Basque ethnography at a glance
Elias Arostegi fishing elvers in Butrón.
I can’t even remember when I last ate elvers! I only know that it was a long time ago. Now I come to think about, I am whisked back to my childhood, when I would watch those tiny cars (Seat 600, 127, 850, R-5…; tiny compared to the current ones) go by, with long sticks and large sieves, sometimes tied to the roof racks and other times just sticking out of the car windows. Those people would be coming back from fishing for elvers where the River Butrón flowed into the Plentzia estuary.
Elvers were and continue to be typically eaten on Christmas Eve. Yet they were and still are a luxury product that not everyone can afford. That meant that a few decades ago, quite a few people would catch and sell them to make some extra money. However, some people only would go from time to time and catch them to be eaten at home.
Lezama, 1959.
In Gernikaldea, women and men alike traditionally wore dark simple clothing to work in the fields. When it came to working in the barn and stalls, they would wear any old clothing so it did not matter if it became stained with manure or when milking.
When ploughing or working in the market garden, men wore denim and often patched (erremenduak) trousers, a denim or gingham shirt, waist belt (garrikoa) to help with lower back pain, an old jumper and a beret (txapela) on their head.
Women wore a skirt (gona), blouse and a jacket over it, apron (amantala) and headscarf. If they had to pop out to the vegetable garden in bad weather, they would put the galoshes that were usually kept in the porch over their canvas shoes.
Photo: Fernando Hualde.
Hidden away in the sabayao or attic, frequently broken or damaged, are old ceramic vessels that have outlived their use and survived the inevitable passing of time. The odd few, but increasingly more, are clean, and proudly on display in the home. We often cannot agree on how to call them and concepts such as stew pot, jar, pitcher, cooking pot, basin, pan, jug, etc are all intermingled and confused in the popular vernacular. However, all share the fact that they were all handcrafted and played an important role of being used to store, cook and serve food in the home.
Spoonbills. Photo: Bird Center
Bird migration is closely related to climatology and meteorology, as they determine food availability in the different seasons.
The birds that breed in northern Europe set off on a journey in autumn. They make their way in stages to the mild and warm areas of European and Africa, which are their winter-feeding grounds.
At the end of the winter, the days get longer and heralds the start of spring. The birds then start to make their way north. Thousands of birds use the short, but fruitful northern European summers to feed off the abundance of insects, fruit and prey at that time of year.
Bilbo-Abando
Colon de Larreategi 14, 2. esk.48001 Bilbo (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 443 76 84
labayru@labayru.eus
Derio
Larrauri 1A, 5.a48160 Derio (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 406 01 71
idazkaritza@labayru.eus
Bilbo-Bolueta
Metroalde eraikinaBilbo-Galdakao errep. 6A
48004 Bilbo (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 607 72 10
labayru@labayru.eus
