The Alternative Fiesta Of Saint Canute

There are, you may have noticed, a few fiestas cracking off at the moment. Sant Antoni has now handed the baton to Sant Sebastià in what is a seamless mid-January relay of fire-burning and demon cavorting. For those of you who may still be unaware, Sebastian (to give him his anglicised name) became a big deal in the first quarter of the sixteenth century when a bone which allegedly had once belonged to him was brought from Rhodes to plague-ridden Palma by the archdeacon Manuel Suriavisqui and miraculously managed to rid the city of the plague, as old bones of saints usually of course do.

As such therefore, Sebastian celebrations with fire and demons owe nothing whatsoever to the one-time French soldier who had a fateful run-in with the highly unpleasant Roman emperor Diocletian. They owe pretty much everything to old Antoni and to his hallucinations of and temptations by devils in his hermitic cave in the Egyptian desert and, quite probably, the occasional bonfire to keep him warm on cold desert nights.

The Sebastian fiestas in Palma do in fact pre-date the appearance of the bone in 1523 in the sense that his feast day had been celebrated prior to then. It wasn't, however, until he was named patron saint, in 1634, that things in a Sebastian style really took off. Not that things were like they are now. Indeed, it was only fairly recently - 1977 - that the "revetla" (eve) partying entered the fiesta equation, which was roughly the same time as fire-wielding demons of the current-day "correfoc" variety emerged; they having featured for the first time during Barcelona's La Mercè fiesta. 

So, Sebastian, as we now know it, isn't all that traditional, which doesn't of course stop it being referred to as traditional, just as a parallel fiesta which coincides with Sebastian is also deemed to be traditional. This is the alternative fiesta of Sant Canut (also written as Kanut), which has been going in Palma since 1994 and which has occurred on the same "revetla" eve. As the name suggests, there is a distinct Danish connection with this fiesta. St. Knut's Day, which oddly enough isn't officially celebrated in Denmark but is in Sweden, Norway and Finland, takes its name from Knut Levard, a Danish duke of the twelfth century who was declared a saint in the aftermath of his assassination. He isn't the same Canute as the one of turning-back-the-tides fame. He was his nephew. The King Canute we are familiar with was also a saint and though his day is in July, St. Knut's Day has come to be a combination of saintly uncle and nephew.

All of which may be very interesting, but it fails to explain what the day (which is in fact 13 January) has to do with Palma. St. Knut isn't on the Catholic calendar for 13 January; Saint Hilary is. It is a day which only has meaning in Scandinavia. However, and this does rather help to explain the alternative nature of Sant Canut, the word "canuto" in Spanish (or "canut" in Catalan) has a specific meaning. It is a joint, as in a cannabis joint.

Being a saint, sort of, Sant Canut comes in the form of an image to be carried by the faithful. Dressed in a white, druidic gown with very long black hair, he holds an oversized joint; a very oversized joint. He was, until recently, taken to the Ses Voltes park where he was joined by all manner of bands (similar therefore to the mix of music that the Sebastià revetla has). But, because the numbers were getting too great, he was shifted to the Parc del Mar last year, but only at the last minute. It looked as though Sant Canut was going to have to be cancelled in 2014, and history is repeating itself in 2015. At the time of writing, it would appear that, despite a hope that a location in the Sa Riera park could be found, the organisers gave thrown in the towel and that Sant Canut will not happen.

There has been much criticism of Palma town hall in recent years, suggesting that it has looked to place obstacles to stop Sant Canut happening; it isn't an official town hall event. The town hall, for its part, points merely to safety issues with overcrowding, but there is a further factor, which is that, regardless of claims of "tradition" for something that has been happening for only twenty years, Sant Canut is not a tradition where the town hall is concerned, as it doesn't form part of Mallorcan culture.

Nevertheless, there should be a place for the alternative, but as things stand, tomorrow evening Sant Canut, oversized joint and all, will not live on.

* An announcement was made later today that the fiesta would take place not in Palma but in Santa Maria del Cami at the art and music centre Cases de Son Llaüt used by the association Factoria de So.