Twenty-Five Years After: The Alcúdia Fair

On the fourth and fifth of November 1989, Alcudia held its first annual autumn fair. Or was it the first? The October 1989 edition of the "Badia d'Alcúdia" magazine said that "there will be those who remember when Alcúdia used to have a fair in times gone by". Unfortunately, no one who I have spoken to seems to be able to remember. Not now anyway. Let's just say that there was at some unknown time in the past a different fair, but whether it bore any great resemblance to the one that was inaugurated in 1989, who can tell.

The magazine spoke of the hope that the fair would continue over the following years, which of course it has, and explained that all the major houses of the island's industry - machinery, car sales and hospitality (all the major houses?) - had shown an interest in participating in the fair. It went on to say that it was hoped that the next fair would feature animals other than those in pens (like pigs one presumes) and that the fair would provide a good opportunity to promote tourism, though it added that it was taking place in the season called "baja", i.e. low.

Twenty-five years later, the fair still has its machinery - of the agricultural variety. It still has cars and, as part of a very much wider business element, it still has its hospitality industry. Animals not kept in pens there are, such as horses and dogs. And the more observant among you will realise that the fair now takes place a month earlier than it did in 1989. The start of October is still officially "the season", but it is "low". It's a question of definition but seasonal lowness seems to have crept forward over the years. The first week of November would now be "off", as in all but non-existent. 

Apart from the range of exhibitors, the 1989 fair didn't really offer a great deal more. It was only over the two days as opposed to the three (well, more like two and a half) that there are now, and the entertainment didn't kick off until four in the afternoon on the Saturday when there was a street procession with the local band of drums and cornets. That, apart from some kiddies' entertainment, was it for the Saturday. The Sunday wasn't that much more exciting, though they used then to fire off rockets at nine in the morning, which they now don't. There was another procession, the inevitable arrival of the local dignitaries (a not-to-be-missed occasion at any fair or fiesta) and some folk dance. And that was your lot.

The programme that the magazine listed was, however, peculiar in that when it mentioned the children's party and the processions it didn't make any reference to what are now very established "traditions". In 1988, Alcúdia's new giants - L'amo de Jaume Panxa-roja and Madò Aina - had arrived, thus reviving a tradition of giants in the town that had stretched back to the seventeenth century. Also in 1988, the cultural association Sarau Alcudienc, who performed the folk dance in 1989 and who were also involved with the giants' revival, had conceived the big heads S'Estol del Rei en Jaume (the King James show), a series of characters based on, among others, Jaume I the Conqueror and the mediaeval polymath Ramon Llull. These characters have always been the main attraction of the fair's children's party.

The giants would have been in at least one procession, so would have been the town's pipers, also not mentioned. Yet, there were no specific references to them or to the big heads. It is curious, but there again in 1989 neither the giants nor the big heads were "traditions" as such. Or maybe it was the case that "culture" wasn't made so much of as it now is. But this would also be curious as Sarau Alcudienc had by that time been in existence for over ten years and was to the fore in promoting Alcúdia and Mallorcan culture, as it still is.

Why was the programme silent on what are now icons of the local culture? Maybe it was just a simple case of there not having been space in the magazine to include them. Or maybe in 1989 it was the fair - the exhibitors - which were thought to matter more. They were and are extremely important - there couldn't have been a fair without them - while perhaps in 1989 the fair was not looked upon, as it is now, as an occasion when there is a blurring between the fair as a trade show and the fair as an extension of the fiesta.

* Photo of S'Estol del Rei en Jaume from www.saraualcudienc.cat

The Night Of The Lanterns

Saint Bartholomew (Sant Bartomeu) met a grisly end. One of the Apostles, he was supposedly skinned alive before being crucified. It is his feast day tomorrow and is thus a fairly significant day in the religious calendar. Bartomeu doesn't, as such, have anything to do with lanterns, but in Alcudia he does. Tomorrow is the festival of the lanterns in the old town.

You might be surprised to learn that the origins of the lanterns festival lie with the end of summer. 24 August is not normally considered to be summer's end. But for the farming people of Alcudia in days gone by, it was treated as such because the last melons of the season were being harvested. To mark the end of the melon production line, a local custom was invented. Lanterns were made from melons, and the children of the town took to the streets at night, flashing their lanterns and singing traditional Mallorcan children's songs.

It is uncertain when this custom first took off, but it is certain that by the early 1960s the tradition had fallen into abeyance. As with other aspects of rural Mallorcan life, tourism and coastal construction had changed the landscape, both physically and socially. What is also certain is the fact that in 1978 the custom was revived, an impulse behind its revival having been a resurgence in traditions that had gone into decline during the Franco years. The prime movers behind the return of the lanterns were the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB), the organisation which promotes all things Catalan, and a cultural association in Alcudia that was formed from the local branch of the OCB. This association was Sarau Alcudienc.

Best known for its performances of ball de bot folk dance, Sarau Alcudienc is and always has been much more than a folk troupe. It is perhaps Alcudia's most important keeper of Catalan traditions, and its founding coincided with the revival of the lanterns festival (indeed, it was the festival which brought about its founding). As such, therefore, the festival has a deeper significance than merely being an occasion for children to carry lit-up melons on the streets of the old town. It represents the rediscovery of the past. It isn't perhaps well enough appreciated just how significant the lanterns festival is.

There again, this socio-politico element is probably not uppermost in the minds of the kids or their parents on the evening of 24 August, when the Plaça de ses Verdures (vegetables square) - just by the town hall - is packed with the families who make the square the final place in their journey along the streets. It has become a joyous and much anticipated event, not greatly publicised to the tourist masses, but one with which a tourist observer will be greatly charmed.

As for the link with Sant Bartomeu, there isn't a direct one, as I have noted. It was chosen in 1978 to be the day (or rather night) when the lanterns would once more be swung. It is a tradition unique to Alcudia. Or rather it was. Sarau Alcudienc has spread the word, and there are other towns which have now taken Alcudia's lead. A lovely event, but as for end of summer? Thankfully, not quite.

* Photo from Sarau Alcudienc