Showing posts with label Ducks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ducks. Show all posts

Saturday, August 09, 2014

Duck's Off: Defining Traditions

There is a legal oddity in Spain which prescribes how old a tradition must be in order that it can qualify for being a tradition - if this doesn't sound somewhat Irish (or Spanish). It is not a legal mechanism which defines all traditions but it is one that applies to traditions which involve animals. In a nutshell, older than one hundred years equals tradition, younger than one hundred equals non-tradition. To say that the law is somewhat arbitrary is a bit of an understatement. Nevertheless, it is a law which forms part of wider legislation - that of animal protection. It is one which rarely needs to be invoked, but in Mallorca it has been, and Can Picafort has been the main battleground for questioning the law. It's all to do with ducks.

Some time back in the 1930s, or so the story goes, underpaid local workers (of which there couldn't have been that many) were offered a little treat. A landowner made available a number of ducks, for the eating thereof. There was a catch. The workers would have to swim for their supper. The ducks were released in the sea, in dived the downtrodden peasantry and, amidst what was doubtless a great deal of quacking and general flapping around, the ducks were captured and were subsequently served up on a plate - à l'orange or sans orange. Such was the success of the watery duck chase that a tradition was born. Except of course, it wasn't. For the purposes of the law when it was drawn up, it was not more than one hundred years old. To borrow from Basil Fawlty, the law declared: "duck's off". 

It was only relatively recently that the 100-year rule came into effect and put an end to the use of live ducks for the annual dive, swim and catch at the Can Picafort summer fiestas. Santa Margalida town hall was none too impressed with the law. Only when it was threatened with legal action did it reluctantly agree to substituting the real ducks with unreal ducks. The manufacturers of rubber and plastic ducks were in ducky heaven.

While the town hall bowed to the force of law, not every citizen of the town did likewise. Into Can Picafort folklore was etched the image of the Power Rangers' mask. Real ducks were released by miscreant traditionalists wearing non-traditional masks who thumbed their noses at the legality of the 100-year rule.

The masks were on show in 2007, the first year in which real ducks were banned. They were to be seen again, along with more ducks, over the next three years. The flouting of the law required the town hall, still reluctantly complying with it, to order the local police to stop the miscreants and the Guardia to send a submarine diving unit. No one was ever actually caught. In 2010, the defenders of the duck tradition released a video. It featured a "pope" and some ducks. The pope was shown beckoning the ducks towards him. It was to be the last year that a real duck put in an appearance at the 15 August event.

Despite some Can Picafort old-timers and some not so old-timers having said that the swim is not how it used to be and that they refuse to take part and go in pursuit of a rubber duck, the event's popularity seems to have grown. One suspects that it is partly because some visitors live in hope that the Power Rangers will return. Or perhaps it is because there are only rubber ducks (and a load of melons as well). The papal defenders of the real ducks are not the only ones whose opinions and preferences count. There are the defenders of the rubber duck as well, those who disagree with the use of live animals.

The animal-protection lobby has said that ducks would have felt stress and anxiety when they were being chased by the swimmers. They may well have done, but when one is talking animal protection and rights, the stress of the ducks is surely nothing compared to that which a bull suffers. But that's a different argument and a different tradition, one that is definitely more than one hundred years old. It is, nevertheless, one with a political overtone, the ruling Partido Popular being supportive of the bullfight. It had been hoped in Can Picafort that the party's lack of animal-rights correctness might have seen a change of heart where the ducks were concerned. Regional governments can amend the 100-year rule, if it so suits. The Balearic Government hasn't been tempted to. The ducks, the real ones, are safely swimming and quacking in Albufera and other ducky habitats in the local area. They are no longer taken on board small boats and released into the sea in front of the Mar y Paz hotel on 15 August. It is a day for rubber ducks only. But. What would happen if a duck were to inadvertently fly over Can Picafort and land in the sea at around 12 midday? Would the duck be charged with breaking the law?

Thursday, August 15, 2013

MALLORCA TODAY - Geese to take part in Can Picafort Assumption Day celebrations

Santa Margalida town hall has only reluctantly agreed with the prohibition of the use of live ducks during the traditional event that occurs today in Can Picafort and which now uses plastic ducks instead. The town hall has arranged for a parade of geese prior to today's event as a mark of its desire to see the law changed that would reduce the qualifying period of a "tradition" to 75 years and so, in theory, allow the use of live ducks.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

Thursday, August 16, 2012

MALLORCA TODAY - Can Picafort's duck day passes off without incident

The duck-throwing of Can Picafort's Mare de Déu d'Agost fiestas has passed off without live ducks being illegally released. This year's events saw melons being added to the rubber duck prizes on offer to swimmers.

See more: Ultima Hora

Saturday, October 22, 2011

MALLORCA TODAY - Lack of rain affects Albufera

A lack of rain both in spring and since then, combined with contamination from farming activity, has contributed to a reduction by almost a quarter of the number of ducks in the Albufera nature park and therefore to their breeding activity.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Getting Into A Flap

Good weather for them. Ducks that is. The rain that has been about has been well-timed. We are entering the duck season, or we would be were there any ducks. And in Can Picafort of course, there aren't. Not officially anyway. In a rare display of unity, however, the warring political parties of Santa Margalida are as one in demanding the return of the ducks.

The town hall is calling for a change to animal-protection law that would legalise the release of live ducks during Can Picafort's August fiestas. Under this law, or so it would seem, traditions that can be shown to date back more than 100 years from the time of the law's enactment in 1992 are allowed to continue. The great duck-throwing event of Can Picafort isn't that old. Consequently, Santa Margalida wants the threshold reduced to 50 years; ducks were first let go into the sea for locals to swim after them and capture them in the 1930s.

The town hall has never truly bought into the law and the banning of live ducks. It was persuaded to comply with it when it was fined for not having complied. Ever since the live ducks were replaced by rubber ones, the town hall has only grudgingly gone along with the law. And by town hall, one means all the parties, whether ruling or opposing.

The unified front that is now being displayed has, though, not always been evident. The former administration proposed a similar change to the law late last year. The opposition didn't go along with it, yet it, now in power, has made the proposal. Even in unity, the parties can't avoid having a dig at each other. You didn't support us, say the Partido Popular. It was our measure. We didn't support you, respond the combined forces of the Suma pel Canvi and the Convergència, because it wouldn't have done any good; the former regional administration wouldn't have approved it.

Though a national law, there would seem to be flexibility for a regional parliament (the Balearics one) to amend it. As the Partido Popular is now in power at regional level, the town hall would reckon that it might get a more sympathetic hearing.

The banning of live ducks, and Santa Margalida finally got round to complying with the law five years ago, has turned the tradition into a new one. The event attracts way more publicity as a consequence of the law being flouted than it ever did when ducks themselves were being released.

That said, before the ban there was the annual ritual of the animal-rights activists getting into an argument with the pro-duck-throwers, a ritual that has now become one of the animal rightists trooping off to make a "denuncia" when the law is broken. And the poor police, who surely have better things to do, have been caught in the middle, both the local police under the command of a town hall whose attitude has been ambiguous, to say the least, and the Guardia who have had to resort to bringing in divers and boats to try and prevent the throwing of live ducks and to try and apprehend the miscreants.

Last year, one town hall official said the police presence was more akin to security for the royal family or an ETA threat. The law may have been likely to have been broken, which it duly was (and no one was caught), but the publicity and the security were absurd for what has always been an absurd occasion, one that became more absurd as soon as they started to use rubber ducks instead. They should have scrapped the whole thing rather than allow it to become the farce it has.

The duck-throwing saga of Can Picafort can be considered an example of what happens when you mess with tradition, but how traditional really is the duck throwing? Establishing a time frame, be it 50 or 100 years, seems pretty arbitrary. Indeed, it seems ridiculous. If it is felt that something requires outlawing, then so be it, regardless of how long it has been going.

The ducks only came about as a bit of sport. Wealthy landowners would make a gift of some ducks, and the young men of the village would compete to capture them. Do 70 or 80 years represent a "tradition"? Maybe they do, or maybe they represent the history of something basically frivolous. Whatever the case, there are enough people, on both sides of the argument, who get into a flap about the ducks. And they will continue to do so, whether the law is changed or not.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Aw Phooey: Duck nonsense in Can Picafort

The decks of Carl Cox quietened, the people of Can Picafort can return to more traditional fiesta matters, namely ducks. A week from today the annual duck liberation will take place. The duck liberation front (DLF) is on the move once more. It wishes to liberate real ducks and not stupid rubber ones, to have swimmers pursue a quacking, flapping Donald and not a mute bath-time bobber.

Although the ban on live ducks is ridiculous, and it is when it is placed in the context of the treatment of other animals, the pro-duck lobby is equally as ridiculous: in its sheer pretentiousness and self-importance. It argues in favour of a tradition, but the tradition itself is pretty stupid: toss some ducks into the water and then see who can be the first to catch them. All a bit of fun but ultimately pointless.

The DLF, and I've made this up by the way, has issued a video as part of a warning that live ducks will feature once more this year. For sheer pomposity, it takes some beating.

The duck tossing goes back some 75 years. Quite why it ever came about, who knows. It was officially banned in 1999, but it took fines issued against Santa Margalida town hall for the ban to complied with. These came from the agriculture ministry. One fancies that the town hall has never quite accepted the ban. That it sanctioned the fiesta poster in 2008 which featured children with Power Rangers masks (as worn by the DLF when letting live ducks go the year before) suggested either just a streak of humour or a sympathy with the DLF cause.

What can be sure is that this year there will be more security and more scrutiny of what happens on the sea in front of the hotel Mar y Paz. And what can also be sure is that there will be huge numbers who turn up in the anticipation of the ban being flouted once more. It's now become a game, a new tradition as much as the one of chucking ducks into the sea.







Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Duck Soup

"Light up the sky with Standard fireworks." Remember that old advert. It was from the days when everyone bought fireworks and set about incinerating their back gardens and sometimes themselves on Guy Fawkes Night. Let's be honest the Standard or Pain's selections weren't much good - a handful of sparklers, Catherine wheels, Roman candles and a few rather apologetic rockets. There was as much fun to be had the next morning going in search of the burnt-out casings among the damp grass and flower beds. But that all became history, and fireworks went organizational and corporate - and high-tech, very expensive and the preserve of professionals. I once attended an extravagant birthday party in the garden of some stinking rich insurance chap in the depths of the Surrey stockbroker belt. What intrigued me more than the fireworks were the logistics of the display; it was though an Army explosives unit had been seconded for the evening.

I was thinking all this on Playa de Muro beach a couple of nights ago. No need to go to Can Picafort itself, just haul a comfortable garden chair down on to the sand, arm yourself with a chilled foamy and watch the fireworks let rip over the sea just down the coast. The fireworks finale to the marathon Can Pic fiesta season was its own mini-festival of flash and burn, lighting up the sky with more than a standard firework. The fiestas mostly all climax with these displays, and one has the impression that each year they want to go ever one better. Nothing wrong with that; nothing wrong with the booms, the bangs, the oohs, the ahs, the reds, whites, greens, golds and silvers cascading against the backdrop of darkness and then dropping into the reflections on the sea. But what do they all cost? Most of the town halls are strapped for cash; Santa Margalida more than most. Yet its display in Can Picafort is as extravagant as any others, and it has just staged two weeks of fiesta and has another one - Beata - to get through early next month. While the fiestas attract "collaborators", to translate literally the local usage, these sponsors are not necessarily funding stuff like the fireworks. The town halls often end up footing much or most of the bills. What do the whole fiesta seasons cost? It would be a damn shame were there to be cutbacks, but especially during these impecunious times one has to wonder at the priorities. In Santa Margalida, they can launch a solid half-an-hour's worth of going up in smoke but find it seemingly impossible to adequately provide the forgotten town of Son Serra with a police presence, and let's not forget that damning criticism of the beach area in Can Picafort which came from the German "Bild" newspaper. One does have to wonder.

Still, there were plenty of folk in attendance, notably for the duck event. Shows what a bit of notoriety can do; they flocked in, and not just the rubber ducks. Despite the watchful gaze of plod, some reprobate still managed to let a live duck or two go, which was the cue for some pressure group to go and file a "denuncia" with the Guardia - as if they haven't got better things to worry about. Sorry, I just don't get it. They're ducks for Daffy's sake. Only some normally hang around on sea water, but maybe they would all quite like a day out at the seaside and have a bit of a quack; they should take to it like ducks to water. Also, had the rains of early Friday continued through till midday, it would have been good weather for them - ducks that is. Though not an expert in matters of the Anatidae family, If some were "borrowed" from Albufera my guess is they would have sufficient wing-flapping capacity and homing instinct to be back at Albufera in time for tea. Sounds like water off a duck's back to me. Just so long as they're not still hanging about by the time they let off the ground-to-air missiles at midnight. Duck soup or crispy duck, anyone?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Texas. Today's title - very famous film; who were they?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

Friday, August 01, 2008

Behind The Mask

It may not have escaped your attention that town halls' publicity material for fiestas holds a special place in this blog - yesterday for example. While this material ranges from the pretentious and the ludicrously expensive to the downright inadequate, normally it does not convey controversy or comedy. However ... Step forward the material for this year's Mare de Déu d'Agost fiesta season in Can Picafort.

Last year there was an absolutely splendid old rumpus in Can Pic regarding ducks. Just to remind you. On the actual day of Mare de Déu it used to be the tradition that live ducks were released from the boats that take part in a sea-borne procession. This of course was then deemed animally incorrect and so they came up with a fabulously crazy solution - rubber ducks. No more live ducks and anyone letting them go was under threat of a collar-feeling from plod. So, what happened ...? In 2007 some wags donned masks and did indeed let some live ducks flap around. Cue howls of protest and some bemusement as to quite what the fuss was all about; in a country where it is ok to kill bulls as part of a spectator sport, it is deemed cruel to let ducks do a bit of flying and then swimming around. As far as I am aware the miscreants were never apprehended; at the time the chaps in heavy boots were busy directing traffic.

With all this in mind, what have they come up with for this year's publicity? The main image is of two kids with rubber ducks. All very innocent and cutesy. But. One of the kids has a mask on, a Power Rangers mask, similar to that worn by the duck-liberating masked men from last year. Hence the rumpus or at least cries of outrage from opposition politicians at the local (Santa Margalida) town hall. Personally I think it shows a rare line of humour, albeit that it will probably be lost on most visitors who won't have a clue what it's meant to represent. One looks forward with anticipation to this year's ducky event, though something tells me that plod will be instructed to let the traffic grind to a halt.

To see this wonder of publicity, go here:
http://www.diariodemallorca.es/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=2008080100_3_381147__PartForana-cartel-fiestas-levanta-polemica


In the port of Alcúdia during August and September there will be a new attraction. On Wednesdays and Saturdays there are to be activities on the Paseo Marítimo which are meant to be a boost to local businesses and especially those engaged in traditional trades. The activities will include craft workshops and the like and presumably also some flogging of wares. They are intended to invigorate a business sector affected by a rubbish season. I am not entirely sure how. But they will be something else for tourists to have a gander at and take some photos, so it all seems fair enough and could well be quite interesting. And you never know maybe those cash-strapped tourists might be willing to part with ready euros. Maybe.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Blue, "If It Takes All Night" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0XkQlNyndM. Today's title - legend; which one?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)