Comenius Project “Discovering Each Other”

“LA VIJANERA”a traditional festival

IES PeñacastilloSantander, Spain

la Vijanera, the first Carnival of the year in Europe, is a winter masquerade celebrated in the village of Silió, Cantabria on the

first Sunday of January.

Silió

There are similiar winter rituals celebrated yearly throughout Spain as well as in other European countries such as Portugal,

Italy, France, Poland, Germany, Austria, Croatia, etc.

The celebration

• More than 100 villagers take part in this colourful masquerade representing different characters and wearing specially made costumes.

• The festival starts around 6:30 a.m when the youngest partipants walk around the village streets awakening the villagers to the sound of cowbells.

• Once everybody gets ready, small groups of participants start the parade from different places in the village. Around midday, they all get together and walk towards the division line with the neighbouring village. There they show their strength and skills dancing while the black dancer blows his horn and asks for “war or peace”.

• Then comes the time to analyse the previous year. The participants move to the village square where “coplas” (four-line satirical verses) are read. They make ironical and funny comments about the most important local and international events of the year.

• The celebration finishes with the birth of the new year and the killing of the bear symbols of the victory of good over evil and the hope of good wishes for the new year.

The celebration

ORIGIN OF THIS CELEBRATION

• Some experts associate certain costumes and the animal characters with the zoomorphic prehistoric paintings in the region.

• Before roman times, the inhabitants of the region worshipped nature, for example the sun, the moon, rivers and mountains.

• It’s also associated with the celtic rituals of the winter solstice, as days grew longer and nature started to awake with the hope of the coming spring.

• Other theories point to the Roman festival “Kalendae Ianuarii” in honour of the God Jano. This God was represented with two opposite faces symbolising two years, good and evil. The God also gave name to a 1288m mountain in the valley.

Modern Times

• This celebration continued in Silió until about 1935, but by 1939 the government and the church prohibited this type of “Pagan” festivals.•It was at the end of the 1970s when a group of young people from the valley decided to recover this tradition they had heard about from their parents and grandparents. The first thing they did was found a magazine and an association called “Bigaro”.•It was not until 1982 when the “Modern Vijanera” celebration took place in Silió thanks to the Bigaro association first and later on to the “Asociación Cultural Amigos de la Vijanera” (Friends of la Vijanera Cultural Association). Since then they have worked hard to keep the tradition and make it known outside the region.

CharactersThere are many characters so we are going to mention only some of them

Zarramacos: they could be described as the good warriors. Their faces are painted black. They cover their bodies with sheep skins and their heads with pointed black hats with bells and other decorations. Tied to their bodies they carry 8 large cowbells. The noise they make as the walk and dance keeps evil spirits away.

The Bear and its owner. The bear represents evil. It’s captured, chained to its owner, who symbolises good,and finally killed showing the triumph of good over evil.

White DancersThey open the parade wearing white clothes, a red sash and bells around their waists which tinkle as they dance

Black DancerHe wears a jacket and trousers made of sackcloth covered with shuckled corncobs and carries a long stick and a blowhorn.

Characters

CharactersThe KnightHe is a man who pretends to be on horseback.

The old coupleThey represent the passage of time

Pregnant woman and husband. She is the main character in one of the most important events in the festival. She gives birth to an animal (rabbit, hen, cat, pig, etc. representing the birth or beginning ot the new year.

Characters

Madame, mancebo and marquesito. Wearing elegant clothes, they represent rich people from a higher social class

TrapajerosTheir colourful clothes and behaviour are a symbol of the lack of inhibition typical of carnival.

TrapajonesAre all those characters whose dresses are made from elements taken from nature such as corn, nuts, ivy, moss, etc.

We have taken most of the information about this festival from the website: http://www.vijanera.com/ by the association “Amigos de la Vijanera” (Friends of la Vijanera)

This year the celebration took place on 5th January. If you click on the next slide, you can watch the video the association made to promote

it and invite visitors to come to Silió