Basque ethnography at a glance
Traditional fireplace. Larrabetzu (Bizkaia), 2014. Photo credit: Akaitze Kamiruaga. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.
The kitchen —ezkaratza, as we know it in Gernika and environs— used to be and still is the heart of any home, a lit fire being the essential life-giving element within it, where food was cooked, for folks and animals, and where heat radiated from. Around the domestic fire, family scenes were commonplace, countless old stories were told, and knowledge would be passed on from generation to generation.
To build a traditional fireplace (beheko sua), a three-sided frame made of chestnut wood or oak heartwood was needed. Two parallel pieces of timber were nailed to the wall, a third joined them, and all three were underpinned, to prevent collapse. The firebox was built with brick and mortar, as are partition walls. The hearth, however, was made of cast iron —since wrought iron would bend— and mounted on a raised floor. Usually decorated with either religious or profane engravings, such as the Tree of Gernika, the firewall (txapea) was also made of cast iron, and in some cases of sandstone.
The mamuxarro of Unanu (Navarre). Photo credit: Josu Larrinaga Zugadi.
Winter masquerades are a series of complex festive rituals observed in much of western Europe between Christmas, beginning of the year, and the end of Carnival time. These celebrations usually combine communal territoriality or social cohesion, neighbourliness and commensality, obscure rituals (fertility or the rebirth of Nature), somewhat dual emotions in the presence of masked people, and as might be expected, secretly or anonymously organized youth groups. These traditionally take the form of either miscellaneous or modest troupes, characterized by music, uproar, dance, and theatricality. In them, one can observe rowdy, intimidating masked individuals holding whips or similar implements, wild beasts, grotesque figures, critical characters staging everyday scenes of collective life, and even road sweepers.
Tinkers of Donostia. Source: eresbil.eus.
Troupes of Caldereros, or Tinkers, are an important element of today’s carnival in Gipuzkoa, well-established as they are in twelve municipalities: Andoain, Astigarraga, Azpeitia, Donostia, Eibar, Errenteria, Hernani, Irun, Oiartzun, Ordizia, Pasaia and Tolosa. In most cases, they parade a week before carnival officially begins, thus announcing the imminent arrival of the annual festival.
School photography of Virginia Abio and Cristina Garay, 1944. Courtesy of the author.
Until well into the second half of the last century, children entered formal education at six or seven years of age. Compulsory schooling was of short duration, usually up to the age of twelve, or fourteen at most, depending on the demand for hand labour in the respective family’s household. In addition to the standard schooling period being not long enough for the appropriate instruction of boys and girls, there was also a high level of school absenteeism, especially in rural areas, due to the urgency of farm chores and the inclement weather. For a good number of scholars, heavy precipitations and low temperatures would sure make their long daily journeys on foot from the farmhouse to the school exceedingly difficult.
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