Carnaval, or how I crossed the imaginary border of France

This is about my adventure to Hendaye the weekend after Ash Wednesday, with my Carnaval in Tolosa having been the weekend before. The blog for that adventure is probably not gonna happen. Basically, I spent all of Sunday drinking in the streets of Tolosa with a group of Basques, and a few folks from other near parts, dressed as Andalucians, dancing and singing songs to a shopping cart with a sex doll dressed up as the Virgin Mary. The important thing to know is that Tolosa carnaval is famous because it is one of the few places that Carnaval survived under Franco, so its especially strong and crazy there, and its different than some because it is for people to participate in, not to stand on the side of the streets and watch people wearing ridiculous headdresses, although I´m sure that is quite fun also.

The Carnaval in Hendaye is not before Ash Wednesday, because it really has nothing to do with Christianity. It has to do with Basque tradition, specifically that of instituting the New Year. There is not really a separate Basque calendar (I don´t think) but in the old times before Christianity, people used to celebrate the beginning of the new year at the logical time when everything starts to come back to life. Really these festivals (at least in some towns) are somewhat intended to wake things up again, which might explain their placement in the end of winter, rather than in spring once things have already actually come to life. The celebration that I went to see in Hendaye consisted of two main things that I felt were important for me to see. The first one is the joaldunak. These are people that dress up in sheepskins and burlap fabric and strap giant sheep bells to their backs and walk through the streets making a bunch of noise. When they do this, all the animals, and assumably some of people, run away after being frightened by the terrible racket. The ancient Basque people reasoned that the ghosts and witches must be scared off by this too, which is the purpose of the ritual.

The second part I really wanted to see was the the burning of the figure of Miel Otxin. This is part of a broader legend that goes along with the festival, that is acted out in the streets of many a Carnavaling pueblocito. In the legend, there is a man named Ziripot who lives in the street. Because he is too fat to work, he makes his living by telling stories in exchange for food. One day, however, an evil giant named Miel Otxin arrives with his evil sidekick, Zaldiko, who is something like a centaur. Because Miel Otxin is so big, and Zaldiko is a centaur with a whip, he is able to control the city and keep everyone living in fear. They have Zaldiko reshoed, and then force the people of the town to lay all that they have at their feet. However, because Ziripot has nothing, he gives nothing. The two tyrants will not accept this, however, and beat him to the ground. Being so big, he is unable to lift himself, and when the townpeople try to help him, Zaldiko keeps them away with his whip. Ziripot is stuck laying in the street for all day. Finally, after nightfall, his friends return to help him up. They start to discuss what is to be done, how they can not live under these two anymore. Ziripot tells a story of how a boulder fell in front of a farmers door, and he was unable to move it from inside or outside of house by himself, but finally after asking his neighbors for help, they easily removed it. The people understand, and they gather anything they have, torches, pitchforks, etc. and go after the two tyrants. Zaldiko, being a horse-man, is able to run fast enough to escape, but they catch the giant, condemn him to a public trial, hang him, then set him on fire for good measure.

This legend is also said to have a somewhat symbolic significance for the fight of the moon and sun, which is resolved with the sun winning out, and the longer days of spring and summer returning.

However, I didn´t see any of these traditions. I set of for Hendaye with my friend Scott, around 2, from Donosti on the Eusko Tren, probably one of the best things to come from the PNVs country-building efforts, in which one can take what amounts to something like what would be a Metro ride from DC to Baltimore (if such a system existed) for 1.25€. We arrived a little before 3, and then I realized I was in France(sort of). I had not really understand that Hendaye was in Iparralde (north Basque country) until we arrived there. This meant that I was really much more out of my element than usual. Although I am still lacking quite a huge bit in Castellano, I can generally get around and buy things without too much trouble. When everything is primarily French, and secondarily Euskara, its much more difficult. Sure people speak a bit of Castellano (and English) but it felt much different.

The border between France and Spain is imaginary in this case for two reasons. Not only does it run right through the middle of a nation, but with the Schengen agreement, it functionally really barely does exist. I was able to take a train over it without realizing it.

So we get there and buy sandwhiches from a woman who understands neither Castellano or Euskara (Scott studies Euskara), but is able to ask me in English if I want mayonaise. Then after eating we went on our way to see the Castle on the other side of town, and ended up following some other travel looking kids through a hospital complex in which it was necessary to jump a fence at the end to get to the correct road to the castle, then went on a nature trail that we assumed would get to the castle. It did, sort of, but it really took us to a highway, then we walked back towards town on the highway to the castle. The trail was nice, but was shaped in such a way that if we had just gone the other direction on the highway it would have been about a 5th of the time. The castle cost 6.50€ for admission, and we weren´t convinced it was worth it. But it was pretty on the outside. I was sick this weekend, so that didn´t help the walking, but it was still worth it. By the time we were headed back into town it was about time to find the activities, but also to find more food and water, and maybe our friends that were also there. After a few failed attempts to exit the beach (hopping the fence into private property only escapable by jumping back to the beach) we encountered a supermarket in our attempt to locate our friends, and bought lots of water, some wine, cheese, meat, peppers, and a corkscrew, then set of to find our friends and the festivities. After some confusion about where best to meet, and heading to the river side of town, we ran into people playing music, and saw the effigy of Miel Otxin, but thought that we were supposed to go meet some people at a church that was supposed to be the best place to watch the procession. We also needed to buy bread, which was necessary for all the other things we had bought, but had forgotten. We wandered farther into town, found a panaderia, bought some bread and found out that we had missed the parade, but could still see the burning of Miel Otxin, where we had just been so we went back there. By the time we got there however, all we saw was the smoke that was leftover after he had been burned. Then we realized that that was actually in front of the church we had been looking for. The reason we didn´t find it very easily was because it was shaped more like your typical protestant office building american church, and we were looking for like at least slightly elaborate crosses and stuff. Oh well.