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The decline of small commerce

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Posted on 2024-09-13 in

Source: Labayru Foundation Photo Archive. Author: Nerea Etxebarria.

The habits and ways of life of people who change over the years are prosperous, and it is ethnography that seeks collecting these transformations, to some extent.

One of these customs, which has been greatly altered by modern life, is that of small commerce. According to many correspondents and informants, the presence of women in workplaces has been one of the most significant changes in the family life of the twentieth and the twenty-first century so far. For a long time, families were larger, and it was common for three generations to live in the same house: grandparents, parents, and children. Besides, woman devoted herself to housework, and there was always someone at home.

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What the bloom of the chestnut can tell us

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Posted on 2024-07-12 in

Author: Sergio González Ahedo.

Between the end of June and the beginning of July, white spots appear in the Basque mountains, because when the chestnut blossoms, it wears white. Given the importance of chestnut in our culture, this is a very important time of the year. All you have to do is ask those who work with bees. Proof of this is the testimony of Ignacio Abella collected in Galicia: it seems that when the chestnut blossoms, the ram breed the sheep. It is the last blossom before the intense heat of summer, which determines multiple labours of the rural world.

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Hermitages and festivities

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Posted on 2024-07-05 in

Saint John’s day in Gaztelugatxe, 2023. Labayru Foundation Photographic Archive.

With the arrival of summer, festivals are celebrated in all corners of our geography. During this time, apart from patron saint festivals of towns and cities, numerous festivals are also celebrated in the neighbourhood hermitages. In Bizkaia there are around 800 classified hermitages. It is true that not all of those that existed back in the day are preserved, and in many others, the celebrations have varied considerably. Ecclesiastical celebrations are maintained in 459 hermitages, 30 are deteriorated, another 7 are used for civil tasks, and the rest have disappeared. In the last century, society underwent profound changes and transformations that forced the hermitages themselves to adapt to the new needs of society.

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Summer festivities with an identity sign

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Posted on 2024-06-28 in

Kutxa-entrega in Hondarribia (25/07/2022). Photo: E. X. Dueñas

According to the Dictionary of the Spanish language, the term “identity” has, among others, the meaning of “the set of natural characters of one individual or group, which characterizes them in comparison with others”, including the following synonyms: identification, affiliation and personality… To those, I would add two more acceptations: singularity and root (origin); without forgetting that identity also manifests itself in rivalry (healthy or unhealthy) in certain sports, celebrations, etc.

Annual festivities, and the ones celebrated during summer in particular, are filled with signs of identity and symbolic elements, general and specific; both from the material immaterial aspects. Who hasn’t heard the expressions “this is a lifelong festivity” or “this is not celebrated anywhere else”. We’ve already covered this topic in other articles from the blog.

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