Archives

Fat Thursday in Berriz (Bizkaia), 2015. Igone Etxebarria. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Eguen Zuri —literally, ‘Festive Thursday’— refers to the Thursday before Shrove Sunday, in other words, the Thursday after the so-called Basaratoste. These two celebrations mark the beginning of the carnival cycle in Bizkaia.

The mentioned ritual outing to the woods known as Basaratoste [See a previous post titled Txitxiburruntzi, Sasikoipetsu, Basaratuste, Kanporamartxo. Gearing up for carnival], among other denominations, would be widely welcomed across large areas of Bizkaia. The feast of Eguen Zuri, is limited to the surroundings of Durango, Mount Oiz and Arrankudiaga. According to Resurrección M.ª de Azkue, north of Mount Oiz the observance vanished by the beginning of the 20th century. In and around Durango, however, it experienced different realities: some localities have maintained it without interruption until the present day, a handful of them lost it forever, and others recovered it with restored fervour in the 1980s after some years of oblivion. (more…)