best Easter 'Mona') competition, which this year has reached its fifth edition, and it is organized by the Sr y Sra Cake agency. Let's go look for it in the shop window that faces the door. There it is displayed as if it were welcoming us. It is a pirate parrot, with its eye patch, a hook, and in its claws it holds a small chocolate egg. "It's Jack Sparrow, the captain played by Johnny Depp in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean", explains Xavi Arévalo, head of the bakery and creator of the winning 'mona'. While he is sticking spheres and eggs together to prepare other 'monas', next to him Toni Roig, Josep Maria's son, is making meringues, which are very traditional at La Colmena, as well as candies of a thousand and one flavors, which they prepare just as they were made in the 17th century. Premium quality chocolate

We continue with the chocolate parrot. It weighs four kilos and they pick it up carefully with both hands. It measures about fifty centimeters, and it is already sold. I ask them the price, and first they tell me that the chocolate they use is of the highest quality, organic, and that the price they pay for it is high. If to this fact, you add the working days they have dedicated to it, which have been many, all together gives the price of 300 euros, which is what the winning mona costs. "I started preparing it in February, the skeleton, and then little by little," says Arévalo. The parrot has its structure made with six chocolate eggs, and the rest are hemispheres with which the parts of the body are composed. The head of the La Colmena workshop decided on a pirate parrot, because he thinks it is timeless, that the theme does not go out of style. "The same happens with the seabed and space, which are always liked." On the other hand, this year they know that the monas that the little ones ask for are those based on the series Stranger Things. "Even creatures who haven't seen the series ask for them, because they are very small." Be that as it may, the fact is that this week, at La Colmena, they stop making chocolate monas, they must have them all made by now, and they dedicate themselves to Cristinas, that is, sugar buns documented since the 15th century.

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Between Easter Monday with the "mona" (monkey), the predictably quiet crowds of Sant Jordi, and the image of the Virgin of Montserrat, which will make an unusual procession on Sunday to celebrate the monastery's millennium, there has been a week of highly symbolic gatherings. And if that weren't enough, Barça will play the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid in Seville on Saturday, where the equally predictable Barça crowds will make the wind whistle in front of Felipe de Borbón before kickoff.

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The bell clappers of the Sant Vicenç church strike twelve noon on a Friday, while at the Foix bakery (c. Major de Sarrià), the locals gather around the window displaying three monkeys, one giant and two small, with bananas and cocoa beans, all made of cocoa. If someone wanted to buy the entire window display, including the figures and decorations, they would have to pay 2,000 euros.

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The pastry chef Èric Ortuño, trained in the best schools and pastry shops in France, and current pastry chef at L'Atelier Barcelona, suggests preparing a simple sponge cake, which is completed with a chocolate figure, which Ortuño calls a nest, and which is one of the great discoveries to make at home during any time of the year.

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