Cultural heritage

Celebrations, traditions, legends,...

The celebrations and traditions of a people are based on their way of life, their environment and their resources. Until very recently the Basques have always been an eminently rural people, and as such they have a great many traditions based on their own language, religious habits, mythology, history, natural surroundings, day-to-day farm work, music, singing, dancing, etc. The origins of these traditions are lost in time, but they are all closely linked to the unique beauty of this land.

Tradions disappeared

As the farmhouse-based economy has disappeared over time and social, political and religious customs have changed, many traditions and manifestations of local culture have been lost.

The "cuadrilla" of Zuia is no exception in this, though there are various local groups working to recover and maintain local customs and traditions. Alongside the tourist and leisure possibilities of the area, these customs are a major attraction to visitors.

Traditional basque sports

Traditional Basque sports (known collectively as herri kirolak) practically all originate from farm work, such as grass cutting, log cutting, weight pulling, etc., and became sports through challenges and wagers. They are extremely popular, and village fêtes are often used as opportunities to stage exhibitions or contests with competitors from outside the area or with local people. There is a group based in the municipality of Zigoitia which works to maintain this tradition.

One of the most popular traditional sports in Alava/ Araba is the local version of bowls. Most villages have a bowling alley (called bolatoki in Basque), and many of them have now been roofed and incorporated into local residents' clubs (txokos).

The game of pelota is also traditionally very strong in the area, and most of the major towns and villages have an indoor court for evening matches, amateur competitions and professional tournaments during local fêtes.

Music and dance

These sports events usually go hand in hand with another equally characteristic Basque activity: music and dance. In this area the diatonic accordion, known in Basque as triki-tixa or soinu txikia, the tambourine and local flutes called alboka and txistu accompany local fêtes and processions, usually playing for a group of dancers performing such local specialities as the aurrezku, the ezpatadantza and the txakolin (typical of Aramaio).

Once maintained only by a few remaining old players, these instruments are now taught widely in local music schools in Urkabustaiz, Zuia, Legutiano and Aramaio. The same schools and a centre in Zigoitia also teach local dances.

Euskera; the Basque language

An essential common element linking all these activities is euskera, the Basque language. Efforts to maintain and recover the language have boosted interest also in these other traditional activities. The "cuadrilla" of Zuia has the largest percentage of Basque speakers of any district in Alava/ Araba. The foremost municipality in this is Aramaio, where 90% of the population speak Basque. In Legutiano the figure is over 40%. The number of quasi-Basque speakers in the area is also high.

Bertsolarismo

The Basque language is the basis of one of the Basque Country's most outstanding and unusual musical traditions: bertsolarismo or improvised poetry singing. Contests, exhibitions, courses, etc. are held throughout the "cuadrilla" of Zuia, and particularly in Legutiano and Aramaio. There are also numerous schemes to foster the learning of Basque in the district through local education groups, Basque language schools and celebrations encouraging the use of the language. The biggest such celebration is staged at the Mairuelegorreta caves in Zigoitia in early September.

Celebrations

All these sports and traditions are part of the ethnographic heritage of the area. They form part of many of the celebrations held there, but are most frequently encountered in specifically local festivities. These are usually religious feasts in origin (honouring the patron saint of each village), though the festive aspect of the celebrations now outweighs the religious in most cases. Some still retain their sense of religious fervour, however, under the patronage of ancient religious brotherhoods.

The most significant of these are the processions to the shrine of Oro and the chapel of Jugatxi in Zuia, and those of Marixeka, Santikurtz, San Cristóbal and Andra Mari de Ibabe in Aramaio.

Fairs and markets

Some festivities, however, are not religious in origin but stem rather from the fairs and markets where the local farmers show their choicest produce, including meat, manufactured food products (cheese, honey, cakes), farm produce (fruit & vegetables), craft products in wood, pottery, flowers, etc. These fairs are a mixture of business, recreation and even religious celebration. The most important of them are held in Murguía, Ondátegi, Ibarra de Aramaio and Izarra.

Christianity and pagan rituals

Apart from these celebrations, the "cuadrilla" of Zuia conserves traditions which originated in pagan rituals and were taken over by Christianity as a way of spreading among the local people. Under traditional Basque beliefs only two seasons were recognised: summer (called uda, the time of fertility) and winter (negua, the time of paralysis of the earth), and the main celebrations were held at the solstices. Christianity assimilated this system and turned the winter solstice into Christmas and the summer solstice as St. John's Day. In the Basque Country, bonfires are an important part of both celebrations.

In this area ancient traditions still maintained include planting a tree on the eve of St John's Day, lighting a bonfire on the Day itself, blessing branches and laying them over the doorways of local homes, etc. Specific religious rituals can be seen in the traditions of singing specific songs through the streets on St. Agatha's Day, the last Thursday before lent, Christmas Eve and Shrove Tuesday, which still survive, especially in the larger towns and villages.

One of the most popular and best-attended religious traditions is the Christmas Procession in Sarría (municipality of Zuia). This comprises various segments (the Annunciation, an offering, worship, etc.) accompanied by songs and dances performed by the people of the Zuia valley.

Myths and legends

Myths and legends also play a large part in the cultural heritage of the area. The relationship between man and nature has always been biased in favour of nature, and this is represented in various personifications of nature in mythical beings in the legends of the "cuadrilla".

The classical myths of the Basque Country are present in the popular legends of the "cuadrilla", especially the legend of Mari, goddess of the earth and of natural phenomena. The legends are particularly widespread around Legutiano and Aramaio near Mount Anboto, where Mari is supposed to live in a cave.

Another legend told throughout the area is that of the lamias, spirits with the faces of beautiful women and long hair. Many local place-names show evidence of the belief in these creatures: lamiturri, laminatxi, lamine, lamiojin, etc. Witches (in Basque sorginak) are another classical element of local mythology. There are many supposed sites of covens, such as Abadelaueta, (Zigotia), Amezola (Aramaio) and Amezaga (Zuia). People believed that these witches had a special power to do evil as they journeyed from Anboto to Gorbeia in the Spring and Autumn. With the construction of chapels in the forests, these beliefs gradually faded.

Other mythical inhabitants of the area include imps known as enemiguillos in Urkabustaiz and Aramaio and moros-mairu in Mairuelegorreta and Mairubide, and the piztia, a one-eyed ogre who ate human flesh in Domaikia-Zuia.

As well as these local myths and legends there are many more mundane tales which have also been passed down from generation to generation among the local people. These include stories of hordes of gold cached in the caves of Mairuelegorreta and Monte de Oketa during the Carlist Wars of the 19th century, the story of a supposed meeting between Princess Blanca of Navarra and her brother Prince Carlos at La Encontrada in Lukiano , the txibogorri in Gilierna, the zagala de Landaburua in Murua, etc.

Each town and village celebrates its own patron saint's day with music, sports, entertainment and processions.