Table of contents

I. BIRTH. JAIOTZA

Childhood beliefs about where children come from

Brought by the midwife or the doctor

• Zerutik ekarriak

Labour. Erditzea

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

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"

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

 

II. BELIEFS RELATED TO THE BIRTH

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

Pre-baptismal precautionsa

• Not kissing the newborn

Charms

• Holy water

 

III. BAPTISM. BATAIOA

People attending the baptism

Baptism apparel

• Holder of the child

Old baptism ritual

• On entering the church

Hospitality to mark the baptism

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

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

Proxy godparents

• Random godparents

 

IV. POSTPARTUM PERIOD

Requirements during the postpartum period

• Using cloth pads as protection

Blessing the mother

• The Purification of the Virgin Mary as the archetype

 

V. EARLY CHILDHOOD. HAURTZAROA

The cradle. Sehaska

Wicker cradles: Moses basket

• Cots

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 for 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

First Communion

Private communion and high mass communion

• First Communion alone

Dates of 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

Housework done by children

• Initiating children in housework

Common tasks for boys and girls

• Jobs entrusted to girls

• • Urzayas

Jobs done by boys

• Children's chores today

 

VII. YOUTH

The mocería youth association

• Mocerías in Alava

• • Mocerías at the turn of the century

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

Compulsory military service

• Departure of the quintos (conscripts)

• Conscript celebrations

Youth religious associations

• Congregation of the Daughters of Mary

• Congregation of San Luis Gonzaga

 

VIII. START OF THE LOVE RELATIONSHIP

Meeting places and opportunities

Meeting points in the past

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

• Dances

Courting dances and wooing of young women

• Night courting dances

St. Agatha courting dance

• St. John courting dance

Taking the lead in relations

• Matchmaking

• • Friends or relatives
  • Matchmakers

Marriages arranged by the parents

• • Matches guided by economic interests
  • Calling
  • Arranged liaisons

 

IX. COURTSHIP

Ways of proposing

• Exchanging objects

Formalising the courtship

• Value of the courtship and its ending

Sweethearts meeting

• • Meeting place
  • Meeting days

Realm of the courtship

• Intermarriage

 

X. MARRIAGE SETTLEMENTS

Marriage settlements

> ALAVA

The mandas or marriage settlement

• Contents of the settlements

Entering into the settlements

> BIZKAIA

• Marriage 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

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

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

Wedding gifts

• Gifts between the bride and groom

 

XII. THE WEDDING

Time and place of the marriage

• Weddings within the year

Mourning wedding

• Dates and times held

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

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

Civil marriage

• Ceremony

• Current acceptance of civil marriage

• • Frequency of civil marriages

 

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

 

XIV. THE WEDDING RECEPTION

Length of the wedding celebrations

• Celebrations of over two days

Large receptions

Venues

• • Home receptions
  • Receptions outside the home

• Preparing the venues

• Preparing dishes and service

• Paying for 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

 

XV. POST-WEDDING OFFERING AND CELEBRATIONS

Honeymoon

• The couple's departure

• Short trips

• Visiting relatives

Post-wedding offering

• Propter nuptias funeral offering

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

• Contemporary transitions

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

 

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

Religious celibacy

• Rite of Religious Progression

Marriage of widows and widowers

Cencerradas - banging on pots and pans

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