Sant Antoni 2018

Something of a harking back to the days when I did the Wotzupnorth blog, below is a listing for Sant Antoni.

Tonight (Saturday) there are demons correfocs in Pollensa and Sa Pobla. On Tuesday night it's the turn of Alcudia and Muro. The animals' blessings are as they always are on 17 January (Wednesday, the day of Sant Antoni), which is also the day for all the palaver with getting the pine trees from Formentor and the Ternelles finca. The pine climbs are at the same times as ever, but there's one big difference in Pollensa - there's no actual cockerel. It's been banned.

Choice of image - the Alcudia poster. Seems the most demonic of all.

Wherever and however you choose to celebrate Sant Antoni, enjoy. I know you will. They're the greatest fiestas of the year and, although they are celebrated across Mallorca, we really have the very best of them in the northern area.


Saturday, 13 January
Muro
19.30: Procession of pipers followed by lighting of the bonfire.
20.00: Concert by pipers - Xeremiers de Muro Es Reguinyol and Xafigà de Muro (Alicante). Municipal theatre, C. Joan Carles I.
21.15: Barbecue. In front of the town hall.

Pollensa
20.00: Correfoc with Dimonis Ca de Bou children's gang. Joan March Gardens. 20.30: Barbecue.
22.30: Correfoc - Dimonis Ca de Bou, Dimonis Hiachat de Santa Margalida, Fills de Lucifer de Búger. Joan March Gardens.

Sa Pobla
11.00: Procession of children's caparrot (bighead) workshop, plus pipers. C. Rosari to Plaça Major.
20.15: Sa Pobla Choir and the Sant Antoni Choir and the goigs for Sant Antoni. At the church.
24.00: "Redempció" - demons correfoc. Dimonis i Tamborers d'Albopàs and Dimonis de sa Pedrera de Muro. Followed by barbecue. Plaça Major.


Sunday, 14 January
Pollensa
19.30: Glosadors, pipers and others. Club Pollença, Plaça Major. Pay as you wish.

Sa Pobla
17.30: Sant Antoni folk dance, with the group Abenlara. Plaça Alexandre Ballester.


Tuesday, 16 January
Alcudia
16.30: Sant Antoni and the demons (plus pipers) leave the town hall. Procession and the occasional "kidnapping" of a child.
20.00: Bonfire, botifarró, llonganissa, bread and drink (one euro). Plaça Constitució. Bonfire and folk dance in Plaça Carles V.
22.30: Correfoc - Dimonis de sa Cova des Fossar. From the town hall to Plaça Carles V.

Muro
19.45: Procession of the demons, Sant Antoni and the Unió Artística Murera Band of Music. From Plaça Convent to Plaça Comte d'Empúries.
20.15: Dance of the demons and Sant Antoni. Plaça Comte d'Empúries.
20.30: Lighting of the bonfires with Dimonis de sa Pedrera, Bruixes de Mallorca, Dimonis Trabukats. Correfoc fire-run and spectacular. Plaça Comte d'Empúries.
23.00: Traditional music - Revetla d'Algebelí and Germans Martorell. Plaça Comte d'Empúries.
24.00: Islanders plus DJ. Plaça Sant Martí.

Pollensa / Puerto Pollensa
21.00: Lighting of the bonfires.

Sa Pobla
14.30: Departure of the demons and Sant Antoni and procession through the streets and squares of the town.
18.45: Ceremony of the historical sanctioning for the start of Sant Antoni Eve. In front of the town hall.
19.45: Departure of the paralympic demons of Grif, the demons d'Albopàs, the demons of the Obreria (Sant Antoni) and of the town hall, plus giants, bigheads, junior bigheads and the Sa Pobla band of music. From the town hall to the church.
20.00: Compline and acclamation of Sant Antoni.
21.15: Dance of the demons and of the gangs of bigheads and junior bigheads, accompanied by the Sa Pobla band of music.
21.30: Pyromusical spectacular. Plaça Major.
22.15: Gathering of singers and ximbomba players. Plaça Major.
00.30: Grand ximbombada and glosada - ximbomba playing and reciting of folk/satirical tales, verses and poems. Plaça Major.


Wednesday, 17 January
Alcudia
16.00: Traditional blessings of the animals, plus performance by Sarau Alcudienc (folk dance). From Passeig Pere Ventayol.

Muro
10.30: Firing of rockets and planting of giants in front of the town hall.
11.00: Mass in honour of Sant Antoni with the Miquel Tortell Muro Choir.
15.00: Ringing of bells.
15.30: Traditional blessings and parade of floats.

Pollensa
10.15: Traditional procession and animal blessings.
11.30: Setting off from Plaça Almoina to the Ternelles finca.
12.30: Lunch at Ternelles.
14.00: Departure of the pine.
19.00: Raising of the pine. Plaça Vella.

Puerto Pollensa
09.00: Bus leaves from behind the church to go to Formentor.
11.30: Procession and animal blessings.
12.00: The pine arrives in the port.
13.30: Planting of the pine in Plaça Miquel Capllonch.

Sa Pobla
10.00: Procession with the pipers Germans Aloy.
11.00: Solemn mass plus offering of farm produce and dance with Marjal en Festa.
12.30: Dance of the caparrot bigheads and young caparrots. Plaça Major.
15.30: Blessing of the animals in the church square with the pipers Germans Aloy and Xerebiols and the giants Antoni and Margalida.
16.00: Parade of floats, accompanied by the band of cornets of the Sant Antoni brotherhood and the demons of the Obreria de Sant Antoni.


Friday, 19 January
Sa Pobla (Sant Sebastià)
19.30: Gathering in C. Tresorer Cladera of Dimonis d'Albopàs and departure for Plaça Major and the lighting of the bonfires for Sant Sebastià.


Saturday, 20 January
Pollensa (Sant Sebastià)
19.30: Procession with the image of Saint Sebastian, of the Standard and of the cavallet horse dancers.
21.00: Dance of the cavallets at the bonfire in Plaça Major.

Sa Pobla
18.30: Line and ballroom dance, followed by barbecue (six euros). Plaça Mercat.

Autumn Fairs: Muro and Pollensa

Information in English for the two local fairs next weekend: 13-15 November.

http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2015/11/muro-fair-2015.html

http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2015/11/pollensa-fair-2015.html

A Nice Day For A Picnic

A Mallorcan Easter, like a Mallorcan Christmas, is a lengthy affair. Holy Week is something of a misnomer. It is a Holy at least ten days or getting on for a fortnight. Its starting-point of white palm fronds in procession and being blessed on Palm Sunday is a fixed feast. It's the end-point which is the movable one. It all depends where you are, and even then it can seem to have come to an end, only for something else to crop up a few days later. Alcúdia is a good example.

Easter in Mallorca doesn't come to a sudden halt like a British bank holiday when the brakes are slammed on in order to avoid ploughing into the back of the massive tail back caused by the faithful departing the temples of out-of-town shopping centres. It carries on in gentle cruise control, the traffic that of pilgrims on foot or those less holy ones who prefer to carry their leftover empanadas in the boot of a car or even in a shuttle bus. Welcome to the Mallorcan post-Easter picnic.

Once upon a time, Holy Fortnight was indeed Holy Fortnight, and credit for this has to go to the Guardian Angel, in whose honour the citysfolk of Palma established an Easter of ever-longer extension by having a picnic two weeks after Palm Sunday. (In strictly numerical terms of days, this would really make it the Holy Fifteen Days.) By picnic, one doesn't mean it was an occasion for hauling large wicker hampers and cool boxes off to a shady spot in the countryside, it was a day when the poor were given bread that had been blessed. This custom changed markedly over the centuries, so much so that by the nineteenth century it was an excuse for yet another round of merry-making, but the name survived. The pancaritat.

At some point in time, most of the villages of Mallorca realised that what was good for Palma was good for them too. As best as I can make out, 43 pancaritat picnics take place, certain municipalities having more than one, e.g. Alcúdia. Given the Guardian Angel origins, there is a religious element, one that involves trooping off to the nearest hermitage and holding mass before organising the tables and chairs and whipping up some paella. And while 22 of the 43 have kept faith with the Day of the Angel, i.e. a week today, 21 have not. Monday or Tuesday are the preferred alternative days, unless you happen to live in Lloseta, where it is Wednesday.

In the northern area of Mallorca there are six pancaritats; seven if one includes Colonia Sant Pere. The six are in Campanet, Muro, Pollensa and Sa Pobla plus Alcúdia with its two, the first of which - at the hermitage of La Victoria - is on Tuesday, with the second at Sant Martí next Sunday. This is the cave of Sant Martí and not, you'll be relieved to learn, Red Electrica's much-hyped Sant Martí substation. The cave, with its icon of Christ, is within microphoned vocal range of Bellevue's Show Garden, though it is probably as well that the outer limits of Bellevue in closest proximity to the cave are uninhabited at this time of the year. Otherwise, curious bearers of wristbands might head off in hot pursuit of the pilgrims, the lager of plastic glasses slowly being warmed by the spring sunshine, and anticipate that the picnic forms part of the all-inclusive offer. 

The pancaritats of La Victoria and of the Puig Maria in Pollensa (Monday) are ones for the committed pilgrims, involving, as they do, hacking up the side of a mountain with the picnic goodies in tow. The others are mercifully far less strenuous, even if Campanet's requires the climbing of the soapy pine tree. Not that everyone is obliged to climb the pine. I mean, the Bishop of Mallorca is turning up for mass, and I fancy his devotion doesn't extend to such frivolity.

Of the different picnics in the north, those of Campanet, Muro and Sa Pobla are the grandest; they are like mini-fiestas. In Muro, it all kicks of with rockets being let off in the town at 10am on Monday, the signal for the picnic-goers to gather items from the fridge and larder and trek to the hermitage of Sant Vicenç Ferrer. The hermitage, being as hermitages generally are, is not the location for events later in the day. The clubs of Muro go into overdrive from four in the afternoon, offering an alternative type of dance to the ball de bot folk dance at the hermitage and so an alternative pilgrimage: to offer thanks for the DJ deck and USB stick.

But Sa Pobla's is probably the best-known of all the picnics. It is the one that takes place at Crestatx every Tuesday after Easter, when seemingly the whole of the town takes itself off to the hermitage, some say oratory, of Crestatx with the image of Santa Margalida, one of Sa Pobla's patron saints: indeed, the original patron, as Santa Margalida was associated with the tiny populace of Crestatx before it was relocated in 1300 to the new town of what was to become known simply as Sa Pobla.

A big thing of the Crestatx day out is the wearing, by men, of the barretina hat which, though it is not unique to Catalan culture, is most closely identified with it. The red hat was commonly worn in rural areas, such as Sa Pobla, until the nineteenth century. It is now more symbolic than fashionable, and the Crestatx picnic is when it gets taken out of the wardrobe and dusted down for the day. A further important element is the t-shirt. The town hall organises an annual Crestatx t-shirt competition (first prize one hundred and twenty euros), so far from it being a case of been there, got the t-shirt, it is one of going there each year with a different t-shirt in the hope of securing the prize.

A common element of all these picnics is the hermitage. The history of the various ones in the north is something I shall delve into on another occasion. But for now, I shall just mention that the oldest of them, by some considerable distance, is Alcúdia's Sant Martí. This cave-shrine was a catacomb for early Christians during the time of the Roman occupation. Strange that, of all the hermitages therefore, its neighbours should be Bellevue and an industrial estate with a new substation named after it.

What's On Around Alcúdia and Pollensa - Sant Antoni Fiestas

Are they the best fiestas of the whole year? Some would say they are. They are in midwinter, they are not for tourists (there aren't many at this time of the year), they are very much an expression of centuries-old Mallorcan tradition, which goes back to the fourteenth century and the origins of the fiestas in Sa Pobla, the town which stages the most extravagant and maddest of the nights of fire, witches and demons (Sant Antoni Eve, 16 January).

Sa Pobla's celebrations are the really crazy ones, but they are crazy elsewhere too - Alcúdia, Muro, Pollensa, Puerto Pollensa. And in Pollensa (and Puerto Pollensa), on the day of Sant Antoni itself, there is the rather mad climbing of the pine tree, an event unique to the town and one with no clearly defined origin.

Here are programmes in English for Sa Pobla and Pollensa; others will be added when they become available, but Sa Pobla's fiestas are already underway and on Saturday night (10 January) the town has a demons' fire-run, as also does Pollensa.

http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/sa-pobla-sant-antoni-2015.html

http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/pollensa-sant-antoni-2015.html

http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/muro-sant-antoni-2015.html

http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/alcudia-sant-antoni-sant-sebastia-2015.html

Neighbours At War: Sewage treatment

Lurking on the edge of the wetlands of Albufera there is something which, from an aerial view, looks like a giant painter's palette. Its colours range from grey-silvers to greens to royal and deeper blues. It is the Albufera sewage treatment plant. Most people don't know of its existence, except perhaps because of the occasional whiff. The rustic part of Playa de Muro (the so-called Sector Two), which comprises a couple of urbanisations, nine hotels and an awful lot of forest and dunes, is subject to strange smells. There is, especially in high summer, one that is like burnt sulphur. I have always assumed this to be because of a sort of marsh gas from the low-level wetlands and vegetation. I may be right. But there are other more pungent smells. An antiquated sewage pipe network is one cause. An antiquated sewage plant may well be another.

The plant is not far from Playa de Muro's border with Can Picafort. It is, therefore, within the municipality of Muro, whose neighbour, Santa Margalida, shares the facility. Or to be more specific, the coastal resorts of Playa de Muro and Can Picafort - with their combined eighty odd hotels - share it. The transient tourist populations of the two resorts massively dwarf the resident populations. These are places which exist primarily because of hotel tourism, and that hotel tourism lies at the centre of an ongoing sewage row between Muro and Santa Margalida town halls.

The Albufera plant, like the pipe network, is antiquated. A new one or an additional one has been required for years. The regional government's environment ministry has earmarked a site for a new one. It is in Son Bauló, the eastern part of Can Picafort. This proposed site has created a stink, the reason being that there are fears that its outlet - 3.7 kilometres out to sea in the bay of Alcúdia and at a depth of 25 metres - might lead to beach pollution and cause destruction of posidonia sea grass. Santa Margalida town hall, in a rare demonstration of unity between its usually antagonistic political parties, continues to flatly reject the plant's construction. The environmental concerns are one reason, but there are, as always, political and commercial ones as well.

Santa Margalida's stance is essentially one of not in our backyard, to which Muro has pointed out that for years Santa Margalida has been happy enough to make use of a sewage plant which is in Muro's backyard. Muro claims that the Albufera plant is creaking, that it could itself cause environmental contamination (to the eco-sensitive wetlands) and that it is past its sell-by date. It, therefore, maintains that the new plant is an absolute necessity. Santa Margalida says that the Albufera plant should be extended. The result? Stand-off.

Into this row has now entered a throwback political dimension. Santa Margalida maintains that the Son Bauló solution was something of a stitch-up involving the discredited former president of the Balearics, Jaume Matas. It was a political pact, the town hall claims, between Matas and the former mayor of Muro, Miguel Ramis, by which a study of the Son Bauló site was given the appearance of legality through some alleged manipulation. Miguel Ramis was the founder of Grupotel; he still is its president. Ten years ago, hoteliers in Playa de Muro, of which Grupotel is one, clubbed together and bought land in Son Bauló; the very land on which the sewage treatment plant may be sited.

That Santa Margalida is now seeking to make some political capital out of the affair adds a new twist to the story but it is a twist which seems all a bit late in the day. Furthermore, around the time that the land was being acquired, there did appear to be general consensus between the town halls as to the necessity for a new plant and for it to be established in Son Bauló. The former mayor of Santa Margalida, Antoni del Olmo, signed up to an agreement in 2005, one which Muro says that Santa Margalida should honour. It should also be noted that the acquisition of the land by the Playa de Muro hoteliers was transparent and one which most parties at the time seemed to accept as a solution in a spirit of sharing and co-operation between hoteliers in the two resorts and between the two town halls.

Since that time, though, the politics have moved on. So, what happens next? GOB, the environmental watchdogs, have added their penny's worth, saying that there should be a third option, one that is neither Albufera nor Son Bauló, but without offering an actual alternative. All the time, while the arguments fly, the Albufera plant, according to Muro, becomes more of a risk. One day, perhaps, the whiffs in Playa de Muro will be even more pungent.

The Bullrings Of Mallorca

A poster from September 1932 announces a charity event in aid of the Pollensa hospice. The event is a bullfight. It is to be staged in the bullring in Puerto Pollensa. Apart from the fact that a drawing of a matador appears to show the matador without a head (perhaps the bull had got to him in a particularly unpleasant fashion), the poster is interesting because there is no longer a bullring in Puerto Pollensa, but one guesses, from the relative grandness of the occasion that the poster refers to, that this had to have been a fairly substantial arena. The question is, and I don't have the answer, where was it?

There was another bullring in Pollensa. In the old town itself. It now forms part of the grounds of a property that would doubtless cost a pretty penny or several. It wasn't so far from the Plaça Major, but it, like the bullring in the port, disappeared years ago. From what can be made out, maybe the port's bullring was the more important of the two. It's hard to say.

One understands that there are quite a number of bullrings in Spain which have disappeared over the years, but research into those which may have existed in Mallorca has proved fruitless. Maybe there were others. Maybe there weren't. If anyone knows, my curiosity would be grateful for any information. What is known and is well chronicled is the history of the five bullrings that still exist - those in Palma, Inca, Alcúdia, Muro and Felanitx.

Of these five, the Felanitx one, La Macarena, has fallen into a pretty poor state. It has been closed for safety reasons since 2009. Its owner wishes to sell it but no one seems interested in buying it. It is exactly one hundred years old this year, there having been a previous bullring that had opened in 1891.

Palma has had a bullring since 1865. Its replacement, the Coliseum, staged its inaugural bullfight on 21 July, 1929. The desire for a replacement had existed for a good number of years before the Coliseum opened but the First World War put any new project on the back-burner, as did opposition from Palma town hall for several years in the 1920s. When the go-ahead was given, in 1928, the new bullring took only nine months to be built, an astonishingly short period of time. All was ready for the inauguration, and the anticipation was apparently enormous. Twenty trams that operated what was a new route to the bullring were packed. Practically every car that was registered in Mallorca was seemingly parked nearby.

The following Sunday, the action switched to Inca and to an occurrence which shocked the whole of Mallorca. Reports suggest that the shocked population all turned out to see the coffin of Angel Celdrán Carratalá being placed on a ship in Palma to take his body back to his native Alicante. He had received fatal wounds to his stomach from the bull.

Inca's bullring is older than Palma's. It was inaugurated in September 1910. The local rail service put on special trains to bring people in from Palma. Inca, so it would seem, had never experienced anything quite like this. The streets were crowded from early in the morning. The bars were packed. Sobrassada, botifarrones, tortillas were gorged. Wine was drunk in great volume.

Another bullring, Alcúdia's, is older than Inca's. It dates from 1892. Muro's, "La Monumental", was built on the site of a quarry and completed in 1918. It is the largest in terms of numbers of spectators apart from Palma's Coliseum.

Looking back at reports of the inaugurations of the Inca and Palma bullrings, one is struck by how popular the bullfights were. From a contemporary perspective, it might seem shocking. But it wasn't as though there was total support. Much of the opposition came from the so-called Generación del 98, which drew its name from the calamitous events of 1898 when Spain lost the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and Cuba. The bullfight was viewed as evidence of Spain's backwardness. The writer and philosopher Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo said that he was disgusted by the bullfight.

Society's attitudes have clearly changed markedly since the days when Inca could be bursting at the seams with excited bullfight-goers. While the legitimacy of the bullfight as part of Spain's patrimony is rightly brought into question, there is the separate patrimony of the architectural legacy that goes with it. The Coliseum, for example, built so rapidly from Mallorcan stone and in a neo-classical style, should not be devalued because of what occurs behind that stone. Likewise, La Macarena deserves to be preserved, while the memories of the lost bullrings need to be reactivated, if only to emphasise just how much attitudes have changed.

Note: Many thanks indeed to Lyn at the www.puertopollensa.com forum for letting me know that the Puerto Pollensa bullring had been discussed some years ago on the forum and that its location was placed as having been near to what is now the Eroski roundabout (the one with the Canadair sculpture).

What's On Around Alcúdia And Pollensa - Muro Sant Joan Fiestas

The first of the summer's fiestas in the north of Mallorca, the actual feast day of Saint John The Baptist is 24 June. This is the saint who lends his name to Muro's stunning church and who is the town's patron. Sant Joan is very big stuff in Menorca, rather more so than in Mallorca (which is why a load of Mallorcans head to Menorca from Alcúdia's port for its festivities), but as it's the first summer fiesta of the season, Muro's celebrations are greatly looked forward to. The fiestas start this evening, but thunder into life tomorrow night with a demons' fire-run. Things to watch out for are the two horse shows and, on the day of Sant Joan itself, the procession of floats and the closing pyromusical fireworks spectacular. English version of the programme at: http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2014/06/muro-sant-joan-2014.html

Muro: The New Model Town Hall

Muro is a town which generally goes about its business without making a great deal of fuss or drawing a huge amount of attention to itself. Gone are the days when the grand old men of Muro's politics would clash and when things would rarely appear to be sweetness and light. Both of them also had their well-publicised legal problems. Miguel Ramis, the founder of Grupotel and one-time mayor, was disqualified from public office over a land matter, while Jaume Perelló, another ex-mayor, was sentenced to a year in prison because of vote-rigging. There are of course still the occasional spats, but by and large the town hall avoids being named in dishonourable dispatches and conducts itself in an unfussy and efficient manner. So efficient is it, that it is only one of two town halls in Mallorca to have no debt.

Other town halls in the area still have alarming levels of debt, despite some years of austerity. Alcúdia's and Santa Margalida's are roughly the same, edging towards four and a half million euros. Pollensa's is a bit under four million. Sa Pobla has a whacking great 10.35 million. So how is it that Muro manages to owe not a centimo? Basically, it is all down to good housekeeping. Mayor Martí Fornes has explained that running a town hall should be like running your home finances. You don't spend more than you can afford. It all sounds remarkably like Margaret Thatcher and remarkably sensible.

There was a debt, some two million euros, a few years ago, but it has been whittled down to nothing through prudence. It is not as though there aren't investments, just that they are closely controlled. The efficiency stretches to payments to suppliers. Muro takes, on average, a mere sixteen days to pay up.

Muro's financial position may all be a function of size (roughly a third the population of Alcúdia) and of a large number of mainly up-market hotels from which healthy revenues can be obtained, but however it is managing to keep the debt to zero, it can be held up as something of a model town hall for others to aspire to.

Meanwhile, the town hall is taking measures to improve security on beaches and to tackle the problem of the illegal massages which are offered on the beaches. Calvia town hall has taken a lead in respect of the latter by putting out to tender a number of massage tents on various beaches in the town. Muro is following suit, as is Santa Margalida (aka Can Picafort). It is a pragmatic response in face of a problem that is not easily solved. It might appear to be easy to solve, but as Santa Margalida's mayor, Antoni Reus, has pointed out, the local police can confiscate the oil and the towel but an hour or so later the massage girls are back again. It's a familiar story, akin to that of the "lookies". Issuing fines isn't much use, as they don't get paid.

Muro will have two massage tents this summer, while Santa Margalida will have four. Though it might be hoped that some of the trade that the illegal massage girls have until now exploited will prefer to have an authorised beach massage, will it mean the end of the illegality and the sheer nuisance factor? Somehow, you would doubt it.

On beach security, Muro will be installing safes with the sunbed and parasol units. Or rather, the concessionaires who supply the sunbeds will be installing them. Doubtless this will have meant higher tenders for the sunbed lots on the beaches. The concessions are good revenue-earners for both Muro and Santa Margalida town halls, but they have also had their share of controversy. One can but hope that the safes will not be the targets of any vandalism. Both Muro and Can Picafort have a bit of form when it comes to sunbeds being vandalised. Not, it would seem, by ne'er-do-well tourists or local lads with nothing better to do, but by rivals.

Picnics For Pilgrims: The pancaritat

Once upon a time, in the days before a bit of old bone from Saint Sebastian turned up in Palma in the sixteenth century, relieved the city of the plague and secured for Sebastian the gig as the city's patron saint, the Guardian Angel was Palma's patron. So revered was the Angel that the festival of the Angel was one of the most important religious occasions on the island. The day for this festival was established as being the Sunday after Easter. In Palma it still is the Festival of the Angel (it was in fact revived at the start of the 1980s) but it is also the day of the "pancaritat", which literally means bread charity.

Long ago, the festival and bread-giving were combined. The poor would receive bread which had been blessed at the oratory of the Knights Templar, but the nature of the pancaritat changed over the centuries. By the nineteenth century it was no longer a solemn and charitable affair but rather an occasion for having something of a party, and the tradition had long ceased to be confined to Palma. Pancaritats now take place in most towns on the island.

This diffusion has meant that the pancaritat doesn't have to take place on so-called Angel Sunday. It has, quite literally, become a moveable feast, depending on where it is held. The word itself has acquired a different meaning. It is a picnic but one which retains a religious overtone. It is a picnic that is also a pilgrimage. In Palma this means thousands of people schlepping up to Bellver Castle. Elsewhere it can mean taking a bit of a stroll down the road, armed with bread, pastries and what have you and usually accompanied by the ubiquitous pipers.

In Alcúdia, as one example, they have stuck with Angel Sunday as being the day for the pancaritat. There is not one mass, not two but three. The first two are where mass is normally held - in the parish church - but the third, at one o'clock (just in time for lunch), is at the cave of Sant Martí, the rather odd bit of iconography carved into the countryside near the Bellevue hotel complex which is subject to the occasional spot of graffiti. Once mass is dispensed with, it's time to open the cool boxes and the picnic hampers.

But Alcúdia doesn't only have the Sant Martí pancaritat. The walk to the cave isn't that difficult. Walking up the mountain from Bonaire to the hermitage of La Victoria presents an altogether tougher proposition for the picnic-bound pilgrims. And it takes place on Tuesday, which is an example therefore of how the feast has been moved.

Similarly, Tuesday is the day for the good people of Sa Pobla to rediscover their Crestatx roots and head off the kilometre or so to the old oratory of Crestatx. It is a rediscovery because Crestatx is where the people of Sa Pobla were originally from. Under King Jaume II's system of Mallorcan new towns (1300), Crestatx folk were relocated, and thus Sa Pobla was born.

The Crestatx pancaritat is of an altogether grander order than the events in Alcúdia. It's an all-day affair, the pilgrimage leaving Sa Pobla at nine in the morning and not returning until half six in the evening, and even then there is more of a celebration - folk dance back in Sa Pobla's Plaça Major. And the pilgrimage itself doesn't have to be on foot. There is a shuttle bus which goes every fifteen minutes.

Muro is another town which takes its pancaritat seriously. It's on Monday. Rockets fired at 10am are the starting-gun for the big day out (in Sa Pobla they ring the bells, minus the Antonia big bell, which has come down for repairs), and the "murers" trek off to the hermitage of Sant Vicenç (pipers in tow, naturally enough) for a spot of mass at eleven, some kiddies' ents at midday, ensaimadas and other nosh at the picnic tables and then some folk dance at half three once the food has been digested.

These are just a small selection of Mallorca's pancaritats. They are very much a Mallorcan tradition and Mallorcan only. In Catalonia there are "caramelles", which are similar in that they are an Easter festivity, but the pancaritat can rightly be claimed as being unique to Mallorcan culture and can also rightly be claimed as being one of the very oldest traditions on the island.

What's On Around Alcúdia And Pollensa - Muro Sant Francesc Spring Fair

The fair itself is on Sunday, 27 April, though the craft fair starts the evening before. Fairly typical stuff for a Mallorcan rural fair, but a good range of interesting exhibitions, including animals, birds of prey, classic cars and motor bikes. Tapas routes on the Friday and Saturday evenings. Music on Saturday with a prolonged gathering of batucada groups following a samba session and a night party starting at half midnight.

Programme in English at: http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2014/04/muro-sant-francesc-spring-fair.html

Muro vs. Pollensa: Light vs. dark

The remarkable weather that Mallorca has been enjoying just recently can lull one into a false sense of climate security. Oh, that it always was as remarkable. Oh, that it was as remarkable as it has been throughout the winter months. Unfortunately, it isn't. And with the real arrival of a Mallorcan autumn (not the earlier variety, circa 21 September), it is not untypical for the weather to be less than remarkable and for it to be a non-descript, cloudy-can't-make-its-mind-up, grey turns to blue and then back again sort of unremarkableness. It is the sort of weather that is normally the backdrop for the November fairs, ones to which few tourists venture because few tourists have ventured to Mallorca.

Were they to, however, then might they be enticed to visit one of these fairs? Probably they would be. But they need to be inspired, to be persuaded, to be invited in a glowing way. And not only tourists. Anyone.

Muro and Pollensa have their fairs this weekend. Two towns some twenty kilometres apart celebrate their fairs in different ways but both share something in common, an agricultural and rural heritage. Most Mallorcan fairs are celebrations of this heritage and they have mostly all looked to make their fairs more appealing to the current day. Muro has added a veneer of musical and gastronomic sophistication to its pumpkinfest. Pollensa, having solicited opinions which were deposited in suggestion boxes at last year's fair, has created a space at the craft fair for young designers.

Both fairs are, therefore, moving with the times. They have to in order to avoid being exercises in repetition year in, year out. Pollensa recognised this last year, which was why it asked for suggestions. It was a good initiative; people should be asked for suggestions and not just for fairs.

A further matter for which suggestions might be sought is the type of publicity material that is used to promote the fair and also the timeliness of this publicity. Pollensa has managed to outdo even its own normal slowness this year by failing to get its programme available to the public until Wednesday, the day before the fair's first event. Pretty impressive. Muro, on the other hand, had its publicity out some ten days before the fair kicked off. Very impressive, and I mean very impressive here in a complimentary fashion rather than in the sarcastic impressive manner reserved for Pollensa's snail-like approach.

Timeliness aside, the two towns have adopted very different approaches to the images of their fairs. At a time of year when the skies might be a shade of grey, Muro has sought to break through the clouds and let the sun shine in and let the colours glow. Pollensa has stuck firmly to a greyer shade of pale. More than this, it has adorned its poster with some bits of old scrap metal and ancient tools lifted from a museum.

Pollensa does have form when it comes to issuing publicity for the fair which is either bizarre or marked with items which have been taken from an instruction manual or from a collectors' catalogue of antique workers' implements. Take its 2006 effort, in the days before crisis when money could be spent willy-nilly and when its publicity brochure came in a plastic holder and contained a design that could have been attached to a willy. Was it a sex toy, a plumber's aid or the arm from a doll? Who knew?

More austere times have meant that the plastic covers have to be dispensed with, and so the fair settles for this year's hammer, saws and chisels. The poster's design, such as it is, comes replete with old typewriter typography. This is definitely "en vogue" at present, and though its retro style might seem in keeping with the photos of the tools, all it does is to emphasise an old image which is really not in keeping with the fair's moving forward that the town hall has sought. The whole thing lacks life and vibrancy. It lacks appeal.

Muro, by contrast, has opted for vivid colours. The typography is jokey art-deco while at the same time quite sophisticated, so matching the moves that the fair has made. But it is the vitality of the array of oranges, reds and browns together with the obligatory pumpkin set against a blue sky which gives the poster so much appeal. It also bucks a trend towards monochrome minimalism, an often unwelcome design trend for Mallorca which neglects the colours of the island.

Put these two designs side by side, and which one would entice the neutral visitor more? It's an unequal match. Muro, nine out of ten; Pollensa, must try harder.

The Best Little Whorehouse In Muro

Burt Reynolds played Sheriff Ed Earl. Dolly Parton was Miss Mona. The brothel was known as the Chicken Ranch. It was the best little whorehouse in Texas. It was illegal, but because Burt and Dolly (Ed and Mona) had a thing going on, Ed took no notice. Mona ran the Chicken Ranch.

In Muro there is a finca house called La Barraca. It doesn't mean Chicken Ranch. It means barrack, or it can also mean shack. Chicken Shack perhaps. There aren't, as a rule, people called Ed or Mona or Burt or Dolly in Muro. (Actually, Dolly, as in Dolores, I'll give you.) There isn't a town sheriff as such, though there is a mayor. He's called Martí. He isn't played by Burt Reynolds.

Martí doesn't know what goes on at Chicken Shack. There is no record of a commercial activity registered there, he says. Neighbours reckon they know what goes on. Cars come and go at night. There is a business card. It has a photo of a horse mounting another horse. Chicken Shack isn't a stables though.

The Chicken Shack opened - if opened is the right word, because there is of course no record of a business there - on the day of Santa Margalida. Very religious. In the short time that it has been "open", there have been inspections and even a visit from the marshals of the Guardia Civil. A neighbour had complained. Despite these inspections and visit, Martí still says that it has not been possible to confirm what, if any, business activity is going on at Chicken Shack. But the deputies have been instructed to keep a lookout.

Even if the local politicians are saying nothing or saying very little, neighbours along the "camino" Ses Barraquetes (little shacks) are speaking of little else other than the whorehouse. Neighbours on the street called Organist Rafel Femenías are speaking of little else other than an increase in traffic and in incidents. They would like there to be some signposting. Drivers are driving around not sure where they should be going. To find Chicken Shack, one presumes.

It is doubtful there will be any signs, but for those drivers who might be experiencing some difficulty in locating the brothel (alleged brothel), reports have been quite helpful. Head out on a rural road in the direction of the sewage plant. Somewhere out there is the best little whorehouse in Muro. But not according to the mayor.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Summer Days Of The Living Dead

Muro town is typically one of the hottest places in Mallorca. It in fact holds the record for having registered the highest ever temperature on the island - plus 44 degrees in July 1994.

Just look at that number. A thermometer value of over 44 degrees is a temperature at which human existence is threatened. Mercifully, the temperatures in Mallorca only rarely exceed 40 degrees, but were they to for any length of time, then the casualty wards and the undertakers would struggle. Yet, for all that such excessive temperatures are not the norm, excessive values are regularly reported. When a reading is taken in the sun, then these are hardly surprising.

Over the weeks of this summer's heatwave, Muro's neighbour, Sa Pobla, has recorded the highest temperature, one of over 40C on 27 July. The interior towns are hotter than the coastal resorts for fairly obvious reasons, but at times the degree to which the interior degrees are greater is striking; it can be anything up to four or five degrees.

A brief report in "Ultima Hora" yesterday confirmed that Muro and Sa Pobla are Mallorca's hottest spots (or are during the current heatwave). What do the people of these towns do when the thermometer has gone over the 100 Fahrenheit mark and is edging towards the 40 mark in new money? Very little is the answer. And what is done is done before it gets too hot to do anything.

For those of us who live and work in Mallorca, arranging days according to how hot it is going to be is a familiar story, assuming you are in a position to be able to arrange your day in such a way. The best time to do work that requires concentration is the early morning, but this brings with it attendant problems. Getting up early requires going to bed early, but no one does.

Siesta is supposed to compensate for this burning of both ends, but it only does so if you are able to have a siesta or indeed that you are able to fall asleep during the day. I, for one, cannot. Or not for any longer than a couple of minutes.

Sleep deprivation is what causes what you get come August. Workers, bar owners, many tourists enter a state of the living dead. They don't suffer from heat exhaustion as such, just the exhaustion brought about by lack of sleep, some of which is self-inflicted. At the height of summer, at the height of the temperatures, 24-hour party people come out to play, and even those who don't want to join the party become a part of it; nights and nights with far too little sleep.

It is the heat, though, which is the main cause of the debilitation and enervation, and for those in the interior the heat is that much more debilitating. Think for a moment and wonder if climate change were to produce what it is said it will, how hot it might be.

In an interior town such as Muro the afternoon heat is colossal. The shallow wetlands of Albufera, far from supplying a cooling effect, have the opposite effect. One study of wetlands discovered that daytime temperatures within and by wetlands can be higher by two to three degrees. This may well help to explain why Muro and Sa Pobla are typically Mallorca's hottest places.

Years ago, I found myself in Muro at around two o'clock on one particularly savage afternoon. It may be the mind playing tricks, but I'm sure that the square in front of the church wasn't paved then. Maybe I imagined it not to have been or maybe I had been affected by the heat. But I remember it as though it were a scene from a spaghetti western. Unusually for a square, it doesn't have bars or cafes surrounding it. There was not a soul to be seen. The place was dead, totally dead. And baking hot and dusty. I expected a Morricone soundtrack to play and Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef to suddenly appear menacingly at one corner of the square. Or Rik Mayall and Peter Richardson to materialise from behind the church and ask "tell me, amigo, what's the meanest, nastiest hotel for two mean, ugly, gunslinging bastards like us to stay in?".

It was how one imagined Spain to be, and it didn't disappoint. It was hellish, merciless and unrelenting heat. It was heat that was unprecedented, when temperatures really were heading into the mid-40s. It was July 1994. A summer day of the living dead like no other.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Neverending Story: Boy bands

The history of boy bands arouses a good deal of debate among music cognoscenti, those who clearly have nothing better to do with their time or lives than indulge in such a fruitless debate. Nevertheless, and fruitless or not, placing a start time to this cultural phenomenon has some significance in that the debate wanders off into territory one might not expect, such as racial issues and even religious matters.

There is one line of argument that the roots of the boy band can go right back to the early days of Gregorian chant, an argument that does, one feels, rather stretch a point. It also contradicts an element of what the boy band is generally thought to require - an ability to dance. Monks of yore may have been able to dance, but it is unlikely that, while chanting, they were also gyrating in an unseemly fashion and grabbing hold of their crotches. Or maybe they did just this. It's hard to know.

Being a bunch of dancing boys is certainly a current-day necessity, but later claimants to being the originators of today's boy bands were equally as immobile as pre-mediaeval monks. Barbershop quartets of the nineteenth century weren't apparently known for their dance moves, but it is just possible to suggest that they were the source of all that was to follow (well, some reckon that it is possible to suggest this). The barbershop quartets and then, from the 1930s, The Inkspots, are where the racial aspect enters the grand boy band debate.

Barbershop was initially a phenomenon among black American men. Singing in a social setting, the barber's shop, has something of a connection with what occurred with American black music very much later, when beatboxing would be performed by black youth gathering together on street corners. The Inkspots, it would seem, did do a spot of dancing, but it almost certainly wasn't the style of dancing developed in New York in the 1920s that was the forerunner of breakdancing which became a key ingredient in hip hop and beatboxing.

The continuity of black American culture up to the start of hip hop does explain a great deal about current-day boy bands. The crossover into white culture, most obviously through New Kids On The Block, was a deliberate and manufactured attempt (and a successful one at that) of cashing in on a heritage of black culture from barbershop, to Earl Tucker's 1920s breaking, to The Inkspots, arguably also to Motown and finally to hip hop. And manufactured is, of course, an important word in the boy band debate.

There is the counter argument, one that considers the white cultural background. No one ever referred to The Beatles as a boy band as such, and to categorise them retrospectively as having been one is well wide of the mark. For one thing, they did things which boy bands generally do not; wrote their own songs and played their own instruments. And for another thing, when did you ever see any of them dance?

The Monkees are another suspect in boy band history. They were manufactured, so much so that they lent pop history the concept of the manufactured group. But a boy band? In current-day terms, definitely not. The Osmonds, however, were a different matter, as were The Jackson Five. Neither of these, though, was as relevant to the current day as New Edition who, black culture again, were the inspiration for NKOTB.

Since the early 1980s, the boy band has become an established fact of pop music life, and if there had been any question that it might have been on its last legs, then Simon Cowell made sure that it wasn't. The boy band also went international. It was no longer the preserve of the American and British pop industries and, together with the globalisation of the likes of "X Factor", you have what you have today in Spain, and what you will find at Muro's bullring this coming Sunday evening: Auryn, who are something of a Spanish One Direction.

Auryn, the name comes from the talisman in "The Neverending Story", have been around since 2009. They almost made it to Eurovision in 2011, individual members have appeared in the past on "Factor X" (the Spanish version of you know what), and their most recent album went to number one in the Spanish charts.

Easy it might be to disparage boy bands but you never know, if you cut along to Muro on Sunday, you might enjoy one. And if you do, then you will know that Auryn are part of a long tradition. Though how that tradition originated, that's for someone else to debate.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Strange Case Of The Muro Bullfight Protest

I have had cause to mention protests on many an occasion. Apart from the large protests, those connected with major strikes or the "indignados", there have been more local affairs. Recently, and just to take one example, there was a protest in Puerto Alcúdia against the new beach path.

The Spanish Constitution defends the right to protest, but Spanish law places certain limits on this right, these limits being not dissimilar to other countries. A plan to stage a protest has to be given in advance and permission sought. The minimum period is ten days, the maximum is thirty days. In the case of what is called "emergency", the period can be as short as 24 hours, and I can think of one example of when permission would have been granted very swiftly - the protest against terrorism that followed immediately after the Palmanova bomb and the death of the two Guardia Civil officers.

This permission has to be sought from the government's delegations, so in the case of Mallorca, this means Teresa Palmer and the government's delegation in the Balearics. There are reasons why a demonstration can be refused, and they are pretty obvious ones - incitement to cause crime and the carrying of weapons, the presence of those wearing paramilitary uniforms (so, by implication, extremist groups), and the potential for there to be a risk to members of the public or property.

This sounds perfectly reasonable, but then one comes to protests which, for whatever reason, don't go ahead and to protests which do go ahead but without having complied with requirements. In Muro town, there has been an example of both of these, and they both relate to the town's bullfight.

PACMA is a political party that defends animal rights. It was due, as it has in the past, to have staged a protest in Muro against the bullfight during the recent Sant Joan fiestas. It didn't. As I understand reports (well one, because there has been little obvious other reporting), PACMA cancelled the protest, as opposed to having had it cancelled. I am not entirely sure why it cancelled the demo. Its website and Facebook page seem to make no reference to the Muro bullfight this year, to a protest or to its cancellation. It is said, though, that the original request for the protest was put in as it should have been, i.e. in accordance with the time frame.

For whatever reason, PACMA pulled out, which is something of a mystery. In its stead, another organisation, ICA, decided to stage its own protest. However, it didn't receive permission. Indeed, the day after it did stage a protest, it received notification that the protest had been denied. Because the protest was not approved, the Guardia Civil deemed it to be illegal, took details of four protesters and they will be subject to fines (which will probably be 301 euros; and no, I don't know why it is 301 euros).

There is due to be a music benefit event to raise funds to pay these anticipated fines, assuming they are levied. An example of a 301 euros fine for an unauthorised protest in Mallorca was that handed to the then president of the local television and radio station IB3 in December last year (which is why I know the 301 euros sum).

A number of issues arise from all this. One is why PACMA apparently cancelled its protest. A second is why ICA went ahead with its, knowing it was not authorised. A third is why the protest was subsequently found to have been refused, and a fourth is why fines might be levied. As far as the latter is concerned, well this is the strict letter of the law, but one must ask: have there been other unauthorised protests of a different sort which have escaped sanction? Perhaps there have been, but then one comes to the second point. Did ICA go ahead with its protest expecting what has resulted?

In the past, there has been evidence of different animal-rights groups not singing from the same hymn sheet. This happened, for instance, with a protest in Fornalutx against the bull run. So, might it be that there is some sort of battle between these different groups?

While ICA's protest might, I say might, have been a publicity stunt, one that was undertaken with full knowledge of the consequences, there is still the matter of the government's delegate having refused permission. On what grounds? Yes there have been incidents in the past, amounting to little more than insults being hurled, but could an anti-bullfight protest be truly looked upon as posing a safety risk?

It's a strange one. On the face of it, and despite the lack of authorisation, sanctions against the protesters seem a bit harsh. But otherwise, there is much about the whole affair that doesn't quite make sense.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Albufera 25 years as a nature park

The Albufera in Muro was declared a nature park by the then Balearics president 25 years ago yesterday. To mark the celebration, the environmental lobbyists GOB have criticised the park's management. Different types of celebrations will be activities to be staged on 2 February.

See more: Ultima Hora

MALLORCA TODAY - Muro residents denounce botellón to the ombudsman

Residents in Muro town, having complained for several years about the mess and noise from a street drinking party (botellón) associated with a club in the town and about town hall inaction, have denounced the botellón and the inaction to the Defensor del Pueblo (equivalent to the ombudsman).

See more: Ultima Hora

MALLORCA TODAY - Albufera fire forces evacuation

Occupants of a house off the Cami Polls between Muro and Sa Pobla had to be evacuated earlier today when a fire broke out in Albufera and affected some 40 hectares of reed land. The smoke was very thick for several hours, and the fire appeared to be in an identical spot to one last year.

See more: Ultima Hora

MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia and Muro among the most profitable Spanish resorts

According to figures released by Exceltur (the alliance for touristic excellence), Muro and Alcúdia are respectively third and fourth in the ranking for the whole of Spain in terms of the increase in the profitability of hotel rooms for the third quarter of 2012 (as against the same period in 2011). Muro is fourth in actual profitability terms for the whole of Spain; Alcúdia is thirteenth.

MALLORCA TODAY - 13 and a half years for Muro jewellery shop raid

The two robbers who took cash and jewellery from a shop in Muro during a raid in August last year and were then involved in a shooting incident with police have been sentenced to a total of thirteen and a half years by a court in Palma.

See more: Diario de Mallorca