Table of contents

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I. BIRTH. JAIOTZA

Childhood beliefs about where children come from

The stork. Paris

Brought by the midwife or the doctor

Zerutik ekarriak

Found in nearby settings

Bought

Labour. Erditzea

From home to hospital births

Helpers during labour

    • The midwife
    • The doctor

Labour

    • Everyday life prior to labour
    • The position when giving birth
    • The action of giving birth
      • Preparations
      • Labour
      • Delivery
      • Labour alone
    • The placenta and umbilical cord

Caring for the postpartum mother

Feeding the mother after giving birth

    • Diet and convalescence period
    • Harmful and beneficial food

Announcing the birth

Holding and showing the child

Looking after the newborn

First care

Checking the child

    • Head
    • Straightening the nose
    • Ears

Swaddling babies

Precautions taken

Breastfeeding

Nursing

Wet-nurses

Dangers for the nursing mother. "Getting hairy"

Extending breastfeeding

Breastfeeding today

Start of normal feeding

Burial of unbaptized infants

Under the eaves of the house

In the vegetable garden

In the limbo of the cemetery

Lack of coffin

People attending the burial

Appendix 1: Emaztia esperantxetan eta haur jaioberriaren jatekoa Nafarroa Beherako bi herritan

Appendix 2: Couvade

 

II. BELIEFS RELATED TO BIRTH

Cravings. Influence on the child

Guessing the sex of the child

Shape of the mother's belly

Signs in the face of the mother. Blanket

Course of the pregnancy

First step of the pregnant mother

Moon phase influence in conception

Divination procedures

Choosing the sex

Different beliefs about pregnancy and labour

Intercession of the saints for a safe labour

Importance of the moment of the birth

Child saludador healer

Pre-baptismal precautionsa

Not kissing the newborn

Charms

Holy water

Religious charms

Medals and other religious items

Curing the evil eye

 

III. BAPTISM. BATAIOA

Baptising newborns

Delaying baptism

Baptistery. Pontea

Emergency baptism

People attending the baptism

Baptism apparel

Holder of the child

Ritual entourage

Old baptism ritual

On entering the church

Way to the baptistery

In the baptistery

New baptism ritual

Offerings and gifts

Hospitality to mark the baptism

Refreshments for the entourage (Alava. Bizkaia. Gipuzkoa. Northern Basque Country (lying within France). Navarra)

Arrebuchas ritual where the godparents throw sweets and coins (Navarra. Alava. Bizkaia. Gipuzkoa. Northern Basque Country)

Godparenthood

Undertaking of the godparents

Spiritual kinship and affinity

Choice of godparents

Offering to be a godparent

The right to be a godparent

Sole godparent

Godparents of convenience

• Godparents by chance

Names of godparents and godchildren

Baptismal name

Gifts from the godparents

Christmas and Easter presents

 

IV. POSTPARTUM PERIOD

Requirements during the postpartum period

Using a tile as protection

Blessing the mother

The Purification of the Virgin Mary as the archetype

Names

Length of the postpartum quarantine

Churching ritual

Visiting the postpartum mother and celebrating the end of the postpartum period

Offering up of children in chapels and at shrines

Appendix: Blessing the mother ritual

 

V. EARLY CHILDHOOD. HAURTZAROA

The cradle. Sehaska

Wooden cradles

Wicker cradles: Moses basket

Cots

Substitute cradles. The half bushel

Cradle mattress and linen

Rocking the cradle

Making the cradle

More recent cradles

Looking after the child

Taking the baby for a stroll in the past

The first outings

Traditional ways of carrying the child

People looking after the child

    • The women of the household
    • Babysitters
    • Nursemaids

Taking the child for a walk nowadays

Childhood development milestones

The first steps

    • Learning implements. Baby walker
    • Popular beliefs

Infant babbling

    • Helping to start talking
    • Popular beliefs

Cutting the first teeth

Losing baby teeth

    • Tooth, baby tooth
    • Gift for lost tooth

The anniversary of the birth

Birthday

Birthday presents

 

VI. CHILDHOOD AND PUBERTY

Attending school

Ordinary school starting age

Starting school late

Early school starting age

Truancy

First Communion

Private communion and high mass communion

First Communion alone

Dates for holding the First Communion

Rite of passage to adolescence

First Communion dresses

    • Former attire
    • First Communion suit

First Communion reception

    • Hot chocolate breakfast
    • Family refreshments
    • The First Communion reception today

First Communion presents

    • Collecting in the neighbourhood
    • Communion gifts today

Confirmation

Confirmation, rite of entry into youth

Celebration of the Confirmation

Confirmation in the past

    • The pastoral visit
    • Confirmation at an indeterminate age
    • Farcical formulas of the Confirmation

Chores done by children

Initiating children to chores

Common tasks for boys and girls

Jobs entrusted to girls

    • Urzayas

Jobs done by boys

Children's chores today

Children activities and games

Appendix 1: The Communion day and the Administration of the Confirmation in Sara (L)

Appendix 2: Notes on the school system and literacy

 

VII. YOUTH

The mocería youth association

Mocerías in Alava

    • Mocerías at the turn of the century

Mocerías in Navarra

Communal activities of young people in other parts of the Basque Country

Outfits and headwear

Dancing. Dantza

Start age

Dance venues: the square

Dance times

Dance classes

    • Dancing alone
    • Partner dances

Starting and ending the dance

    • The bastonero (dance master)

Organisation of the dance

Start of the dance and pairing

Musical instruments

    • Instruments from the past
      • Trikitrixa and accordion
      • Txistu and drum, bagpipes and dulzaina double reed instrument
      • Dance orchestras and municipal bands
    • Modern instruments

Dancing during pilgrimages and patron saint's festivities

Private dances

    • Casinos, societies and social circles
    • Dance parties
    • Discotheques and night clubs

Restrictions on freedom to dance

    • Coercion of conscience
    • Reproaching the congregants
    • Lent and mourning

Contemporary transitions

Compulsory military service

Departure of the quintos (conscripts)

Conscript celebrations

Presentation to society

Youth religious associations

Congregation of the Daughters of Mary

Congregation of San Luis Gonzaga

Other youth associations

Appendix:Regulations for organising cuadrillas (companies of friends) or Societies. San Martín de Unx, 9 January 1885

 

VIII. START OF THE ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP

Meeting places and opportunities

Meeting points in the past

    • When working
    • The fountain
    • At the end of religious ceremonies

Dances

Accompanying the girl home

Walking out

Matchmaking games

Rites and prayers to find a suitor

Courting dances and wooing of young women

Night courting dances

St. Agatha courting dance

St. John courting dance

Wooing

Preparing doughnuts

Propitious time to start a romantic relationship

Taking the lead in romantic relations

Matchmaking

    • Friends or relatives
    • Matchmakers

Marriages arranged by the parents

    • Matches guided by economic interests
    • Calling
    • Arranged liaisons

Parental pressure ending the courtship

 

IX. COURTSHIP

Ways of declaring their love

Exchanging objects

Formalising the courtship

Value of the courtship and its ending

Sweethearts meeting

    • Meeting place
    • Meeting days

Relationships between the couple and their single friends

Realm of the courtship

Intermarriage

Local inbreeding

Levy on a groom from another area

 

X. MARRIAGE SETTLEMENTS

Request for the woman's hand in marriage

Marriage settlements

Alava

    • The mandas or marriage settlement
    • Contents of the settlements
    • Entering into the settlements

Bizkaia

    • Marriage settlements
    • Contents of the settlements
    • Kontratuko bazkaria

Gipuzkoa

    • The entailed estate
    • Contents of the settlements
    • Entering into the settlements

Northern Basque Country

    • The marriage contract
    • Contents of the settlements
    • Kontratuko apairua

Navarra

    • Marriage settlements
    • Contents of the settlements
    • Entering into the settlements

Marriage settlements at the turn of the century

The marriage contract

Contents of the settlements

    • As regards the people
    • As regards the goods

The dowry

Alava

    • The dowry
    • Consequences of a rupture

Bizkaia

    • The dowry
    • Consequences of a rupture

Gipuzkoa

    • The dowry
    • Consequences of a rupture

Northern Basque Country

    • The dowry
    • Consequences of a rupture

Navarra

    • The dowry
    • Consequences of a rupture

Dowry at the turn of the century

Contents of the dowry

Setting up the dowry

    • Handing over the dowry
    • Compensation in case of rupture

 

XI. WEDDING ARRANGEMENTS

Requirements to get married

Banns

Publication of the banns

Customs during the banns of marriage period

    • Congratulating
    • Bota-eguna

Ballads to the bride and groom

Stag/hen party

Celebration in the past

The stag/hen party today

Padrinos or wedding sponsors

Choice of the wedding sponsors

Obligations of the wedding sponsors

Wedding invitations

Increase in the number of guests

Sending out the invitations

Wedding gifts

Gifts between the bride and groom

Gifts from the guests

 

XII. THE WEDDING. EZKONTZA

Time and place of the marriage

Weddings within the year

Mourning wedding

Dates and times held

Venue

Decoration of the church

Music and songs during the ceremony

The wedding entourage

The wedding entourage in the Southern Basque Country (lying within Spain)

The wedding entourage in the Northern Basque Country

    • Symbolic levy on a groom from another area

The wedding entourage today

Attire of the wedding guests

    • The bride's wedding dress
      • Until the middle of the century
      • Prevalence of the white dress
      • Headwear and ornaments
      • Mourning
    • The groom's suit
    • Attire of the guests

The religious ceremony

In the church porch

    • The marriage
    • Blessing of bands and rings

In the church

    • Nuptial mass

The religious ceremony today

Marriage certificate

Offering the bridal bouquet

Congratulations, tribute and gifts

Return of the wedding entourage

Wedding photographs

Civil marriage

Ceremony

Current acceptance of civil marriage

    • Frequency of civil marriages

Appendix 1: Civil marriage form in the Southern Basque Country

Appendix 2: Ezkontza euskeraz Herriko Etxean (lparraldean)

 

XIII. ENTERING THE MARITAL HOME. ETXE-SARTZEA

Wedding cart and chattels

The wedding cart in old ethnographic texts

The wedding cart in the Etniker survey

Other ways of transporting the bride's chattels

Driving the non-local spouse to the marital home

Rites when entering the new home

Inventory and displaying the chattels

 

XIV. THE WEDDING RECEPTION. EZTEIAK

Guests to the reception

Involvement of young people in the wedding

Length of the wedding celebrations

Celebrations of over two days

Two-day celebrations

Celebrations of just one day

Celebrations without a wedding reception

Large receptions

Venues

    • Home receptions
    • Receptions outside the home

Preparing the venues

Preparing dishes and service

Paying for the reception

Composition of the reception

Seating of the guests at the table

    • Home weddings
    • Weddings outside the home

Rituals during the wedding reception

    • Rituals at the start of the reception
    • Rituals during the reception
    • Dancing
    • Singing
    • Gifts to the guests

Other customs related to the wedding reception

Wedding night customs

 

XV. POST-WEDDING OFFERING AND CELEBRATIONS

Honeymoon

The couple's departure

Short trips

Visiting relatives

Long trips

Post-wedding offering

Propter nuptias funeral offering

    • Gipuzkoa
    • Bizkaia
    • Alava
    • Navarra
    • Northern Basque Country

Contemporary transitions

Post-wedding meals

Appendix: Descriptions of weddings in the different areas of the Basque Country

La noce au Pays de Soule aux années 20

Gipuzkoako Elosuan 1932.ean egin ziren ezkontza-eztei batzuen berri

A wedding in the town of Sara in Labourd in 1943

A wedding in the town of Moreda in Álava in 1991

Bizkaiko Ajangizen 1993.ean egin ziran ezkontza-eztegu batzuren barri

 

XVI. UNMARRIED STATUS AND CELIBACY. MARRIAGE OF WIDOWS AND WIDOWERS

Unmarried status

Reasons for being unmarried

Resistance to the rural way of life

Integration of unmarried people in the home

Social standing of unmarried people

Marriage and procreation

Religious celibacy

Rite of Religious Progression

Ecclesiastical career

Marriage of widows and widowers

Cencerradas - banging on pots and pans

    • Northern Basque Country
    • Gipuzkoa
    • Bizkaia
    • Alava
    • Navarra

Reaction to the cencerradas

Church and civil prohibitions

 

XVII. COMMON-LAW UNIONS AND ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN

Common-law unions

Frequency and acceptance

Resources to circumvent social pressure

Single mothers

Illegitimate children

Baptism

Fate of the children

Adultery

Separation and divorce

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