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Reviving “the Marzas” in 2022 (Concha. Karrantza) with the “zarramasco”. Photo: E. X. Dueñas.

The most direct relationship – and undoubtedly of vital importance – between nature, (in its plant inanimate aspect) and the human being, in these latitudes and leaving aside the information that the virtual and audiovisual media overwhelms us with every day, is practically part of the past, but we are aware that it still remains and how it has managed to adapt.

Let us start with flowers, such as those of St. John that were arranged – along with onions, corn, wheat, cherries and herbs – into a bunch or sortie to be blessed in the church and, later, placed in the door or window of the house on the saint’s day. We now very rarely see those bunches and in a few more the flower of the thistle or eguzki lore. The fate of the custom of lighting wheat sheaves and going through private fields chanting a spell for a good crop has been worse, as it has fallen out of use.

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