Basque ethnography at a glance
Wine grapes. www.pixabay.com.
In the traditional Navarrese society where scarcity forced the appropriate use of the existing resources, wine proved extremely valuable in a wide variety of ways. It had above all a stimulating effect on the daily life of a people subjected to the pressures of physical labour. Field workers, for instance, never tasted water and enjoyed instead the benefits of wine. On a hot, sunny day of August in the fields of Nekeas in Obanos, the word is out, somebody had no choice but to drink water from a source, for his wineskin was empty, and ended up… with an upset stomach.
Now that it is grape harvest time we shall remember the diverse uses of wine in its multiple forms. (more…)
Oven-dried ears of maize. Akaitze Kamiruaga. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.
While in Greek mythology Prometheus managed to steal fire back from the gods and give it to humankind, the Basque mythological character Samartintxiki thieved wheat seed from the jentil and became the very first to farm the land. Saint Martin (316-397), bishop of Tours, acquires a special role in Basque mythology, its diminutive Samartintxiki —literally, “little Saint Martin”, and affectionately translated into Spanish as “san Martinico” by Barandiaran— being him who not only seized wheat, maize or turnip seed from Basajaun —or Basajaunak, its plural form— and even the Devil himself, but also found out the exact time to sow it. (more…)
Cemetery of Lantabat (Lower Navarre).
One of the most frequently occurring universal issues in traditional storytelling concerns spirits and the afterlife. Spirits or ghosts are the souls of the dead that appear to the living and manifest their grief. The apparitions may either be seen as exact reproductions of the body of the deceased or take a different guise. The supernatural has been a recurrent, and at times even fashionable, theme in literature and film. (more…)
Last Monday of October in Gernika-Lumo, 1996. José Ignacio García Muñoz. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.
Unique fairs and festivals popular with people from near and far are celebrated in many localities throughout Euskal Herria.
Fairs were commercial in character from the beginning. On certain days and places such periodic gatherings gained a particular relevance over time and came to enjoy great prestige. So is the case of the markets held on St Thomas’ Day in Bilbao and Donostia, the well-known Idiazabal cheese fair in Ordizia (Gipuzkoa), the fish fair at Bermeo port, and so on. The same goes for the last Monday of October fair in Gernika-Lumo. (more…)
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