OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

ANCESTRAL RELIGION/BELIEFS

JON, ALEJANDRO, NEREA AND JANIRE

FESTIVITIES

COSTUMES

CULTURE

LANGUAGE

OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

Language

The Euskera is a official language that is spoken in Spain, Navarra, Castilla y Leon, Burgos and in the south of France that is the Basque Country of France. But is principally spoken in Basque Country. Euskera is an isolated language, that means that we don’t know the origin. Isolated idioms are for example: Korean and Sumerian. The predecessor of the actual Euskera is archaic Euskera. The Euskera is the unique language that is spoken since middle age.

01 LANGUAGE

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

Ancestral religion/beliefs

01 MYTHOLOGY

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

Olentzero

Olentzero is the good-natured coalman who brings children and adults gifts on Christmas Eve, similar to the character Santa Claus. Throughout the year he lives in his cabin producing coal, and when Christmas comes, loaded with a sack full of gifts, he goes from house to house sharing happiness.

01 MYTHOLOGY

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

Tartalo

With this name is known a cyclops or evil genius with only one eye on the forehead, whose main task is grazing. This terrifying character abducts the young people of the villages and eats them, it’s an anthropophage. So in many places in Basque Country you feel real dread towards him.

01 MYTHOLOGY

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

Ama-Lurra

Ama-Lurra, is the main divinity. It is the one that makes possible the existence of animals and plants, and the one that gives human beings the food and the necessary place to live.

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01 MYTHOLOGY

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

Ortzi

It is possible that in the past the Basque people worshiped the God of heaven, similar to the God Thor of the Scandinavians. This cult it is possible that the Celtic peoples who invaded this land between the years 1000 and 500 B.C.

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01 MYTHOLOGY

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

Ilargi or Ilargi Amandre, the moon, is also an important character in Basque culture. Yes, the sun appears as the eye of God, the moon is the face of God. The moon illuminates the spirits of the dead. According to some linguists, the word 'ilargi' means 'light of the dead'.

Ilargi

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01 MYTHOLOGY

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

Eguzki or Eguzki Amandre, the sun, has special relevance among the Basque divinities. It is the one that offers us light and heat. It also has a great influence on geniuses and evil spirits. When the sun’s rays catch certain geniuses, they lose their powers.

Eguzki

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01 MYTHOLOGY

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

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02 CULTURE

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

The first book written in Basque was a book of religious poems by the priest Bernard Etxepare. He was born in France in 1480. It isn't a coincidence that the first Basque writer is a priest. The priests had to preach to the people and for that they needed to cultivate the popular language which, in this case, was Basque.

LITERATURE

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02 CULTURE

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

The Basque literature was published very late comparing to the main European languages. The first book published in Basque dates from 1480. Nowadays, more than a thousand titles are published each year in this language. At the beginning of Basque literature, priests were the only ones who wrote in Basque. Many of these works have been translated into other languages.

LITERATURE

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

MUSIC

The Basque Country does not have a clearly defined music style but there are some Basque groups that sing rock songs in Basque and I think that this groups songs define well the Basque Country music and I really love it. These are some Basque groups: Gatibu, Sutagar eta Esne Beltza. Gai iluna amaitu da= Sutagar, argitzeraino= Esne Beltza, Euritan dantzan= Gatibu.

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

MUSIC 2

Apart from this, as Janire has said, the aurresku is danced obviously with a song and sometimes with an instrument called txalaparta. These can be also an example of Basque music. There are also, some famous songs for children that everyone has sung when he was a child in Basque which I think are fantastic, for example: Maite zaitut and Xalala, rikiriki of Pirritx eta Porrotx.

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

DANCE

The aurresku is a Basque dance which is dance as a reverence. It’s interpreted by a chistulari, which is a musician who plays the chistu and the tamboril, and a dantzari, who is a dancer. This dance is very popular in weddings, tributes and public acts.

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

DANCE

In Guipuzcoa, Biscay and in some parts of Navarra is a tradition to take as pair the wife or the daughter of the mayor. In this dance the woman doesn’t dance, is dance.

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

POETRY

The poetry of the Basque Country is focused on bertsolariak. Bertsolariak are people that with a rhythm and a little melody they invent in that very moment, lots of ingenious verses that rhyme. There are championships of this art around Biscay, Guipuzcua, Araba, Navarre and some places in France. It is amazing what they can invent in a little time.

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

It’s a contemporary museum designed by the Canadian Frank Gehry and it is located in Bilbao. It’s placed next to the river, in a zone called Abandoibarra. It was built between 1992 and 1997 and it was open on the 18th of October of 1997 by the king Juan Carlos I of Spain. Since the opening in 1997 it has received an average higher than 1 million visitors every year, encouraging the turism of the region.

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02 MONUMENTS

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

It’s remarkable characteristic is the innovated building made by curved forms, covered by limestone, glass curtains and sheets of titanium. In 2017 the Guggenheim celebrate it’s 20 years since it’s opening. To celebrate, the museum was illuminated with a lot of colors and shapes.

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

THE GIANT SPIDER

The giant spider is next to the Guggenheim museum, it was built by the france-american artist called Louise Bourgeois. It was made by bronze, stainless steel and marble. It’s weight is about 22 tons and is 10 metres tall. Before coming to Bilbao the big spider was exhibited in many other museums around the world.

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

GERNIKA

This is a famous painting set in Gernika, which is a town in Biscay. In 1937, it happened a famous and cruel shelling in Gernika, and the famous artist Pablo Picasso made a painting of this incident between May and July of that year. It is an abstract painting and it is displayed in the Reina Sofia museum of Madrid. Gernika is a very pretty and historical village.

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

SAINT JUAN OF GAZTELUGATXE

Gaztelugatxe is located in Bermeo, which is in the Basque Country. It is a little island connected with the continent by a long bridge. At the top of the mountain there is an hermitage in honour of San Juan and it was built in the 9th century. It is a worldwide famous place because the HBO series Game of Thrones recorded there some scenes of its season 7.

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02 MONUMENTS

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

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03 COSTUMES

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

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04 FESTIVITIES

Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

The most important cities from the Basque Country are Bilbao (Bizkaia), Donosti (Guipúzcoa) and Vitoria (Álava). These cities have each year one week of festivals, and its name is “Aste nagusi”. These festivals are always during August. The first city on celebrating them is Vitoria, then Donosti and finally, Bilbao. All the “Aste nagusi” have similarities. All of them start with a proclamation from the town hall, and after that the festivals don’t stop. There are activities in the morning, in the afternoon and at night.

ASTE NAGUSI

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

In Bilbao the character is Mari Jaia and In Vitoria de charactar is Celedon.

ASTE NAGUSI

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

In the Basque Country, Christmas day is a little bit different from other places of Spain, because Papa Noel doesn’t come. The one that visites us is Olentzero. He is an old man that works in the mountain working with coal. He spends the year preparing present for al basque people and when Christmas comes, he goes to the houses and lets there all the presents. But if you don’t be kind during the year, he doesn’t give you presents.

OLENTZERO

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Language Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

The 4th of february people from the Basque Country go out and sing around the streets. Children of schools, groups of friends… everybody wears typical clothes of the Basque Country. They tour the city singing the song of Santa Agueda and asking for money. They usually go with some some sticks beating the floor. It is said that they do that because they want to wake up the Earth.

SANTA AGUEDA

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Lenguage Culture Costumes Festivities Mythology

The 21st of January is a very important day for basque people. They sell vegetables, fruits, cakes, cheese and a lot of things typical of the zone. there are some bars that offer drinks and food from the Basque country too, such as Txakoli, Sidra and talos.

SANTO TOMÁS

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THIS IS ALL AND WE HOPE YOU LIKE IT

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