Basque ethnography at a glance

Carlina acaulis, protector of the home, and its source of inspiration: the Sun. Author: Emilio Xabier Dueñas.

Are we aware of how much we depend on time and how much we value each moment? Having reached a certain age, and perhaps generalizing, the present seems increasingly insubstantial, imperceptible; we cannot even feel it. The past is dim and distant, unless memories captivate us with experienced emotions. And the future inevitably becomes the present…, or the other way round.

The diverse methods for measuring existence, events and the unfolding of human life have, believe it or not, undergone more than their fair share of comings and goings over the years, acceptance according to religious confession, lags and updates. That is exactly what calendars were created for, though we do not know whether they originally measured the length of the day, the week or the year.

Sun Dance in Lekeitio (Bizkaia) at midday on 24 June. Author: Emilio Xabier Dueñas.

It does seem clear from studies that the earliest calendars based on the recurrence of the phases of the Moon. The full moon and the other phases of the lunar cycle occur approximately every 29.54 days. Reed or boxwood for making musical instruments are harvested during the first waning moon of the year, and in the old days, pigs were best slaughtered with a descending moon, between December and January. Old regrets and past pains are burned and cleared through the night, and solstitial fires warn us of totally different realities be it summer or winter: from the longest to the shortest day; from heat to cold; from struggle for survival (cultivation, fishing and hunting) to fun and games in the warmth of the hearth.

The Sun naturally heats the Earth. Seduced and venerated by many cultures, the astral king becomes our guide on a most formidable orbital path: the year. And a leap day would be introduced every four years so as to maintain the integrity of the seasons and everything which revolves around it.

However, it is not only bonfires that remind us of summer days. According to oral tradition, every 24 June, the fishing port of Lekeitio (Bizkaia) celebrated the Feast of the Sun or Eguzki Jaia, featuring the so-called Andrazkoen Aurreskua or Eguzki-dantza ‘Sun Dance’, performed by women at three specific times of the day: dawn, midday —often marked by the ringing of Angelus bells—, and dusk.

Summer is the right time to place ash tree or hawthorn crosses and nail the carline thistle or eguzki-lorea —from eguzki ‘sun’ and lore ‘flower’— to the front door. They shall protect the house from atmospheric calamities, health ailments, and even witches —or mythological characters from popular old stories, and not flesh and blood women who suffered persecution by the inquisition and whose fatal outcome should but never would be recognized over ‘time’—.

Elements used for timekeeping. Author: Emilio Xabier Dueñas.

Action, protocol, space and time are the foundations of any ritual, the latter being established by the hour, the day, the season, the calendar of saints’ feast days (liturgical calendar) or festivities of variable date determined by the first full moon of spring. Celebrations which have survived the passage of time and still guide the daily life of the community, marked by fire in the collective memory by means of mechanical clocks or sundials placed in strategic places and the ringing of bells.

Manifestations and activities which we hold on to, or create, based on a date and an hour in the Gregorian calendar, minutes, seconds and all. What we call ‘time’, thus established by mankind, does never ever stop while the planets and satellites keep rotating on their own axis or around another heavenly body. That is at least the feeling we have.

Emilio Xabier Dueñas – Folklorist and ethnographer

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa