Making Fun, Making Hay: Embala't

"We know how to make our own fun." This might well be the maxim of some Mallorcan fiestas. Despite similarities that the fiestas possess, there are events within them that are unique to particular towns and villages and which can only be explained by a desire to have a bit of fun. It should be true of all aspects of fiestas that they exist for fun purposes - a fiesta is, after all, a party - but some have lost a certain spontaneity, a sense of fun of doing something for the sheer hell of it.

The battles of Mallorcan fiestas might be said to typify a distinction between the spontaneous and the invented on the one hand and the choreographed and established on the other, the latter having been determined by rules of traditional and historical righteousness and by what have almost become a type of fiesta corporatism: the Moors and Christians of Pollensa being an example.

There are other battles which don't conform to scripts and rituals. These are the ones which happen for totally frivolous reasons. There is little by way of tradition to back them up, save for aspects of rural economies which inspire them. Why, for example, do the young folk of Petra shower themselves with almond shells and water, or why do the good folk of Vilafranca hurl bits of melon at one another, or those of Binissalem splatter each other with grapes? There are clear agricultural traditions which inspire them, such as Binissalem being at the centre of the island's wine trade, but otherwise there is no good reason, except for having a bit of a laugh.

A neighbour of Binissalem's is Sencelles. It is also known for its wine business, but it has something different to utilise when it comes to a battle. The people of Sencelles - young ones, though not exclusively - make hay in that they make their own fun with hay. They make hay while the sun shines. Or is it straw? Whatever. They make hay during the town's August fiestas. Today in actual fact.

Having hay (or straw) as a fiesta theme is not the sole preserve of Sencelles. Santa Margalida also has a hay do, but its is an altogether more rurally correct one than Sencelles. In Santa Margalida they do actually make hay; this is the focus of its recently revived "festa des batre", and it will take place at the end of the month. In Sencelles, by contrast, the hay is the centre of battle attention, and it hasn't been recently revived, as they only dreamt it up in 2007.

This is the "Embala't", a name about which there is worthy discussion of its linguistic correctness. Put it this way, there is a lengthy article which considers this correctness or incorrectness - in Catalan or Mallorquín terms - and ends up not coming to a conclusion either way. Essentially, though, it comes from a verb to pack or wrap and is therefore probably ironic because the packed hay in question becomes unpacked. It would, after all, be difficult to stage a battle with two enormous great, circular bales of hay, wrapped with plastic and bearing the colours of the Catalan "senyera" flag.

From midday today until the evening, Sencelles becomes the stage for this distinctly mad event. There is little about it which makes much sense. What have the mobylette motor cycles got to do with anything? Who knows, but there they are from some time after midday, hurtling around the streets while their riders are fired at with water pistols. The streets and roads get semi-flooded and will later on have more water deposited on them when the bales of packed hay arrive in town. And these come thanks to two teams - a male and female one. Off they've gone into the countryside after a good lunch in order to get the two bales, which are then wheeled into the town's centre and unwrapped. This is when the battle kicks off. What does it entail? Nothing, other than chucking hay and smothering someone in it. More water appears in proving that Mallorca isn't as short of this precious resource as is sometimes made out. 

Around eight in the evening, the battle will be over. Not that anyone will have won, because that isn't the point. Indeed, there is no point to it whatsoever, other than having some fun and in also demonstrating that, with any luck, the Sencelles town hall's street-cleaning service is ultra efficient.