Basque ethnography at a glance

Group of lads from Biáñez Council celebrating a banquet, 1947. Julián Ahedo.

The Marzas or songs sung to welcome in the spring had in times past a strong root in the Carranza Valley. It is a pagan festival whose origins date back to time immemorial and which Julio Caro Baroja related to the beginning of the Roman year. Traditionally, on 1 March young male singers, called marceros, gathered in groups of four to eight sang the Marzas house to house and neighbourhood to neighbourhood. Dressed in daily clothes, they made their way to the sound of cowbells and bell collars. Along with them walked the zarramasquero, responsible for carrying the zarramasco, a holly branch decorated with coloured paper strips. He stood out from his fellow singers by two crossed sheep manes he wore on his chest and back held with bell straps and several cowbells at the waist that sounded as he jumped during the singing. Occasionally his face was covered with a mask made of animal skin. (more…)