From Wind To Wind: North Mallorca's Year

Wind and floods
January is a month in the north of Mallorca which is punctuated by the excitement for the Sant Antoni fiestas. Not everything went according to plan this year. There was weather.

The night of Sant Antoni Eve - bonfires and all - wasn't disrupted, despite the apparent madness of setting bonfires ablaze when the wind's howling. The closest thing there was to disaster was when an 18-year-old in an Audi decided to drive straight through a Sa Pobla bonfire. It was the next day when things went awry. The Formentor pine had to be transported over land rather than sea, and blessings were called off: Alcudia, Muro and Sa Pobla. Still, the pines were nevertheless climbed, which provoked its own spot of controversy - in Pollensa at any rate. Under-greased, the pine was a doddle, and the contest was all over in a few minutes.

The flooding in January led to the road that runs by the Albufera Nature Park from Playa de Muro to Sa Pobla having to be closed for several days. The Council of Mallorca came and had a look. The relevant councillor, Mercedes Garrido, said that there would be a plan for the road, about which nothing more was heard.

Valls and the cockerel
The Valls ice-cream kiosk saga dragged on. Pollensa town hall had said there would be a tender, then it said that there wouldn't be. It couldn't guarantee that the kiosk (whether in the same place or another) would be for the sale of "artisan" ice-cream or that the award would have to be to a local business; and by local the town hall meant from Pollensa.

The Sant Antoni cockerel (the one at the top of the Pollensa pine) was up for discussion. There was a council motion for the cockerel to be eliminated; 1992 animal-protection law regarding the use of animals in the "human environment" was cited. The motion was defeated. "Shameful," said the Alternativa per Pollença. Nevertheless, the mayor, Miquel Àngel March, who had been in favour of the motion, announced that there won't be a cockerel in January 2018.

Alcudia's name and pressure group
Salvem el Moll, the Puerto Alcudia pressure group, was regularly in the news, taking aim at Alcudiamar, the Balearic Ports Authority and Alcudia town hall. Was the fact that it only had 283 likes on its Facebook page (back in March) an indication of support? Numbers who turned out for its periodic protests barely reached double figures.

Muro town hall copped for some flak over a photo taken during the minute's silence for the Westminster terrorist attack. Of twelve people in the photo, only four had solemn expressions. The others were either smiling or laughing. If nothing else, could the town hall not have chosen another photo for its Facebook page?

Alcudia wanted to give its name to a car. The motor manufacturer Seat was introducing a new model and was looking for somewhere in Spain with a name that had to start with an A. The town hall therefore fired off a letter to Seat's president and advanced the case for the car to be the Seat Alcudia. It wasn't.

The bus station and no confidence
The Puerto Pollensa bus station (which we later learned isn't a bus station; just some bus stops) was finally approved, but not without an unholy row. So heated did things get that two councillors - Miquel Àngel Sureda (Junts) and Marti Roca (now unaccredited, formerly El Pi) - had something of a set-to. Denuncias were being threatened, etc, etc.

Miquel Àngel March, who had faced a possible vote of no confidence some months previously, was confronted with another one. This time, he himself threw down the gauntlet. It was all to do with approving the budget. He lost the vote, but there was never any possibility of his being replaced because the opposition was not in a position to muster sufficient votes. March knew this. The deadline for presenting an alternative to him passed, and so was the budget.

The students and wake park
The so-called Mallorca Island Festival at Bellevue, as each year, left a trail of complaints about noise, behaviour and vandalism. Also as each year, it was studiously ignored by the media. Was this to do with the fact that it was Spanish students causing the complaints? It may only have been three weeks, but there had to be some perspective: three weeks too many for residents denied sleep, for those whose cars were trampled on, for businesses which were robbed, for other businesses which suffered because a regular type of tourist wasn't present.

Members of the Spanish Royal Family came to Alcudia's Wake Park. The Queen Mother, Sofia, would have been among family members with no idea that the park on Lago Menor (aka Lake Placid) was the source of a row with the residents. One community had sent off a letter of complaint to the Costas Authority in Madrid about the noise from the zip system.

José's terrace
There was the war of José's chairs - José as in Bony in Puerto Pollensa. Full enforcement of Pollensa terrace and tables law had become an obsession of the town hall administration. The police turned up one evening in September. There were alternative versions. The police closed the bar. José decided to close it. Typically eccentric postings on Facebook only added to the confusion, but the situation was to settle down.

Salvem el Moll reappeared and was pressurising the town hall into closing the Alcudiamar Botel. Apparently, so it is claimed, there shouldn't be a hotel as such. The town hall said it wanted more information and wouldn't be acting in a "drastic" manner.

Catalonia and Monjo's route
Back at Pollensa town hall, the Catalonia referendum threatened to once more break the ruling pact between the Junts and the UMP. There was a compromise which avoided this, but the president of the UMP resigned in protest over a pro-referendum motion.

Santa Margalida's mayor, Joan Monjo, was livid that there was no tourist tax revenue for an archaeological route. It then emerged that this route would pass by an agrotourism establishment in Muro that is owned by the mayor. Monjo denied that this had anything to do with the project and that the route would in any event be some distance from the hotel.

The winds returned
And the year drew towards a close in similar fashion to how it had begun - with weather. The high winds of Cyclone Bruno contributed to the death of a windsurfer in Alcudia and whipped up a potentially disastrous fire in Puerto Pollensa.

Driving The Rooster Of Pollensa Home

It was Willie Dixon who provided one of the means by which The Rolling Stones demonstrated that they were originally a blues group. In Little Red Rooster, Mick, as had been the case with Willie himself, pleaded for anyone seeing his little red rooster to drive it home. This was because, as Mick and Willie informed us, there had been no peace in the farmyard since the little red rooster had been gone.

The little red rooster of Pollensa is now typically driven home. Or at least to a finca belonging to the conqueror of the Sant Antoni pine on top of which the rooster (some say cock) had been too lazy to "crow for day" because it had been stuck in a bag. Well, it's always possible that it had crowed earlier on, but by seven in the evening, it would indeed have been too lazy. Once upon a time, the cock would have been driven home and ended up dead meat to be served on a plate. Not now. The cock has his own finca yard home, unless another cock from on top of the Sant Antoni pine is brought along to share the same living space and promptly kills him. Which has happened in the past.

The fact that the cock is now typically allowed to grow and crow old gracefully hasn't persuaded opponents of the pine climb that all is right in an animal-welfare style. The Alternativa per Pollença party, perfectly capable of starting a political fight - and often with very good justification - in a bag empty of a cock or anything else, has registered a motion to be debated at the next council meeting. It says that the use of a cock aloft the pine in the Plaça Vella each Sant Antoni Day in January breaches the 1992 animal-protection law.

The party objects to the use of a cock for purposes of "simple entertainment", observing that it can suffer if it is thrown or falls from the top of the pine. But the objection is based more on a point of law, and it is the one contained in the 1992 act under which traditions involving animals are defined. In itself, this is a curious approach to setting law, a seemingly arbitrary longevity established as a threshold for defining tradition or not. The law states that an act, such as the use of a cock at the Sant Antoni fiesta, can be deemed an exemption if there is evidence of one hundred years uninterrupted use. If there isn't evidence, then the involvement of live animals on fiesta occasions is proscribed.

This is the situation in Can Picafort. The use of real ducks for the mid-August swim was finally stopped ten years ago, the town hall in Santa Margalida having consistently ignored the law. Only when legal action was being taken seriously did the town hall comply. There are those in Santa Margalida, and not just at the town hall, who want the law amended and have proposed that the 100-year threshold is reduced, the point being that the earliest evidence of the ducks and swim comes from the 1930s.

As far as the cock of Pollensa is concerned, there is little documentary evidence to back up how long the cock has been a feature of the pine climb. Indeed there is little evidence that shows when the climb started (with or without a cock). A newspaper report from the early twentieth century appears to be one of the few actual references.

The Alternativa is pursuing a line that it adopted ten years ago. On its Urxella blog in March 2007, it referred to an official complaint lodged with the Balearic government by ANPBA, the national association for the protection and welfare of animals, and also to an initiative by the town hall itself (in 2004) to prevent actions that cause suffering to animals. Proceedings were to have been initiated to withdraw the cock, but these were not seen through, the suggestion having been that it would have been a vote loser.

In 2010, it would seem that the town hall was in fact fined for breaching the animal-protection law and that there is also an open case for the same reason that is outstanding since 2015. At the start of that year, the Baldea animal-rights group proposed to the town hall that the cock should be substituted by a rag-doll version. It set out seven ways in which the law was being violated, referring, for example, to "unnatural treatment" by suspending the cock at a height of some twenty metres on top of the pine. To authorise such "illegality" would warrant a charge of abuse of public office.

A hundred years or not, why should longevity have anything to do with it? Should the little red rooster stay in the farmyard and never need to be driven home?

The Joys Of Sant Antoni

Goig. There's an odd word. It is derived from the Latin gaudium, which means joy, pleasure or delight. It means the same thing in Catalan but it is also a verse in praise of the Virgin Mary or saints, and it was from Catalan that the genre came. This genre is described as a poetic composition, popular in character, which is sung collectively to give thanks or as a prayer to ask for the physical and spiritual health of a community.

Back in the fourteenth century, it was Saint Peter who was being sung to. The chronicler Ramon Muntaner noted what is taken to be the first documented evidence of a goig. The Catalan navy, all of its men apparently, called on Saint Peter in an action against Gallipoli. The Catalans and Aragonese set fire to the city in 1307. The chronicle in which Muntaner mentioned the goig came a few years later, but it may well have been this 1307 event that he was referring to.

Anyway, the navy had clearly started something of a trend, so much so that by the end of that century (1399 to be precise) the Red Book of Montserrat made reference to the popularity of goigs and dance in churches. This book contained choreographic notation for dances and also verses for songs that were performed during vigils in the square in front of the church of Montserrat.

While Saint Peter (Sant Pere) was doubtlessly felt to be useful to the Catalan navy because of his seafaring connections, other saints were to prove to be popular when it came to the odd goig or two. The rather obscure Sant Roc (not obscure in Mallorca it must be said) was one of them, as was Palma's patron, Sant Sebastià. These two saints shared something in common - dealing with the plague. Prayers for physical well-being and an end to plagues became a goig speciality.

And there is another saint who was to acquire the goig treatment, more really because of thanks being given to him for being a saint and one embedded in Mallorca's Christian culture. Who else but Sant Antoni?

The town which makes most of its joys of Sant Antoni, more so than Sa Pobla, is Manacor. Six years ago the then mayor of the town, Antoni Pastor, explained that the Sant Antoni fiestas were the most important ones for Manacor and for Mallorca. The emotion of the occasion, for him, was partly because Sant Antoni "is my saint" but also because the singing of the goig by hundreds of residents of the town brought him out in goosebumps.

Manacor doesn't go mad for Sant Antoni to the extent that other towns do. Yes, there are bonfires, but there aren't demons roaring around on Sant Antoni Eve as is the case in the likes of Muro, where they take their Sant Antoni just as seriously. The centrepiece of the occasion is the singing. At the parish church the Compline service is sung, which doesn't happen in the same way elsewhere. And the goigs are very much part of the occasion.

So important are these songs that the good folk of Manacor put in some practice. Not one, not twice, but three times. One of these practice sessions involves a barbecue as well; not that any incentive is needed as the folk turn out in good number and in good voice. The final practice is this evening after mass. The real thing is at half seven on Monday.

And what do they sing about? Well, it's all about glory to the saint and overcoming Lucifer, that sort of thing. It may be recalled that Antoni had the odd brush with the devil while he was enduring his hermitic existence in a desert cave; the brushes, so it is said, were hallucinations. As for the singing itself, so ingrained are the goigs in local culture that many people know the words off by heart. In case anyone doesn't, song sheets are provided, and the result of all this is like some grand beer hall sing-song-cum-football crowd, except in a church.

Different it certainly is. If you thought Sant Antoni was just about demons and setting the place on fire, then Manacor proves that there is another aspect to his celebration. Joyous.

Debating Sant Antoni

They like their debates in Sa Pobla. The citizens have, for example, been invited to debate the town's touristic future. As it has no obvious touristic past, they have been debating from a more or less blank sheet of paper. Yet there is one aspect of the town's past - from a very long time ago - that has entered into this all but non-existent touristic past: the legendary Sant Antoni.

They were debating the Egyptian ancient himself the other evening. A group of youths - a mistranslation if there ever was one, given that "jóvenes" (aka "joves") can be applied to anyone up to roughly the age of thirty or even older - had organised a gathering during which one of the hottest topics for discussion was what type of dress should be worn for the Sant Antoni fiestas. It wasn't what they had in mind, but dress code advice might be said to be very simple - something warm.

The debate was otherwise under the broad title of "where's the fiesta going". In order to answer this, it was important to know where it had been, which of course takes one way back when - to the fourteenth century way back when. Following an explanation of this, there was a roundtable debate (another one) featuring eminent figures such as the mayor.

And what did they conclude? Well, nothing really, and it was unlikely that they would have arrived at anything dramatically different, given that the Obreria de Sant Antoni (represented at the roundtable) pretty much dictates what goes on. If the demons don't watch their demonic protocols, for example, they can find themselves on the wrong end of an obreria ticking-off. Which they have in the past.

Sant Antoni, in a Sa Pobla style - and it is the most important of the Antoni styles - starts as soon as the Kings are done and dusted. On Saturday, they drag the old boy out of storage for another year and hit the Antoni trail, one of the most significant rituals being the election of the "clamater" by the group of notables known as "La Prohomenia". The clamater is the one charged with leading the cry of "Visca Sant Antoni" during the Compline. The "jóvenes" would be well advised to not consider any tampering with this ritual, given that it was only restored in 2002 after a hiatus of some eighty years because someone had decreed that this shouting was all rather unseemly for a church service.

Mayor Ferragut reflects that the Sant Antoni fiesta has withstood revolutions, wars and periods of famine. Despite all of these, it has always gone ahead, albeit it is hard to know how he can say this with absolute certainty. But the roots of the fiesta are strong and profound. All the ancestry provides a form of substrate, the environment in which the organism of the people lives. Or something like that.

The mayor is therefore not for any change; not radical anyway. The fiesta has remained largely intact since time immemorial and will doubtless remain intact until hell freezes over and the demons are no more. Nevertheless, there is (and was) some sense in having a debate as to the fiesta's future. Partly that is because fiestas don't stand still. There is plenty of evidence which demonstrates how the "jóvenes" of other towns have shown a way forward and breathed new life into the same procedure as every year. They have created traditions for contemporary times, such as with the Much of Sineu, itself based on a traditional folk tale.

A further reason is tourism. The two debates thus collide, if there is a genuine wish that they should. One of the strange things about Sant Antoni - and there is a great deal which is strange - is that it has been a fiesta in the national touristic interest since the mid-1960s, a declaration which had virtually no impact and hasn't had. It's as if nowadays they've forgotten that the declaration was made. Perhaps it needs reviving, rather like the clamater was.

Or is there something lurking in the mayoral substrate which would prefer that the declaration hadn't been made? After all, it is from a time when you know who was in charge, and the Francoists did make something of a habit of attaching themselves to certain traditions and attempting to pass them off as being "Spanish". Where Sant Antoni is concerned, that would never do. His existence in Sa Pobla and Mallorca owes everything to his cult having been shipped across the sea by the various Jaumes.

But if this town is to ever be serious about its tourism debate - and they do wish to place an emphasis on the local culture - then it has this great fiesta advantage, one stronger and more profound than any largesse which might be bestowed on it courtesy of holiday rentals' legislation. Visca Sant Antoni. Visca turisme?

Demons And Models For Wives

MGMT, the American rock band, produced a video for their song "Time to Pretend" which could have been dredged from the depths of an LSD trip. The reason I was reminded of this computer-generated extravaganza with the song's references to Class-A drugs and more than just a nod in the direction of The Beatles during their heady phase was on account of the collision of themes that have, in the real world, managed to collide. The video starts with hippy sorts cavorting around a bonfire. Here we have a symbol of Mallorca's current obsession with fire, demons and all amount of pagan heritage. The drugs-laced overtones of the song and video and the hippy sorts are in keeping with the alternative fiestas of Palma's Sant Kanut. And then there's the line from the song about finding models for wives. The frog prince, Rupert, has found a model for a wife (or engagement at any rate).

And into this kaleidoscope we also have the strange story of the demon who seemed to have found a model as a wife, the model in question being one Aline, a Russian blonde. Aline's dalliance with a demon, a Grand Demon no less, has caused one almighty great rumpus as well as an almighty great racket. When there's a protest to be had, out come the pots and pans. The beating of them creates one heck of a cacophony.

It needs to be said, in the interests of accuracy, that Aline and the Grand Demon got no further than being photographed. But it is the photos that brewed up the storm, and it has been hovering over Manacor ever since the latest edition of the town's magazine, "Perlas y Cuevas", celebrated Sant Antoni by showing topless Aline with the Grand Demon in what has been described as a series of "erotic" poses. In one, Aline is taking two hands to one of the demon's horns, while he, tongue hanging out, is in the process of trying to remove one of her stockings.

So the legend goes in the magazine, Aline has come from Russia in order to tempt the Grand Demon and has engaged in hours of seduction prior to the demons going in pursuit of the holy hermit of Sant Antoni. No sooner had the magazine come out and the photos and the arguments were all over social media, at which point the mainstream media picked up on them as well. The outcry led to the caceroladas, "feminist" ones, according to one report, outside the office of the magazine and the home of its editor, Antoni Ferrer, who was said to have been watching Tarantino's latest while all the banging of saucepans was going on.

Ferrer defended the photos by saying it was professional and that there had been no intention to offend or to stir up controversy. The photos used were apparently the most "neutral" of some 500 that were taken, and he was somewhat bemused by the fact that people might be shocked by the photos, bearing in mind the years of censorship in the past. While the magazine has received plenty of messages of support, this hasn't come from institutions. The Council of Mallorca has taken the side of the protesters and condemned the use of imagery which depicts "cheesy sexist stereotypes". The Sant Antoni patronage association in Manacor has also criticised the magazine and has disassociated itself from it by stating that it had nothing to do with the images.

Rather more sinister, as far as protest is concerned, is the fact that Ferrer says that he took a phone call during which a threat was made to his 84-year-old mother. Above all, though, and in addition to stressing the professionalism of the publication, he is at pains to point out that the magazine endured years of censorship under Franco (it is one of the oldest local publications, having started in 1960), and describes the fuss as "surreal" and an attack on freedom of expression.

The points to be made should, however, be obvious. On the one hand there is the tradition of Sant Antoni itself which might be said to have been held up to some ridicule and on the other there is the fact that, for all that freedom of expression should be upheld and demanded, there are also contemporary sensibilities to take into account.

It is perhaps a leap from the photos in the magazine to concerns about gender violence, but these concerns are all too real and legitimate enough, while the current political climate in Mallorca has taken a firm move in favour of women's rights.

One's own reaction to the photos will all depend on individual perspectives. The affair may prove to have been a storm in a teacup (or in a saucepan), but one wonders if advertisers might also object.

The Year Of The Demon

Anyone unfamiliar with Mallorca who were to arrive on 16 January might wonder if the whole island has been gripped by horror. Few parts of the island are unaffected. Fire, demons, beasties. For its ubiquitousness and especially for its symbolism, there is no other fiesta day like 16 January. Not Kings, not New Year, not Easter. Sant Antoni Eve is Mallorca's fiesta. There is another night of fire - the one of midsummer - but Sant Joan does not have the same all-island grip of Sant Antoni and nor is it something which is essentially of Mallorcan origin. It is small wonder that the day of Sant Antoni has been suggested as the new Mallorca Day.

In recognition of the association of demons with Sant Antoni, the Council of Mallorca has hit upon an idea for a "year". 2016 is a year of one thousand demons. Its purpose? To contribute to the discovery, the promotion and shared enjoyment of the demonic universe of Mallorca. The vice-president of the Council and also its councillor for culture, Francesc Miralles, has spoken of wanting to use 2016 as a year to present the demons of Mallorca so as to promote the cultural richness of the island via symbols that form an essential part of island identity. Bravo, though it's not as though demonic promotion hasn't been suggested before, especially in connection with Sant Antoni.

Still, better late than never, and as an introduction to this year of demons, there is an explanation as to different types of Mallorcan demon. They are certainly not all of the fire variety. These are the new demons. Their tradition is much more recent, their whirling, fire-spitting tridents only some thirty or so years old. At Sant Antoni, the new and old demon traditions collide, as there are demons which are identifiable as those of Sant Antoni. They are a class in their own right. They dance, they chase, but they don't threaten to set you on fire.

There is a further category, the demons who are integral to other manifestations of Mallorcan fiesta traditions. These ones include the pitcher-smashing demons of La Beata in Santa Margalida or those who are the demon in the folk dances of the Cossiers. They play a specific part and, as with the Sant Antoni demons, appear only when tradition demands. The fire demons, on the other hand, can engage in more frequent presentations, and there are a few gangs who hire themselves out to towns without a fire-running gang. Nevertheless, they are still very much associated with specific fiestas, such as Sant Antoni, an occasion when they - as the new demon tradition - share the stage with the old, dancing variety.

There is a further part to the demons' story: their accessories. The pitchers of Santa Margalida are one example. The masks are obviously another. But there are also other traditional elements which have become part of the wider demons' picture: bonfires, the xeremier pipes, the weird ximbomba and, very much more recently, the batucada drums.

As a means of promoting the year of demons, a card game has been adapted to feature images of the differing types of demon. Hence, there are, for example, the grand demon of Arta and the Sant Antoni demons of Muro to represent the old Sant Antoni tradition. Or the Filloxera de l'Infern demons of Binissalem who come from the modern fire line of the demons' world. The card game is one promotional device. Others will be a roadshow, conferences and educational activities. But all these raise a question. Who's the promotion for?

It is easy to overlook the fact that the whole demon tradition in Mallorca had more or less died out by the end of the 1960s. There was one town where it was kept alive. Sa Pobla. This town, more than any other in Mallorca, was responsible for maintaining old traditions and for reviving them. The xeremia pipe had all but disappeared before Sa Pobla made a concerted effort to bring it back. So it is only right that so much attention is devoted to Sa Pobla on Sant Antoni Eve. The rest of the island owes the town an enormous debt.

But it is the fact that the tradition did once hover close to extinction which probably goes to the heart of why there is the year of the demon. There is no one in Mallorca who isn't now familiar with the demons, so it might be asked why they need reminding of them. The year is, therefore, reinforcement. A reminder of the roots. A celebration of the demonic varieties. Will the year, however, cast its net wider? Lord knows, it's been suggested often enough that the demons, especially those for the winter fiestas, are ideal for foreign promotion. One fears, however, that the year may pass the rest of the world by.

The Week Of The Beards

As we head towards the fiestas of the saints Antoni and Sebastià, it is perhaps easy to overlook some other saints who are knocking around on the mid-January saints' line-up. Antoni is one of three saints who have given rise to what this current week is called: "la setmana dels barbuts", the week of the bearded ones. In addition to Antoni, there are also Sant Pau (Paul the Hermit) and Sant Maur (in English Mauro or Maurus) whose long white beards are said to recall the Roman god Saturn and so the winter festival of Saturnalia, the remote origin of Carnival.

Pau was the first of the Christian hermits. He has an association with Antoni on several counts. One was that they were both Egyptian. A second was that Antoni also committed himself to an hermitic existence in the desert. A third was that Antoni supposedly learned about Pau in a dream, went in search of him and found him, by which time Pau was 113 years old.

Maur is a rather different kettle of saintly fish. Not a great deal is known about him, other than that he was Italian and seemingly lived in the sixth century. That's the original tale. There is a totally different one that was adapted for Catalan tradition. This has it that Maur was a native of Roussillon in southern France, with all that this implied for the Occitan language and its links with Catalan. His story is thus almost certainly a total fabrication, but then fact and fiction where most saints are concerned are difficult to distinguish; Antoni and Pau are both cases in point.

It just so happens that Pau and Maur share the same feast day, i.e. 15 January. Thrown together with Antoni, where Catalan religious tradition is concerned, and you get the week of the bearded ones (or three days of the bearded ones to be more accurate). The beards of Antoni and Pau are probably not disputable, insofar as anything can be said to be fact. Living the hermit's life would have meant eschewing the luxury of a razor blade and some shaving gel. Maur, on the other hand, is normally depicted in a less hirsute style. Indeed, he looks a fairly baby-faced saint minus any facial hair, but then that's the image that the Italians have of him. Catalan tradition demands the full set.

The week of the bearded ones has a greater significance than simply not shaving. This week is considered, in traditional terms, to be the coldest one of the winter, and what better way to keep an old saint warm during those freezing nights in the desert (or in Roussillon) than a beard.

Despite this bearded celebration of the tufted triumvirate, Antoni is the only one of the three who genuinely enters the Mallorcan consciousness. There are no big gigs for Pau or Maur. But, and never let it be said that the saintly calendar isn't a packed one, there are other saints who gatecrash bearded week and either attach themselves to the fiery feast of Sant Antoni or don't. In the latter category are Sant Hilari (13 January), the so-called hammer of the Arians and thus a male Hilary, and Santa Priscil-la (18 January), of whom it can probably safely be assumed that she would fail to qualify for bearded week in any event. Then we come to Sant Honorat (Honoratus in English).  

From the evidence of an icon, Honorat did have a beard, not on account of having spent cold nights in the desert but because he just did. This particular Honorat was the bishop of Arles in the fifth century. Given that Arles is in Provence, there is, as with Sant Maur, that distant Catalan linguistic and so cultural connection.

In the town of Algaida, Honorat is patron saint and as his feast day is 16 January, bingo, Honorat's day and Antoni's eve coincide, which means that Honorat must have his eve as well, resulting therefore in two successive evenings of fire-making which become three successive evenings because they move things around in Algaida. On Antoni's day, there are bonfires, barbecues and wine at the hermitage on the Randa puig; not for Antoni but for Honorat. And why? Well, Honorat did give his name to the hermitage which, for more than a hundred years, was once where the brotherhood of Sant Pau and Sant Antoni lived, so linking the town to two of the three bearded ones of beard week plus one, Honorat, who did have a beard though isn't one of the three, but not to the other, Maur, who didn't necessarily have a beard at all.

Note: There are two other saints who make it onto the bearded week roll call, Sant Fruitós (21 January) and Sant Vicenç Màrtir (22 January), which helps to explain the "week", but neither are generally referred to.

Photo: Sant Maur as he is in La Bruca, Italy. Not a lot of beard going on here it must be said.

The Proclaimer Of Sant Antoni

Is there a town which does its history and culture in a more passionate and more intense fashion than Sa Pobla? There will be towns which will argue that they do, but then there is no town, other than Sa Pobla, which can claim a fiesta of the longevity of Sant Antoni that has become a genuinely island-wide occasion. Sa Pobla is blessed with being the town where the cult of Sant Antoni, brought across the sea from Catalonia by the Mallorcan kings, was implanted and where the church is the only parish church to have the saint as its patron.

Though there are other towns which have their Sant Antoni celebrations, Sa Pobla is where the fiesta started and so where the history is at its strongest. They love an anniversary in Sa Pobla, and this year is no different. It is the 650th anniversary of the first documentary evidence of the fiesta, and true to form it is being made a fuss of. It had to do with one Joan Montjiuc and his wish to wear his sword while being accompanied by two women during the celebration on the eve of Sant Antoni (16 January). It caused a bit of a row between the assistant to the governor of the island at that time, Rodrigo de Sant Martí, and the mayor of what was then referred to as Huialfàs (a convenient abbreviation for the full name of Sa Pobla de Huialfàs which was eventually altered in order to adopt an alternative convenient abbreviation, i.e. Sa Pobla). 

This document, the subject matter of which was relatively inconsequential, implies that the celebrations on the eve of Sant Antoni were by then established, though quite how well established isn't known. Sa Pobla was founded in 1300 but the original Sant Antoni church wasn't built until 1357. It is possible, therefore, that the fiesta originates from only a few years before the now famous 1365 document.

Whenever it did actually start, it carried on unmolested for nigh on three centuries when the town hall and the church ran up against a problem with a hospital in Palma run by the Antonian order. The church was told that it had to remove the image of Sant Antoni from the altar and thus started a legal battle which took six years to resolve. Eventually, in 1643, victory was Sa Pobla's. The image could stay, the fiesta would survive, and as a way of announcing this victory, a specific tradition was introduced. It was the "clam", which can be translated as cry or proclamation. The cry was "Visca Sant Antoni". The saint had been dead for nearly 1300 years by then, but no matter. Long live Sant Antoni and his fiesta.

This cry, which had been bellowed out by the assembled masses for the "Completes" solemn service on the eve of Sant Antoni in 1643, caught on. The bellowing occurred every year until 1920 when it was decreed that it was all a bit unseemly for a church service. Sant Antoni, the fiesta, carried on, but his long life was no longer proclaimed. But all old traditions in Mallorca are capable of being revived, which is what happened to the "clam". It took over eighty years for the revival to occur, but in 2002 it was back, replete with its "clamater", a crier or proclaimer, an honoured son or daughter of the town, and the first person to be given this honour was the man who probably more than any other had brought about the revival of traditions in Sa Pobla, the writer, playwright and historian, Alexandre Ballester.

Since 2002, the honour has been given to other worthies of Sa Pobla. In 2003 it was the Mallorcan actor Simón Andreu Trobat, while in 2008 it was Antoni Torrens, a promoter of Sa Pobla culture who was the one who took the Sant Antoni celebrations to Gràcia in Barcelona, where they have been re-created each year since the early 1990s. There was a slight break with tradition in 2007 when there was a group cry by Marjal en Festa, a cultural association closely linked with the fiesta through its folk dance. Then there was 2011 and Llorenç Serra Ferrer, a name which should be familiar to those of you who know something of Real Mallorca football club. Yes, that Llorenç Serra Ferrer, the one who had presided over four years of increasing calamity at the football club. One doubts that he might be invited now.

And so we come to this year. The "clamater" is chosen each year by a body known as La Prohomenia, a gathering of notables, including the mayor. The chosen one is Jaume Caldés, the grand master of the caparrot big heads who are as much a feature of the fiestas as the demons and giants. "Visca Sant Antoni" will be proclaimed following a brief speech at the end of the Completes. The congregation will respond likewise and they will then all troop out of the church and not long after, all hell will break loose.

Losing The Heartland: President Bauzá

If you read the programmes for fiestas, you will always find an entry in the schedule for the "arrival of the authorities (aka the dignitaries)". Normally, this just refers to a mayor and a few of his or her town-hall acolytes. Occasionally, however, it refers to dignitaries of a higher order, such as the president of the Balearics. It all depends on the importance and standing of the fiesta in question.

Two of the most important fiestas in Mallorca - in fact, the two most important - are those of Sant Antoni in Sa Pobla and La Beata in Santa Margalida. At the second of these, staged in early September, the dignitaries have already arrived and have been perched on temporary seating before officially arriving (so to speak) and following the procession of La Beata as she faces temptations by devils and the smashing of terracotta jars.

La Beata is the self-proclaimed "most typical" fiesta in Mallorca and for this reason it attracts the dignitaries that it does; it is a must-be-seen-at event for the grand order of Mallorcan politicians. Sa Pobla's Sant Antoni is similar to La Beata insofar as it is an occasion of island-wide significance, so therefore an occasion for the great and good (sic) to attend, and is staged in a town which lays claim to being the sort of spiritual home to Mallorca's Catalanism. Santa Margalida, a town once removed from Sa Pobla (Muro's between them), might also put a bid in for this title were it not for it having a different claim - its status as a "vila", an old categorisation and one that is unique to Santa Margalida. It may not really mean much nowadays, but the people of Santa Margalida maintain its importance by referring to themselves as "vilers".

Whatever the different claims of the two towns, they share in common the fact that they are both extremely Mallorcan. The same, one could say, applies to any town in Mallorca which isn't Palma or Calvia, but nowhere else has quite the Mallorcan kudos as Sa Pobla or Santa Margalida; they are the repositories of centuries-old ruralism, tradition, culture and language, augmented by heavy doses of the religion thing in the shape of Sant Antoni and Santa Catalina.

The two fiestas have, however, posed something of a conundrum over the past couple of years for politicians-in-attendance: one in particular, i.e. President Bauzá. In both 2012 and 2013, his appearance at La Beata was confirmed only at the last minute. In 2012, he had initially been banned (or not invited at any rate) by former mayor, the battling, veteran hard man of the left, Miguel Cifre. In the end, he was invited, as he was last year. But these were invites without any great enthusiasm.

What had led Cifre to not issue an invite was what happened when Bauzá performed his Cook's Tour of Partido Popular HQs in various towns. In Santa Margalida the town's centre became a virtual no-go area because of security and after the visit there were insinuations (from a PP source) of the townspeople being violent. Cifre was mightily displeased. In Sa Pobla, during the same tour of the party faithful out in the sticks, there were jeers and disturbances when the president appeared.

Perhaps because La Beata is a rather more solemn affair than Sant Antoni, Bauzá has been able to get away with going to Santa Margalida without there being too much of a fuss. In Sa Pobla, however, and despite it having a PP mayor, he has stayed away from Sant Antoni for the past two years. Having been greeted by abuse and booing in 2012, he has headed off to the quiet of Menorca instead.

It might be thought fair enough that he prefers not to be subjected to abuse or to cause a security issue, but his non-appearance at Sant Antoni, taken together with the uncertainties that have surrounded his attendance at La Beata, amount to rather more than anxieties over what sort of a reception he will get. These are fiestas in heartland Mallorca; heartland not just in a geographical sense. If Bauzá cannot attend or if there are question marks over his attendance, then he has lost this heartland, and in the process an empathy with the heart of Mallorca has also been lost.

Mallorca seems like two places. One place is Palma and its suburbs of Calvia and Marratxí (Bauzá's old stomping ground). The other place is the rest. The now broken Bauzá-Delgado axis was representative of this separation; a cosmopolitan Spanishness at variance with and out of step with the insular instincts of the "part forana". It is a division which could be styled as the new versus the old, but this is not so. It is a division in terms of an island's psyche.

Bauzá has faced an enormous challenge because of the economic circumstances which he inherited. He was always bound to therefore come up against opposition, but handling of the islands' economy is really the least of it. Had he stuck to this, then he would not have lost the heartland. But he hasn't. And in instituting policies that he has, he has created a polarity of two Mallorcas pulling in opposite directions.

She's Just A Devil Woman: Demons' traditions

There isn't, or doesn't appear to be, much good rhyme or reason as to why certain towns in Mallorca - apart, quite obviously from Sa Pobla - go big on the Sant Antoni fiesta and others don't. One town which does is Son Servera, the municipality to which Cala Millor (part of it) belongs, and so seriously does Son Servera take Sant Antoni that it has an "obreria" devoted to the fiesta; an obreria, in this instance, being an association which is a sort of guardian of tradition. And very traditional it is in Son Servera. Its obreria was founded in 1775, principally to oversee the maintenance of the chapel of Sant Antoni Abad, which had been ceded to Son Servera in 1698 by the parish of Artà. There's your rhyme and reason then.

Other towns have their Sant Antoni obrerias as well - Sa Pobla, for instance - and the different obrerias of the Llevant and Pla (plain) regions of Mallorca have an annual get-together to discuss matters of a Sant Antoni style. They all gathered in Son Servera's Bar Nou last November for their Antoni-in. Sa Pobla's obreria, one of those at the meeting, gives a flavour of what it does on Sa Pobla town hall's website. The most recent development in its own long history was in 2006 when it was agreed by the town's council that the demons' gang (the "colla") would be dependent upon the obreria for present and future "management". In other words, it is the obreria which has the say as to what is traditionally correct when it comes to demon activity during Sant Antoni, because it, the obreria, is the master of the whole Sant Antoni tradition.

A similar arrangement exists in Son Servera. However, not all is well on account of a controversy which is said to have divided the town. It centres on interpretations of tradition, the two sides in this argument being represented by the town's principal demon of many years standing and the obreria, which was given something of an overhaul last year when new blood was brought in to its membership. Guidelines by the new, improved obreria have sought to get back to traditions which the demon, Joan Llull, appears, over the years, to have broken with. There may not be that many local people truly that bothered, but there are sufficient for some to have taken to daubing graffiti, expressing both sides of the argument, and to engaging in rants on social media.

Clearly, when it comes to tradition, someone has to have the final say as to what actually constitutes tradition and what doesn't. Though the rumpus in Son Servera all sounds a bit silly, it probably isn't. If traditions can't be argued over, then what can be? Mallorca lives by its traditions, and in its small towns they are matters of importance, to the point at which people get worked up into a rare old lather, grab a can of spray paint and find the nearest wall.

The world of demons is not always an harmonious one, but as they are demons, who, tradition itself suggests, aren't always trustworthy and are prone to acts that are less than goodly or even Godly, then total harmony would be surprising. There again, we are talking earthly, dressed-up demons here. But, human nature being as it is, even the earthly demon can feel compelled to strike disharmony.

A few years ago, 2010 to be precise, there was a different fallout and one which had a potentially far more wide-reaching impact on the demons' world. A rival demons' organisation had reared its ugly head, following an outbreak of internecine strife at the Balearics Federation of Demons. There had been an emergency general meeting of the federation in May, and by October, the rival organisation was behind a night of fire in Pollensa that featured various demons' gangs. It was all a little like the world of professional darts, which suddenly found it had two controlling bodies and two separate world championships. Quite whatever happened after this I can't honestly say, but if one takes a look at the federation's blog website, its register of demons' gangs numbers only 26. I fancy that there are others.

A federation of demons might in itself seem odd, but there is, in addition to tradition, a fair bit to being a demon. Not everyone can do the stalky-walky thing they do without having been instructed as to the correct way to stalk. Not everyone can whirl a trident with flames spitting out of it. And the flames are a pretty important aspect of being a demon which needs control. Hence, it is a requirement for all demons, including mini-demons (from age eight), to have a certificate for being an expert in pyrotechnics.

Modernity requires, therefore, that tradition is certificated, but whether it is tradition tampered with by bureaucracy or by disagreements, there is one demon tradition which prevails. One day, concedes the Grand Demon of Manacor, his role could be taken by a woman. Whatever next? "She's just a devil woman ..."

The Man Who Wrote About Sa Pobla

At this time of the year, it is my lot to research and write about Sa Pobla and its Sant Antoni fiesta. The research is not obscure, unless you want it to be and unless you are deterred not just by texts in Catalan but also in Mallorquín (and the latter pose rather more problems than the former; finding assistance to help determine some Mallorquín meanings is not straightforward, the consequence of the dialect being obscure in its written form). The research is not obscure, thanks to a chronicler who, though he will be obscure for many, was one of Mallorca's more remarkable literary figures. He was remarkable for having combined an assiduous and devoted career as Sa Pobla's chronicler with having been an author and playwright.

Mallorca's towns have their historians and their chroniclers. If you were to put them together in a room, what tales and stories they could tell. Many of them have been told, but they are all too remote for the non-Catalan speaker. They tell so much, and so much that is overlooked because of linguistic obscurity. Biel Pieras, himself a leading Mallorcan historian and also Inca's chronicler, said at the end of June 2011 that Mallorca had lost its finest official chronicler. He was speaking about Alexandre Ballester.

78 years of age, Ballester was Sa Pobla through and through, despite having been born in Barcelona. He was only very young when his parents settled in Sa Pobla, and he was to become one of Mallorca's foremost literary figures. He wrote almost twenty plays, he wrote poetry, he wrote satirical essays and he wrote a novel, for which he received an award (the first of very many) in 1965. But he was far more than this, because he was also an historian; he was Sa Pobla's chronicler. When not writing for the theatre or for publication, he was writing about the place that, only a few months old, had become his home town, and included in his writings were those about the history of the Sant Antoni fiesta.

In late 2003, Sa Pobla town hall produced a history of the town. Its title is "Sa Pobla: The People, The Environment, The History". It was the work of four teachers from the town. Ballester wrote the foreword and wasn't being unkind when he referred to the history as "basic". It was a "basic book, indispensable for everyone who lives in, works in and loves our town". Ballester was cited extensively in the book, and one begins to get a flavour of just how diverse his own coverage was. From eleven bibliographic references, there are those to the archaeology of Talapi, a finca in the town, to the land at the turn of the twentieth century, to Albufera's "yesterdays" and to the third centenary of the Sant Antoni parish church in 1997 (the 300th anniversary of the church which replaced the original that was built in 1357).

There could have been many more references. Ballester, like any good historian, dealt with the broad picture and the specific, and included among his investigations in the latter category were those into the glosadors, themselves chroniclers of times past when communications and the perpetuation of Catalan (Mallorquín) were largely achieved by these monologuist-chanters, and into arròs brut, that most traditional of Mallorcan dishes but in truth a tradition that was bound up in the development of Albufera at the end of the nineteenth century and the cultivation of rice in the wetlands.

There is far more to Sa Pobla's history than two themes, but they are two themes which dominate its past and also its present. Albufera is one and especially the period of the English engineers - Hope, Waring, the preacher man Mister Green, Bateman and his son Lee, who adopted the Catalan Lluís name and called the Gatamoix colony after himself. The other is Sant Antoni, the tradition of the fiesta and the parish churches built in his honour. 

There is a third theme, which is agriculture and specifically the growing of potatoes. Put these three themes together, and you get what you have - a town wedded to the land and the wetland and to centuries-old tradition that was imported by the kings of Mallorca and which was invested in Sa Pobla; Sant Antoni became and remains the centre of this tradition. It is not for nothing that Sa Pobla is referred to as the capital of rural Mallorcan life, a mix of cultivation, the working of the land and superstitions and fiesta. Sa Pobla, perhaps in a self-appointed way, has assumed a role as capital also of a specifically Catalan rural life, and in its simple denomination, it asserts a position in Mallorcan history as a sort of favoured town. Sa Pobla, "the populace". Not a populace but the populace. And Ballester was the man who truly asserted this position. He was the man who wrote about Sa Pobla and, in many respects, was the man who made Sa Pobla.

* Photo from www.escriptors.cat

Water Of The Meadow: Sa Pobla

Yesterday was the first day of the Santa Margalida fiestas in Sa Pobla. There are times when these fiestas get confusing. It's also Santa Margalida time in, where else, Santa Margalida, just down the road a bit. The Sa Pobla Santa Margalida fiestas last until 20 July, the day of Santa Margalida, and then the fiestas of Sant Jaume take over. Sant Jaume is the patron saint of Sa Pobla. One of them, the male one. Santa Margalida is the other one, the female one.

Santa Margalida came to be the female patron saint of Sa Pobla before Sa Pobla became Sa Pobla. Or rather, she was the patron saint of what was the original Sa Pobla, which wasn't where Sa Pobla is but was where Crestatx (Crestaig) now is, so over the other side of the motorway from Sa Pobla.

Santa Margalida was the patron of the sanctuary at Crestatx, a settlement of which there is evidence of there having been Roman occupation, which isn't all that surprising given the relative proximity of the Pollentia Roman town in what became Alcúdia and also of Bochoris, which is nowadays Puerto Pollensa. It is perhaps worth noting that, though Alcúdia and Palma are always cited as having been the two most significant Roman towns, Bochoris was the third most significant, and the settlement there left behind the Roman bridge in Pollensa town.

Various Roman artifacts have been discovered in the Crestatx area - ceramics, coins and so on - and so the origins of Sa Pobla can be said to be Roman. Indeed, the name Crestatx is said to come from the Latin "castra" for camp. But after this Roman period, as with Alcúdia and Pollensa or anywhere in Mallorca, little is really known about the time between the Romans being kicked out in the fifth century and the Muslim occupation starting at the beginning of the tenth century. The settlement in Crestatx at some point during this occupation also acquired the name Huyalfàs, which was later corrupted as Uyalfas or Vialfas. Huyalfàs was derived from the Arabic - "hnayar-al-fas" (or variously, huayar-alfar or huayar-alfhas) - meaning water of the meadow, a reference, one imagines, to Albufera.

During the Muslim epoch, this Crestatx settlement came under the jurisdiction of the district of Inkan, i.e. Inca, but after the conquest of Mallorca in 1229 by King Jaume I of Aragon, Huyalfàs was firstly documented in 1241 in the "Llibre Verd" (green book) of land and was eventually relocated to what now is Sa Pobla. In 1300, Jaume's son, Jaume II, decreed the establishment of the royal town of Sa Pobla de Huyalfàs. In fact, there were a number of "poblacions" (small towns or villages) created in Mallorca at that time, such as Artà and Manacor. These new towns were established on the basis that they were all equal in that they had a hundred residents, 500 acres of land and a further 1000 acres of scrubland. It would seem that Crestatx couldn't be developed in this way, which is why Huyalfàs moved.

Officially, the new town took the title of "vila reial" and was granted a charter as a "poblament" (or "pobla"), which basically means settlement and can quite easily be confused with "poble", which means town, village or people. In the new town, 32 establishments were permitted plus the building of a church, and it was this, the church, that brought Sant Antoni firmly into the Sa Pobla story.

It might be thought surprising that Sant Antoni isn't one of Sa Pobla's patron saints. The association of Sant Antoni is of course very strong and gives rise to the most important of the Sant Antoni celebrations in January each other. This association can be traced back to the original Catalan conquest. The tradition or cult of Sant Antoni was strong in Catalonia, and it was one that King Jaume I imported. On the one hand, it was a tradition that appealed to a superstition for the protection of animals, as Antoni was the patron saint of animals, but it was the cult that was to eventually spawn, thanks to legends of Antoni and demons and what have you, what there now is - the demons and the nights of fire.

The church that was built in the new town was, therefore, the church of Sant Antoni de Huyalfàs (or Uialfàs or Uyalfas) and it was finally established in 1357, this original being replaced over 300 years later in 1697.

So, this all explains something about how Sa Pobla and its saints came to be as they are, but there is a question about its name, the answer to which I don't have. Why was Huyalfàs (Uialfàs or whatever) dropped? It ceased to officially be part of the name centuries ago, during the fifteenth century in fact. Sa Pobla, the settlement, has been the name ever since, and the use of the definite article "sa" (which is Mallorquín rather than Catalan) makes a definitive statement for this most Mallorcan of towns and one with the history that it has and a history, moreover, which makes the "castellanisation" of the town's name into La Puebla (a translation which still does occur and which very much occurred during the last century) a total nonsense. It can only be Sa Pobla.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa's satirical Sant Antoni bonfire

The Alternativa has been up to its usual tricks. Taking the chance of having a pop at the dysfunctional town hall administration in Pollensa, its own Sant Antoni bonfire shows the splits in the coalition between mayor Tomeu Cifre and ex-La Lliga's Malena Estrany plus the splits between the former members of La Lliga, presided over, on the purple pine of the El Pi party, by Jaume Font and Josep Melia, the leaders of the merged El Pi.

MALLORCA TODAY - Sant Antoni reports - part two

Yet more on events for Sant Antoni.

The glosadors in Sa Pobla reserved their wit for politicians, one target being the regional president, José Ramón Bauzá, who was compared to a demon.
Diario de Mallorca

The blessing of the animals in Muro is one of the most important blessings ceremonies for Sant Antoni. Hundreds of people turned up to see it.
Diario de Mallorca

At the pine-climbing in Pollensa, 19-year-old Sergi Gómez was the first to get to the top, a little before ten o'clock and a couple of hours after the pine was finally in place. It was the second time he had managed the feat. During the preceding event, the bringing of the pine to the Plaça Vella, a policeman had a foot run over by the carriage and needed attention.
Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Expectations for Sant Antoni fiestas

A report on preparations and events for Sant Antoni Eve today, concentrating on the towns most closely associated with the celebrations - Sa Pobla and Muro. Despite the risk of poor weather, tonight's fires and spectaculars will still go ahead (though the weather forecast looks better now). One notable absentee from the fiesta in Sa Pobla (or possibly Manacor) is the president, José Ramón Bauzá. He will be in Menorca instead. So no need for there to be a heavy police presence. Last year in Sa Pobla, he was jeered.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Sa Pobla wants Sant Antoni fiesta to be declared of cultural interest

Sa Pobla town hall has started the procedure to have the fiestas of Sant Antoni declared as being of cultural interest, something that ensure the traditions of the fiestas and assist in their promotion.

See more: Ultima Hora

The Risk Of Tradition

While watching the Three Kings parade in Alcúdia on Saturday evening, an observation was made about the potential for an accident to happen, one that could involve a child scavenging for sweets being hit or run over by one of the floats. Around the time that this observation was being made, a six-year-old boy in Malaga was crushed by a float and killed.

Not all the Kings parades are as lax in terms of security as Alcúdia's is. The floats may have a "watcher", but this is all they have. Otherwise, there is very little control, except parental. The boy in Malaga, though, managed to slip away from his parents and joined other children in the hunt for sweets thrown from the floats. If there is insufficient security, accidents can happen, regardless of parental vigilance.

The mayor of Malaga has said that all safety regulations were in place but that the city's administration will have to look at its safety procedures in light of the accident. As ever, it takes a tragedy for changes to be implemented. 

In Sa Pobla next week, thousands of people will descend on the town for the Sant Antoni Eve celebrations. If you have never experienced Sa Pobla's "Nit Bruixa", you will not know just how overwhelming the event can be. Some who have been once swear they will never go again. Those who do go, repeatedly, are aware of the weight of the crowds, but the unaware can be taken aback as much by the pressure of people as by the frights provided by the demons.

The town hall has announced its safety plan, one aspect of which is being able to evacuate the Plaça Major within five minutes if anything were to go wrong. The square has a capacity of 10,000 people. There are many others who aren't in the square. Moving that number of people out of the square, and speedily, requires that there is somewhere for them to go.

And what could go wrong? Very simple. Sant Antoni is about fire and very often about fire in confined areas and close to buildings. Remarkably, there are very few incidents, but they are not unknown in the various towns that celebrate Sant Antoni.

Another aspect of Sant Antoni that comes with a risk is the marauding fire-run by the demons. Some years ago, the fire-run looked as though it was under threat because of a European Union directive on pyrotechnics. So concerned were demons groups and others that a delegation was sent to Brussels to lobby against restrictions. In the end, the directive recognised traditions at fiestas and so didn't expressly proscribe them. It was meant, though, to have introduced some greater restriction on children's involvement. If it did, it has been ignored. At Muro's Sant Antoni fire night, as soon as the fires are lit and the demons start their rampage, any number of kids emerge, their hoodies doused with water, and dance like maniacs under the fire-spitting tridents.

The healthy disregard for health and safety typifies attitudes towards traditions, and inevitably one draws comparisons with elsewhere. There may well be some tightening of procedures in general following the tragedy in Malaga, but will there also be a rush to demand compensation and for criminal proceedings, as would undoubtedly be the case in Britain? Maybe there will be. In Britain, though, none of this - the parades, the fires, the fire-runs - would be permitted; certainly not in the ways that they are conducted at any rate.

Yet, there is a contrariness when it comes to welfare, that of both humans and animals, and it is a contrariness that stems from the arbitrary definition of tradition. It is one that legislates that if a tradition is a hundred years or more old, then the tradition can persist. If it isn't this old, then it can't. Hence, you get the ridiculous situation by which live ducks are banned from being released in Can Picafort, yet a live cockerel can be stuck on top of a greasy pole in Pollensa on the day of Sant Antoni (and the climbing of the pine is another act of thumbing noses at health and safety). Neither should be banned, in my opinion. Certainly not if bullfights and bull-runs can be allowed to take place. The imposition of a time definition on tradition is faintly hypocritical. There is either animal welfare or there isn't.

But such is the way here. No one, least of all me, wants the restrictiveness that exists in Britain, but occasionally, and very sadly, a death brings home the risk. And in Malaga, one small boy who will never be brought home again.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Sa Pobla's security plan for Sant Antoni Eve

Sa Pobla is the town with the largest and grandest celebration of Sant Antoni, the "Nit Bruixa" of the evening and night of 16 January. Security for the event is to be provided by 70 police, civil protection and private security agents to ensure that there are no incidents during a night when the capacity of the main square is set at 10,000 people, the security plan including being able to evacuate the square within five minutes.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Limit placed on Ternelles pine-tree numbers in Pollensa

Pollensa town hall has imposed for the first time a limit of twenty people who can enter the Ternelles finca in Pollensa in order to chop down the pine tree to be used in the traditional tree-climbing event on 17 January. This is in line with limits set on those who can enter the finca for the purposes of walking and is one that is the current agreement with the owners of the finca regarding access.

Making Peace With The Devil: Sant Antoni

The lights dim. The theatre is about to begin.

Trays of flames and pots of fire hanging from palm trees play shadows onto the brooding enormity of the church. Organ music, a phantom of the opera, a Hammer house of horrors, throbs menacingly. A disconnected voice, deep, sombre and threatening, a Vincent Price of Catalan, warns of "foc" and "dimonis" that await the "mureres". Then a sybil-like lullaby from within an aura of bright white and silver seeks to calm fears before ...

The fires crack into life, lit by spears of tridents. They explode, whizz and bang. Now it is the demons' time. The fire time. The spooks and ghouls are roaming, racing, pressing their grotesque faces into those of the innocent, the witnesses to this ritual, this paganism. They brandish their tridents, whirl them like hammer throwers in this Hammer horror, spitting burning rain.

Primal screams and spirits, awakened from a permanent living death, collide in this maelstrom caused by the most basic element, this hell of fire. Their horrid masks that glare unseeingly into the awed expressions of the innocent are looking nevertheless. They seek the innocents and find them, spiriting them away into their purgatorial, incendiary orgy.

The beating of drums. Incessant. Rhythmic. Calling out to the living to pass over into the world of the satanic majesty of the profane acolytes of the devil, calling them to jump, writhe and be blessed with the showers of accursed droplets of flame. An innocent is grabbed, he is taken, then another. And then others, entranced by the pulsation and the offers of fiery temptation, come forward and leap and dance under firefalls.

The children have been taken! They have become one with the demons. But have they? Some taunt the devils, mocking their horns, stabbing towards them, making them dance ever more and chase with their burning prongs. We are witnesses to this, but suddenly we look elsewhere. For the church is aflame.

From its towers tumble hailstones of white flamelets. As Muro church falls, so falls Muro church in sheets of sheer pureness, a purging and exorcism of the devilry below. The drums cease, the demons are still. It is over.


This was Muro on the eve of Sant Antoni, an intimate spectacular of Mallorcan tradition at its most extreme, its most bestial and its finest. There is more than just a slight sense of the macabre about Sant Antoni, a feeling of "The Wicker Man", of folkloric degeneracy. And Muro does it well, better perhaps than its neighbour Sa Pobla. The event is more confined, more focussed, but no less frightening.

Once the demons have gone, there is the folk music. And the "ballada popular" of all ages raising their arms and legs in the gentility of the ball de bot. Small children, older children, adults, young and old, all together, unashamedly moving in time to the chords of musicians, themselves of different generations, dancing in front of the church and town hall in a communal expression of tradition. These different generations, such as with the kids who dance with the demons. Can there be anything more magical, more imagination-inspiring than to jump around under the falling flames of the demons while the drummers beat? Can there be anything more determined than Sant Antoni to prolong local traditions?

The kids will want to be demons when they are older, they will want to be the musicians inspiring the ball de bot. It is perpetuation. Of tradition. You hope that it doesn't stop. The permanent living death of the demons of Sant Antoni is a permanency that is never disrupted as part of tradition.

And perhaps in older age, these kids might become "glosadors", such as the old woman with her frankly male-masturbatory style of penetrating her ximbomba instrument and issuing a most God-awful caterwaul as she relates some raunchy tale, incomprehensible to anyone but the most Mallorcan of aficionado. She is one of the side-shows of Sant Antoni, on one of the many squares that later give way to the less traditional - the rock, the indie, the hip-hop.

In this more contemporary vein, however, there is, at an event such as Muro's Sant Antoni Eve, the local television. IB3. They spoke to me but presumably didn't reckon on an interview that wasn't going to be given in Catalan. But they did film us. We Brits. With our sobrassadas being toasted on the embers of one of the fires in front of the church. Later, we had a beer in a bar by the church square, and there it was - coverage of Muro's Sant Antoni on the telly, replete with us, twelve, fourteen of us.

We didn't really count though. And that is the sadness of Sant Antoni. The most astonishing of the fiestas, but it is one for the Mallorcans. No one else.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.