Basque ethnography at a glance
Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.
April and May are particularly favourable months of the year to ensure the protection of the flourishing cultivated fields and the benefits of moderate rainfall, a time marked by a set of customs associated to lopped festive trees or poplars being erected in squares and higher grounds (a practice which often extends to St John’s or patron saint festivities), the vegetable figuration of maypoles, or mayos, in human or puppet form, the curious designation or election of virginal May queens, called mayas, or the singular marriage between juvenile May kings and queens. (more…)
Hirūdinēs. Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica. Salamanca, 1563. Eukal Biblioteka. Labayru Fundazioa.
Bloodletting is claimed to have been a most common and ancient medical practice, its use being gradually relegated to the margins of conventional medicine over the years.
Two main methods were employed: one or more superficial veins were opened with a lancet to let the blood flow out in a controlled manner; alternatively, living leeches —widely known, in Basque, as uzanak or izainak— were applied to safely remove impure or congested blood. (more…)
Egu, Sun god of ancient Basques. Ziortza Artabe. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.
Euskaltzaindia, the Academy of the Basque Language, regulated quite some time ago the standard forms for the days of the week: astelehena, asteartea, asteazkena, osteguna, ostirala, larunbata and igandea. Their prescribed equivalents in Bizkaia Basque are likewise well-established: astelehena (also ilena), martitzena, eguaztena, eguena, barikua, zapatua and domeka. And on top of it all, there are innumerable dialectal and subdialectal variants (ortzeguna, ortziralea, egubakoitza, neskaneguna…). (more…)
Stained glass window at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Old in Urduña (Bizkaia). Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.
The devotion professed by the people of Urduña (Bizkaia) to the Virgin of Old dates from further back than the feast popularly known as ochomayos. It was on 8 May 1639 that the local council named her patroness of the town “forever and ever”. The day fell on a Sunday that year and was celebrated with “bullfighting, masquerading and fireworking”, hence the tradition, by vow, of annual celebrations featuring bulls, large-headed cabezudos and fireworks. (more…)
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
