Carnival/Shrovetide

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Carnival / Shrovetide In the face of those theories which bestow an outright pagan character upon Shrovetide, tracing its etimology back to the currus nevalis who used to take part in the Roman Isis Feast, the studies carried out by Julio Caro Baroja and published in his work El Carnaval (Shrovetide) led him to the conclusion that Shrovetide (Spanish Carnival) was, whether people liked it or not, the offspring (albeit a prodigal son) of Christianity. To be exact, in the absence of the concept of Lent it would not exist as it has done since the dark and distant European Middle Ages.

The most complete Shrovetide rituals would take place in Galicia, and indeed still do to a certain extent in some places. On the Septuagesimal Sunday the so-called Faraleiro (a feast involving the throwing of bran and flour) takes place. The following Thursday is given over to the men, and the Sexagesimal Sunday is known as the Corredeiro, which involves setting cocks loose to run in the streets.

Carnival. Ginzo de Limia
(Orense) 8kb

Women's Thursday follows this, being known as Lardero or Gordo (Slap-up Thursday) in other parts of the country, and is characterized by lashings of food, especially meat, of which they will soon be deprived. Shrove Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (Antroido, Entroido or Antruejo) in Galician, Iñuate or Aratuste in Basque, Antruexo in Asturian and Carnestoltes in Catalan) are, in certain places, followed by the first Sunday of Lent, which finally closes this season which has already begun in some parts inmediately after Christmas.

The features common to these celebrations, which offered a period of indulgence before the fasting and penitence demanded by Lent, consist of the subversion of established order; the reading of edicts or wills containing biting criticism of local life, personality-transforming masks and disguises and, above all, permissiveness as regards behaviour which, in normal times, would be considered madness, stupidity or plain hooliganism. Furthermore, the festivities often culminate in the judgement and sentencing (normally burning) of Shrovetide, often symbolized as a straw doll.

Some of the festivities previously mentioned (the flour-caked men, the cocks, the Ugly Mugs, the Mother Sow, the Friend...) display clear Carnival features and could readily be incorporated into this group. However, for the sake of clarity, whe have kept them under their dates and here concentrate on those days which are considered as belonging specially to Shrovetide.

Carnival. Santa Cruz de
Tenerife (Canary Is) 20kb

In Spain there are Shrovetide or rather, Carnival festivities noteworthy for their brilliance and spectacularity such as those in Cádiz, consisting of choruses, fancy-dress processions, jokes, disguises and float parade. Santa Cruz de Tenerife holds what many see as the ultimate Carnival, with its flagrant procession, Brazilian-style, fancy-dress parades, and groups of street musicians, all reaching a climax in the arena on the Tuesday.

Other Carnivals, despite their diversity, retain their local character and, it could be said, their traditionality. They do this by using characters particular to, and therefore instantly recognizable from, each Carnival. This is the case in Bielsa (Huesca) with the trangas (youths dressed in brightly coloured shirts

El Pero-Palo. Villanueva
de la Vera (Cáceres) 6kb

and skirts, their heads and back covered with goat skins topped by an impressive set of horns) and the madamas (young girls with short skirts with lace trimmings). Lanz (Navarra) has the Miel Otxin (a giant figure made of straw), the Ziripot (covered with hay and sackcloth) and the zaldiko or horse. Villanueva de la Vera (Cáceres) boasts the Pero Palo (a rag caricature with a brightly coloured wooden face set in a dead-pan expression, dressed in black). Laza (Orense) offers os peliqueiros or cigarrons --characters dressed in a kind of fringed petticoat with babules, a jacket, cowbells, a gaudy mask, all crowned by a kind of semicircular mitre and the Morena, a man covered with a cow-hide who rushes at all those around him. Pantallas, masks typical of Xinzo de Limia (Orense), are also prominent.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of currently-held Carnivals, some of which are living their greatest moments, while others are stagingg a brave revival. This is despite the fall-off which was formerly plain to see and despite the 1937 ban. It would currently be impossible for us to list each and every Carnival in an article of this size.

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