In with the new, out with the old. The new is the new old. Each new year brings with it its hopes and messages for the next 365 days. Same as they ever were: mostly platitudinous nonsense. Of course, some messages are clung to with greater optimism and fervour (even credence) than others. Into the latter category (the others) fall the New Year expressions of Balearic politicians. There is nothing papal about their delivery. And nor might one expect there to be, given the non-leanings of some inhabitants of this political class.
As historical coincidence would have it, Palma provides a readymade opportunity for the very old (788 years old on 31 December 2017) to invade the very new. If only it were - very new, that is. The invoking of the ancient defines the present and the future. Republican mayor Antoni Noguera, not reticent in making his allusions to the murdered Republican mayor, Emili Darder, reaches for much greater antiquity than the shameful barbarity of 1937 and Darder's execution.
For Noguera, the Festival of the Standard is for the people of Palma to reaffirm themselves as a people. Or something like that. Meanwhile, this reaffirmation is coloured with the language of the new. "A great social and urban transformation. Perhaps the most important in its (Palma's) modern and contemporary history. Projects based on sustainability, culture and the general interest." And within the projects for culture is the hankering for days of yore and Good King James putting the Muslims to flight. Welcome to modern, contemporary, multicultural Palma. (It was actually Miquel Ensenyat, Noguera's more impressive brother-in-Més-arms, who took the 31 December opportunity to refer to multiculturalism.)
One cannot and should not forget or neglect the past, but Heavens, how much it determines the present. Jaume I, Franco and the 1715 Nueva Planta of the Bourbons. Everything revolves around these historical landmarks, if everything is allowed to be. They are massively important, of course they are, but so much of what we call modernity and contemporary society, including what Antoni Noguera might have to say, is indivisible from the history that has shaped it.
The Festival of the Standard, the mayor opines, should be Palma's festival, the means for the reaffirmation. Really? While the festival carries negligible weight in anywhere other than Palma, one might well ask just how much weight it has in the city itself. Isn't Sebastian the Palma festival? Do the people of the city not define themselves more in terms of some crackpot legend about a saint's bone and the music parties and fire-runs that it has permitted?
And while this reaffirming is to be implanted, Palma in 2018 will undergo a social and urban transformation like never before, says the mayor. Cases in point will be the urban forest of the old dog track and the preservation of the little port of El Molinar. Both are most worthy - it would be surely difficult for anyone to disagree with either - but how transformational are they? Are town halls not in any event charged with undertaking projects that contribute to elevated quality of life?
Another project, the one for the Paseo Marítimo, has raised a query or two from the Council of Mallorca. Again, and in principle, the scheme for traffic calming and greater pedestrianisation, has much merit. But what about the practicalities, Antoni, the Council asks, donning its highway hat and doing so, moreover, through the offices of a PSOE councillor. Dogging the Noguera vision of transformation is the uneasy alliance with PSOE, and if PSOE at the town hall prefers not to be seen to be taking issue with one of its shaky partners, PSOE at the Council has no such qualms. Elections are coming, and so socialist pragmatism will compete with socialist eco-nationalism.
Skirting round the practicalities, Noguera responded by, among other things, referring to a saving of the planet - yes, he really did come out with this. Fine words indeed, but what about all that traffic backed up because of the loss of two lanes?
There is much to admire with the mayor's vision of the city. The urban forest, for instance, is a very good idea, so long it proves to be practical. The notion of a creative, digital space that appears to involve the Gesa building is another idea, if only we knew what he meant by it, just as it would be nice to know what actually is going to be done with the building. One wonders, were it to ever be put to a citizen participation poll, which would attract greater support for the wrecking ball: the Gesa building or the mayor's cause célèbre of the Feixina monument.
Both Gesa and Feixina are further relics of the old. One can be transformed (maybe), the other not. For the transformation of the new old, history means everything.
Showing posts with label Festival of the Standard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Festival of the Standard. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 02, 2018
Thursday, December 28, 2017
The Man Who Wrote The Festival Of The Standard
Behind every good Mallorcan fiesta there is a good man or woman, usually a saint. Rare is the fiesta that can call upon royalty, and when it does, the royal choice is limited. Having decided to dump 12 September as Mallorca Day (and shift it to 31 December), one of the royals has fallen by the wayside. Jaume II, whose coronation was the pretext for the former Mallorca Day, has stood aside to let his father reign supreme in fiesta or celebration terms.
Jaume I, Good King James of Aragon, where would we be without him? Had he not engaged in some thirteenth century Aragonese empire building, the course of Mallorcan history would have been different, though one suspects not greatly. If there was going to be a conqueror of the island, then he was always likely to have come from the general Catalan region. There had, after all, been the odd effort prior to Jaume.
Jaume I is obviously the man behind the Festival of the Standard, but in its current form the festival owes as much to someone who wasn't royalty. He wasn't a saint either. He was in fact, and variously, a lawyer, a painter, a draughtsman, a journalist, a teacher of mathematics, a musician, a master builder of fortifications, an urban planner, an astronomer and a mapmaker. He was clearly quite a clever chap. Oh, and he also wrote poetry, and it is this to which the festival owes a great debt.
He was Pere d'Alcàntara Penya i Nicolau. Born in Palma in 1823, he has been described as the finest Mallorcan dramatist of the Renaixença, the Catalan Renaissance of the mid-nineteenth century. Did I not mention that he was also a dramatist? When he was not involved with the theatre, designing a plan for the development of Palma, sorting out the odd railway project, undertaking the building of barracks, hospitals and churches, Pere found time for poetry.
In Barcelona in May 1859 at the height of the Romanticism era of European art, music and intellectualism, the Renaissance was epitomised by the re-establishment of the Jocs florals. Literally meaning floral games, they were in fact poetry contests and had been in long-ago mediaeval times.
Three years later, a work by Pere featured at the games. His poem was not in conventional Catalan; it was in Mallorquí. Its title was Sa Colcada (cavalcade), which he had penned the year before. Pere was to be unaware what impact this poem would eventually have. He died in 1906.
Romanticism represented something of a rejection of modernity. It alluded to times past, especially to mediaeval times. It honoured heroism, emotions and folk art and traditions. In Sa Colcada these various elements came into play and collided. The cavalcade was how things once were with the Festival of the Standard before it went into its years of decline that were attributed to the Bourbon takeover of Mallorca in the early eighteenth century and the Nueva Planta decree of Felipe V.
The poem starts by saying that no one knows the story any more of "our great King James". Very few people can still remember the cavalcade as it used to be. What a day it used to be, the day of the festival. Knights on horseback in procession. All the monks and priests, the regiments. Ladies with gold ribbons. Floats with ladies and gentlemen. There was music from the xeremier pipers, the sound of harpsichords. There was dancing, and everyone was friends on that day, whether they were masters or servants, employers or the employed.
Thirty years after the poem had been presented and received an award at the Jocs florals, it was included in a collection of Mallorcan poetry. It was at this point that it began to become popular. In 1935, it was recited during the Festival of the Standard, but it wasn't to be until 1965 that it was recited again - events had got in the way.
It has been recited every year since then, and the importance that it has assumed has to do with the fact that it is the clearest link to the festival's past if only through its words. The cavalcades of former times have long ceased. The celebration of Jaume I persists, but it is not in the way that it once was. In order to understand how it was, there is Pere's poem. Not a bad achievement for a lawyer, a painter, a draughtsman ... .
Jaume I, Good King James of Aragon, where would we be without him? Had he not engaged in some thirteenth century Aragonese empire building, the course of Mallorcan history would have been different, though one suspects not greatly. If there was going to be a conqueror of the island, then he was always likely to have come from the general Catalan region. There had, after all, been the odd effort prior to Jaume.
Jaume I is obviously the man behind the Festival of the Standard, but in its current form the festival owes as much to someone who wasn't royalty. He wasn't a saint either. He was in fact, and variously, a lawyer, a painter, a draughtsman, a journalist, a teacher of mathematics, a musician, a master builder of fortifications, an urban planner, an astronomer and a mapmaker. He was clearly quite a clever chap. Oh, and he also wrote poetry, and it is this to which the festival owes a great debt.
He was Pere d'Alcàntara Penya i Nicolau. Born in Palma in 1823, he has been described as the finest Mallorcan dramatist of the Renaixença, the Catalan Renaissance of the mid-nineteenth century. Did I not mention that he was also a dramatist? When he was not involved with the theatre, designing a plan for the development of Palma, sorting out the odd railway project, undertaking the building of barracks, hospitals and churches, Pere found time for poetry.
In Barcelona in May 1859 at the height of the Romanticism era of European art, music and intellectualism, the Renaissance was epitomised by the re-establishment of the Jocs florals. Literally meaning floral games, they were in fact poetry contests and had been in long-ago mediaeval times.
Three years later, a work by Pere featured at the games. His poem was not in conventional Catalan; it was in Mallorquí. Its title was Sa Colcada (cavalcade), which he had penned the year before. Pere was to be unaware what impact this poem would eventually have. He died in 1906.
Romanticism represented something of a rejection of modernity. It alluded to times past, especially to mediaeval times. It honoured heroism, emotions and folk art and traditions. In Sa Colcada these various elements came into play and collided. The cavalcade was how things once were with the Festival of the Standard before it went into its years of decline that were attributed to the Bourbon takeover of Mallorca in the early eighteenth century and the Nueva Planta decree of Felipe V.
The poem starts by saying that no one knows the story any more of "our great King James". Very few people can still remember the cavalcade as it used to be. What a day it used to be, the day of the festival. Knights on horseback in procession. All the monks and priests, the regiments. Ladies with gold ribbons. Floats with ladies and gentlemen. There was music from the xeremier pipers, the sound of harpsichords. There was dancing, and everyone was friends on that day, whether they were masters or servants, employers or the employed.
Thirty years after the poem had been presented and received an award at the Jocs florals, it was included in a collection of Mallorcan poetry. It was at this point that it began to become popular. In 1935, it was recited during the Festival of the Standard, but it wasn't to be until 1965 that it was recited again - events had got in the way.
It has been recited every year since then, and the importance that it has assumed has to do with the fact that it is the clearest link to the festival's past if only through its words. The cavalcades of former times have long ceased. The celebration of Jaume I persists, but it is not in the way that it once was. In order to understand how it was, there is Pere's poem. Not a bad achievement for a lawyer, a painter, a draughtsman ... .
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Taking A Festival To Court
There really are times when you wonder ... . I have a certain admiration for Ciudadanos in a similar way to having an admiration for Podemos. They occupy different political territories, but both are examples of how the status quo of a political system can be shaken up. Yet with both there are elements of the conservative and even the regressive. With Podemos, there is a Luddite tendency that wishes, for example, for "de-growth", an anti-capitalist return to an undefined era stripped of a great deal of the progress through tourism. For the C's, there is one great conservative non-negotiable - Catalonia. This is an essence of its being. Independence is a total non-starter, as is the advance of any Catalan nationalism beyond the borders of Catalonia.
The C's are doing rather well at present. In Catalonia they have secured the most parliamentary seats of any party. They have benefited, in part, from the electoral destruction of the Partido Popular, but more than this, they are solidly representative of the independence counterpoint. They have hung their hat on union, and there are very good numbers of Catalan citizens who agree with them.
Even before the Catalonia election, it was evident that the C's had been making ground in the Balearics. What happens in Catalonia has an impact here, even if this can at times be overstated. But the political atmosphere generated by Catalonia and by statements in favour of a Balearic independence by Més have done the C's no harm at all. Nor have their complaints about indoctrination in local schools.
The exporting of Catalanist nationalism that the C's attack comes in different guises. One of the more peculiar is what is due to take place on 31 December - Palma's Festival of the Standard. This is a fiesta deemed to be in the intangible cultural interest: not just deemed, is. The official nature of this interest was confirmed by the highest authority of making official - a statement on the Official Bulletin. It is there in black and white. In 2006, the Council of Mallorca declared the festival to be an asset of this cultural interest, and with this declaration came certain stipulations as to its maintenance.
The Council of 2006 was different in its political make-up to how it is today. It was still essentially the property of the subsequently disgraced Unió Mallorquina and Maria Antonia Munar. The UM, although ostensibly nationalist in a centrist sort of a way, was never strident in its ambitions, and its nationalism was one founded on its own version of history. Some years before the 2006 declaration, the Council had decided to make 12 September Mallorca Day. This was a recognition of the true founding of the old Kingdom of Mallorca. It was not a date for which there was wholehearted support. There was - in a Catalanist correct fashion - an alternative date: 31 December, the day in 1229 when Catalan culture can be said to have its origins.
Changing the date of Mallorca Day to 31 December was an obvious move. If there were to be a different date, then 31 December had far greater claim than any other. And so, for the first time, this coming New Year's Eve will be Mallorca Day as well as the Festival of the Standard.
For some, such as the C's, this combination was a form of pact between the nationalists of Més at the Council of Mallorca and at Palma town hall. It might not have generated overly much fuss, if it hadn't been for some consequent amendments to the festival protocol. Until now, and despite the 2006 declaration, the festival has been a Palma town hall occasion. In institutional terms, only the town hall has responsibility. Moreover, the declaration made clear that the responsibility for the maintenance of the tradition and guaranteeing the components of the festival was Palma's.
The pact between the Council and the town hall has, in the opinion of the C's, led to a unilateral decision to permit the Council to be represented in the official committee (retinue) for honouring King Jaume I and the Standard. Moreover, mayors from other parts of Mallorca are to be allowed to participate. The C's point to the fact that the 2006 declaration does not contemplate this additional institutional representation. Only the mayor of Palma and city councillors can form the retinue.
Because of this, the C's have taken the matter to court. They are seeking an injunction to prevent the protocol being altered. It is this that makes one wonder. How can a festival end up in court? Does it really matter who is represented in the retinue? It does if there are the politics of Catalan nationalism at play, which is what the C's are really concerned about. But they risk looking somewhat ridiculous and losing some of the admiration. They might disagree with the change to the festival, but going to court over it ... ?
The C's are doing rather well at present. In Catalonia they have secured the most parliamentary seats of any party. They have benefited, in part, from the electoral destruction of the Partido Popular, but more than this, they are solidly representative of the independence counterpoint. They have hung their hat on union, and there are very good numbers of Catalan citizens who agree with them.
Even before the Catalonia election, it was evident that the C's had been making ground in the Balearics. What happens in Catalonia has an impact here, even if this can at times be overstated. But the political atmosphere generated by Catalonia and by statements in favour of a Balearic independence by Més have done the C's no harm at all. Nor have their complaints about indoctrination in local schools.
The exporting of Catalanist nationalism that the C's attack comes in different guises. One of the more peculiar is what is due to take place on 31 December - Palma's Festival of the Standard. This is a fiesta deemed to be in the intangible cultural interest: not just deemed, is. The official nature of this interest was confirmed by the highest authority of making official - a statement on the Official Bulletin. It is there in black and white. In 2006, the Council of Mallorca declared the festival to be an asset of this cultural interest, and with this declaration came certain stipulations as to its maintenance.
The Council of 2006 was different in its political make-up to how it is today. It was still essentially the property of the subsequently disgraced Unió Mallorquina and Maria Antonia Munar. The UM, although ostensibly nationalist in a centrist sort of a way, was never strident in its ambitions, and its nationalism was one founded on its own version of history. Some years before the 2006 declaration, the Council had decided to make 12 September Mallorca Day. This was a recognition of the true founding of the old Kingdom of Mallorca. It was not a date for which there was wholehearted support. There was - in a Catalanist correct fashion - an alternative date: 31 December, the day in 1229 when Catalan culture can be said to have its origins.
Changing the date of Mallorca Day to 31 December was an obvious move. If there were to be a different date, then 31 December had far greater claim than any other. And so, for the first time, this coming New Year's Eve will be Mallorca Day as well as the Festival of the Standard.
For some, such as the C's, this combination was a form of pact between the nationalists of Més at the Council of Mallorca and at Palma town hall. It might not have generated overly much fuss, if it hadn't been for some consequent amendments to the festival protocol. Until now, and despite the 2006 declaration, the festival has been a Palma town hall occasion. In institutional terms, only the town hall has responsibility. Moreover, the declaration made clear that the responsibility for the maintenance of the tradition and guaranteeing the components of the festival was Palma's.
The pact between the Council and the town hall has, in the opinion of the C's, led to a unilateral decision to permit the Council to be represented in the official committee (retinue) for honouring King Jaume I and the Standard. Moreover, mayors from other parts of Mallorca are to be allowed to participate. The C's point to the fact that the 2006 declaration does not contemplate this additional institutional representation. Only the mayor of Palma and city councillors can form the retinue.
Because of this, the C's have taken the matter to court. They are seeking an injunction to prevent the protocol being altered. It is this that makes one wonder. How can a festival end up in court? Does it really matter who is represented in the retinue? It does if there are the politics of Catalan nationalism at play, which is what the C's are really concerned about. But they risk looking somewhat ridiculous and losing some of the admiration. They might disagree with the change to the festival, but going to court over it ... ?
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