Ask a Basque Thread

[Josu]

what are Basque words for the sun, moon and planets and god(s) or spirits associated with them and

Allmost all the planets on solar system have a name derived from the latin:Merkurio, Marte, Jupiter, Saturno, Urano and Neptuno. However, earth is called Lurra, Venus is called Artizarra. Sun is Eguzki, and moon is Ilargi.

There is no many associations betwen planets and gods ore spirits in basque mithology. Maybe the most clear are the god of sun, called Eki, there is some (Eguzki-Eki) and the goddes of moon, called Illazki (Illazki-Ilargi).

Most important god/goddess in our mithology is Mari, the lady. She was supposed to live in caves in different particular mountains (Anboto, Aizkorri etc) and was very linked with the weather, if clouds were surrounding this mountain, she use to feel unconfortable, so she move to other mountain's cave, and in her travel, she generated, rain, hail and storms.
Investigators belive that other important god is Ortzi or Urtzi, but it is not clear if he was a god or just the name of the sky. There are texts speaking about mary as goddes, but there are not speaking about Ortzi as a god.

Maybe an interesting point for you si that there is an abundant presence of gods in our vocabulary. For example, East, the point in which sun is appearing, is called, Ekialde, the zone of sun.
I have mentioned Ortzi, and said that it is not clear if he was a god, but there is a wide range of words containing Ortzi as root, so thats why it is commonly belived that he was a god, some of this words are, ortzadar (Rainbow) which literally means, Ortzi's horn, or the most improtant evidence of beliving him a god: Osteguna, Thursday
Ortzi's day. The curious thing here is that the wednesday, is called Asteazkena, literally, week's end. So we have evidences that ancient basques had just 4 days each week.

why is the # 7 considered sacred? What's the Basque creation myth?

The most similar thing I have ever heard about a basque creation myth is that at the begining everything was dark, so humans were not able to see and the bad spirits were confortable . In consequence they asked Ama Lur (Mother Earth) for help, so she had a child, Illaski, the moon, so the spirits saw the light and they get frightened, but some of them get used to that, so humans ask Ama Lur for more help, so he had another kid, Eki, the sun, giving more light, and allmost all spirits disapeared, so Ama Lur gave us a final help, Eguzkilore, "sun flower", so spirits go away from our houses when they saw one of them in the entrance, still nowadays in some areas we put them at doors willing for good luck

A picture of eguzkilore, as I am not able to traduce to spanish or english

Number 7 is not considered sacred, it is more a political issue, traditionally there are 7 provinces in basque country, that's why we have some mottos like "Zazpiak bat", seven in one,7 provinces unified in one country.
There is a myth around this, it is some replys before, please check it for further info, there was a man called Aitor, he was the first basque ever, he had 7 sons. Each son created one province.
However, this is considered a nationalist myth, because when firts book telling us about this myth, we allready knew that we were 7 provinces

 

[Josu]

I think I have some basque in my family tree. From my grandmother side.

About Bilbao: Munain is a crack!.

If you speak with one Athletic Club supporter, please, never, never, never, refer our team as Bilbao, name is Athletic club, or Athletic, but never Bilbao

Yes, Muniain is a crak, he will be much better if he improves his colective game. In any case I am pretty sure that he is going to become one of best players in Europe.

My question: what about the beret?. is there some special reason why is so popular among your people?.

There is a fun fact about beret, it is more popular among people in diaspora than in basque country, but it is still popular here among elder people. There is no special reason, but some investigations clame that beret gained a lot of popularity during carlist wars , because it was confortable and cheap and since them it is part of our traditional dressing. Some other investigators belive that beret is originary from pyrinees, so it close to us.

I our folkore and costums, until recently, beret was used by the Basque autonomous police, Ertzaina (Herri + Zaina= Town + carer). It is still used by basque traditional dancers.

There are some curious facts about beret, one of them is that in most languages is called beret, while in other languages, word is making reference to basques. Other interesting fact is the beret in competitions in basque country, winner is given a beret instead a trophy. Champion in basque is said Txapeldun, which literally means, owner of the txapela, and txapela is beret.

 

[Masada]

Allmost all the planets on solar system have a name derived from the latin:Merkurio, Marte, Jupiter, Saturno, Urano and Neptuno. However, earth is called Lurra, Venus is called Artizarra. Sun is Eguzki, and moon is Ilargi.

Not surprising. You can see the latter clearly but not the former with the naked eye.

 

[Josu]

Not surprising. You can see the latter clearly but not the former with the naked eye.

That's the idea. Furthermore, Artizarra comes from Argi + Izarra = Light + Star. It is the first star to be seen when night is coming, but there is still sunlight

 

[HannibalBarka]

I have always been "fascinated" by the basque people: they are a mystery in Europe, related to noone and still there
1. What do you think of Lizarazu, the most famous Basque in France?
2. Why do you think French baswue are "less" basque than the Spanish? is it the result of the French forced "uniformisation" and "francization" of the differents regions as I suppose or do you think there is another reason?

 

[Josu]

I have always been "fascinated" by the basque people: they are a mystery in Europe, related to noone and still there
1. What do you think of Lizarazu, the most famous Basque in France?

As football player, excellent football player. I think that here in Bilbao some people misunderstood when he signed with Athletic Club. They saw a political matter when he considered it was just football. On the other hand I think that he did not messure properly the impact of singing.

ETA asking him money was simply deplorable

As person, Okay, I have never meet him, but I know that he has always done a hard defense of Basque culture, which makes me to talk about him with deference. He has always said that he wants to defend basque culture and that he fells French. This option (felling french) in my opinion deserves same respect as any other one, some other people see him as a traitor, but for me there is no "betrayal" while defending basque culture.

2. Why do you think French baswue are "less" basque than the Spanish? is it the result of the French forced "uniformisation" and "francization" of the differents regions as I suppose or do you think there is another reason?

I think that french uniformisation gots the point, the set and the match
Please correct me if I am wrong, since French revolution France has supported this "uniformisation" in whole territory in order to reach the "igualité"

 

[Oerdin]

Do you play jai alai?

 

[Josu]

Do you play jai alai?

No, I don't play Jai alai, I am awfull in such kind of sports (any modality of basque pelota, tennis etc)

In any case, I want to clear that what you probably know as Jai Alai is the less popular modality of Basque Pelota in the basque country. What really rules here is hand-pelota, it is similar to Jai Alai, but no Txistera is used, players just need a fronton (court) and a ball. They hit the ball with their hands. In Jai Alai the ball goes faster, in hand pelota, much slower, in consequence hability is more important. In hand pelota, helmet is no needed.

If anyone does not know what we are speaking about, it is a sport involving a ball bounced off a walled space. There is a front wall, a side wall and in some cases a back wall. In the floor there are some marks one of this mark is called Labur (shor) and another mark is called Luze (Long). When a player serves, the ball must hit the wall without bouncing, and then it must bounce between Labur and Luze. If ball bounces out of luze and labur the other player will receive a point and the serve.

Then the other player must hit the ball before it bounds twice, throwing it against the wall, and once it has hitten the wall, first player must do the same, but considering that now, the rule for labur does not longer exist until another serve.
Winner of the game is the player who first arrives the previously agreed points.

Some tools used in this game to hit the ball are, txistera, paleta, and hand.
Here a photo of a txistera:

In Biscay Paleta is very popular as well:

And in French area Xare is as well very popular

Here a video of a match

Link to video.

All this games are allmost a religion in some areas and bets move a lot of money. There are stories of people loosing their house, farm and lands.

 

[gangleri2001]

I just saw this thread and thought...

How is it going Basque pal? A Catalan independentist here showing the world what a crap is Spain day and night

And remember...

¡PUTA ESPAÑA!

PD: Showing the world that Spain is a crap isn't hard at all because it has always been that, as you may suppose.

 

[Josu]

I just saw this thread and thought...

How is it going Basque pal? A Catalan independentist here showing the world what a crap is Spain day and night

And remember...

¡PUTA ESPAÑA!

PD: Showing the world that Spain is a crap isn't hard at all because it has always been that, as you may suppose.

High five pal.

Here we are trying to show the wolrd a piece of our little big culture...

 

[gangleri2001]

High five pal.

Here we are trying to show the wolrd a piece of our little big culture...

Talk to them about the GAL and stuff and we'll have a laugh as CFC discovers Spain's true face

BTW, I've a question to ask. I've always known that there has been an equivalent to Duran i Lleida in the PNV, that to say, a Darth Vader of Basque politics that claims to be a nationalist but always acts as Spaniard and protecting spanish interests in Madrid. The problem I have is that I always forget his name, could you refesh my memory, please?

 

[Josu]

Talk to them about the GAL and stuff and we'll have a laugh as CFC discovers Spain's true face

Well, fortunaltely the GAL era is endend. In the 80's there government created a kind of paramilitary group in order to fight ETA in a out of law way. OK, to be fair, as per spanish justice, nobody created GAL, you now what I mean.

They kidnap and assesinate some citizens close to basque left nationalism, furthermore, in one particular case, they kidnap by mistake a guy who was not related to basque nationalism. Their works were a kind of botch

It has been proved that this GAL were paid with spanish public money being Felipe Gonzalez the spanish prime minister, but it is not proven that he gave the order of organizing this group. Apparently, nobody gave the order in the government to give them this money, although, it is well know that there was a Mr.X who allowed this.

During the 90's some people went to jail, some polices and some Guardia civil, during judgements, further information was asked around Mr.X to secret services, but it was no given due to national security reasons.

Spanish PSOE and PP have never comdemned the crimes, furthermore when people was sent to prison, PSOE organized a march for support some of them, and Aznar's goverment pardoned to others.

BTW, I've a question to ask. I've always known that there has been an equivalent to Duran i Lleida in the PNV, that to say, a Darth Vader of Basque politics that claims to be a nationalist but always acts as Spaniard and protecting spanish interests in Madrid. The problem I have is that I always forget his name, could you refesh my memory, please?

Maybe Josu Jon Imaz or Iñigo Urkullu? Well, they call this relationship transversality, they say that giving small steps we will arrive better and faster to indendence than giving big steps. Historically there have been as well people who being in PNV ended in PSOE's orbit

 

[muhtesem insan]

They kidnap and assesinate some citizens close to basque left nationalism, furthermore, in one particular case, they kidnap by mistake a guy who was not related to basque nationalism. Their works were a kind of botch

It has been proved that this GAL were paid with spanish public money being Felipe Gonzalez the spanish prime minister, but it is not proven that he gave the order of organizing this group. Apparently, nobody gave the order in the government to give them this money, although, it is well know that there was a Mr.X who allowed this.

During the 90's some people went to jail, some polices and some Guardia civil, during judgements, further information was asked around Mr.X to secret services, but it was no given due to national security reasons.

Spanish PSOE and PP have never comdemned the crimes, furthermore when people was sent to prison, PSOE organized a march for support some of them, and Aznar's goverment pardoned to others.

This is too familiar...

 

[Josu]

This is too familiar...

Yes, I suppose it happens worldwide
As I said before, fortunately here this era is ended. Here, in basque country we suffered this kind of "dirty war" during transition, and was ended about 1987, before GAL, there was BVE (Batallón Vasco Español, Basque Spanish Battalion), AAA or Triple A (Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista, Anticomunis Apostollic Aliance) and so on, and maily were formed by people that did not accept the transition from Franco's dictatorship.

 

[Josu]

I think that, best way of defending my culture is being informed and telling to the wolrd as it is.

He is not in Basque pantheon of cool people. At least in mine. Probably it is because I have not too much information about Henri as King in Navarre, and kingdom of navarre in this years was just the region in the north form pirinees.
We have more information about Jeanne d'Albret, his mother, because she commissioned the translation of the new testament, into basque.

If you want some cool kings of navarre, you should read something about Íñigo Íñiguez Arista also know as Eneko Aritza (Eneko and Iñigo seems to be same name, and arista is an adaptation of Aritza, which means Oak), first king of Pamplona, or Sancho III

We have no a figure such as William Wallace. This is propably because most of basque generals and politicians made they work in Madrid or Paris. If you are interested in basque people who have some interesting or curious to tell, I have 3 names:
- Tomás de Zumalakarregi, carlist general. During carlist wars he defended the tradition, which was including basque charter. It is sayd that he could win the wars, but Carlos, the throne's pretendat he was defendig, did not hear his tips. He conquered allmost whole basque area, Bilbao and Vitoria were exceptions, and he advised to attack Vitoria instead of Bilbao, so that he could later win the area of Castilla and Madrid. However Carlos ordered an assault to Bilbao, which was more important than Vitoria. Zumalakarregi was wounded in Bilbao and died some weeks later. Carlos lost the war.
- Dominique Joseph Garat, basque from the french side, and french minister. He sent a mail to Napoleon defending the creation of a brand new country called New Phoenicia. He thought that basques were descendants of Phoenicians. So the country he was proposing was basque country. This story freaks me because it is very weird
-Lope de Agirre: Explorer, went to south america conquered some lands for the spanish king, and suddenly he "became mad" and rebelled against spanish monarch

Other, very interesting basque historic guys are in my opinion Arnauld de Oihenart and Juan Sebastian Elcano

Yesterday, while listening to a song, I remembered about another cool basque guy.
Bernard Goihenetxe AKA Matalaz was a priest in the provice of Zuberoa (Soule). In the 15th century the charter of Zuberoa was cut. After this, a very rich merchant started to buy all the lands in Soule, and raised taxes for everybody, took the crops and punished all the people who did not follow his rules. The protests started and the king of france bought the lands to the merchant, and decided that people in Zuberoa should pay this purchase.

Matalaz leaded the people against this injustice. Over 4,000 people joined this crusade against the church's hierarchy, local nobility and bourgeoisie. The nationalist legend says that all these people sieged Mauleon and it's castle at the shout of "Herria!!" (People!!), but there are not evidences of the shouts . There is a Pastoral (A king of theatre, more close to a musical theatre, in Zuberoa) talking about his Herria!!, but it was written in 20th century

Finally, the governmet, sent some mercenaries who after a battle in Sohüta defeted Matalaz and his men.

The song who remembered me this guy is Benito Lertxundi's Matalazi

I am remembering another bizarre & quirky guy, Iparragirre, but don't have too much time to write about him right now, maybe later

 

[Oerdin]

What makes Basque cider different from apple cider from other countries? I have seen many travel magazines talk about how people must travel to Basque country to try the cider (I believe traditional Basque cider houses are called Sagardotegis) but I'm not sure why Basque cider is different.

 

[Josu]

What makes Basque cider different from apple cider from other countries? I have seen many travel magazines talk about how people must travel to Basque country to try the cider (I believe traditional Basque cider houses are called Sagardotegis) but I'm not sure why Basque cider is different.

Yes, basque cider houses are called sagardotegis, which literally means place where cider is made. It is also curious for some people that sagardo (cider) means apple wine.

I am not sure about what is the difference between our cider and cider from for example Asturias, maybe ours is more acid. After tasting cider from Brittain, Ireland and France, I am sure that there is no comparison, cider made in Asturias or Basque country is much better, of course, IMHO

In any case, the point of cider houses, in my opinion, is not the cider, cider houses are as well restaurants in which customer has unlimited cider and a menu that includes, Cod Omelete, Cod with Peppers, Steak, Idiazabal cheese and nuts.

Last week begun this years cider season, which means that cider houses opened (more traditionals are closed during the cider elaboration) and the kupelak (barrels) were opened in a act that is called Txotx. The owner of the ciderhouse or a waiter opens the barrel, shouts Txotx, so that everybody knows that the barrel is opened and cider must be poured out in the glass. At first seconds of this video you can see the proccess of pouring out.

Link to video.

This txotx is usually accompanied with traditional music and bertsolaris, musical improvised rhymed verse "singers"

 

[Josu]

I am remembering another bizarre & quirky guy, Iparragirre, but don't have too much time to write about him right now, maybe later

As promised this morning(for me it was in the morning) I am going to write some lines about Jose Maria Iparraguirre. Iparraguirre is probably the most important and famous basque bard ever. He was a bohemian (from bohemianism, not from bohemia). Poet, singer, compositor, bertsolari and big etcetera.

Born in Urretxu, province of Gipuzkoa, he moved being just a kid to Madrid, due to his father's job. When he was 14, Carlist wars started, and one morning he told to his mother: "Ama Eskolara noa!!", Mother, I am going to school. He never came back. He joined the carlist side in the wars in order to defend the basque charters. One year later, he was wounded in the battle of Arrigorriaga, so he was moved to Carlos' Pikeman company, a kind of personal guard. When the war ended, he was exiled to France where he joined the revolution that carried the II republic.

Then Napoleon arrived and he was exiled from france because of being subversive, so he joined a theater company and traveled around Germany and Italy, where he estarted with his musical creation in French, German and Italian.

Finally in 1853, he was pardoned and went back to Madrid, where his legend started as we wrotte his first creations in Basque. One of them, Gernikako Arbola, The tree from Gernika, became a unnoficial anthem for basque living in Madrid. Song is speaking about the oak in Gernika that was used as meeting point for ancient parlament of Biscay. After this success he was called in some coffe's and pubs in Bilbao, so he came back to the basque country, were he continued creating songs. He became so popular that Spanish goverment delcared him mass agitator and was exiled again to france, he was acompanied to the frontier by a patrol of Guardia Civil, which became the subject for other of his famous songs, Nire amak baleki, If my mother knew. Once in France he came back to Basque country, but with the intention of taking a boat to Argentina, where he became very popular among basques in Argentina and Uruguay and popularized Gernikako Arbola in south America.
After some years in Argentina he went to Uruguay, where he get married with a basque woman, had 2 son and 6 daughters. After some years, he left his family in uruguay and came back to Basque country, were he finally died.

Still today, Gernikako Arbola is the unoficial anthem for basques in the diaspora

 

[Josu]

the thread is dead, so apologies for this, but I have received this video today (despite the guardian published it in 2010) and i think it is interesting for the thread.


Link to video.

 

[Oerdin]

What is the typical breakfast a Basque family will have together?