Ball Dels Cossiers" in Majorca

TRADITIONS THE "BALL DELS COSSIERS" IN MAJORCA THEREARE MANY CELEBRATIONS HELD ON THE ISLAND OF MAJORCA.MOST OF THESE FESTIVALS ARE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN; IT IS NOT CERTAIN, FOR EXEMPLE, WHERE THE "BALL DELS COSSIERS" COMES FROM. MARlA DE LA PAU JANER AUTHOR ajorca is a land of dances and It is not certain where the ball dels cos- celebrations. Perhaps because siers comes from. It is doubtless related men who live surrounded by the to other dances in the Principat de Ca- sea look for a special explanation for talunya, although it has evolved dif- the world. A world which the ancient ferently in the different places where it Majorcans often split into two extremes is performed today. Some people speak which are hard to reconcile: beauty and of these dances in connection with an- darkness, Good and Evil. There are cient pagan fertility rites. This could be many celebrations held on the island, an explanation for the six male figures one for each town or village, from the who spin and jump around the dama, coast to the interior. Most of these the female figure who forms the group's celebrations, representations of fights co-ordinating element. Seven people al1 which relive ancient legends, street together, the magic number. Later, the dances, processions and fancy dress, are primitive pagan ritual was incorporated of unknown origin. No-one knows exactly into Christian celebrations and became when they emerged, or where they came part of the Corpus Christi procession. from. As regards their history, there are It is not easy to find evidence referring only hypotheses and imaginations, be- to the age of the cossiers. The earliest cause al1 we have are the living events records we have date from 1544, when that survive, year after year, like the we have a written account of their exist- oresence of far-off aspirations. ente in Sóller. We also know for certain TRADITIONS that these dances were performed in the steps and gestures of the people he best-known dances, the titoieta, she en- many different towns and villages: Al- wants to ridicule. He is the counterpart courages them to vanquish the devil. gaida, Montuiri, Manacor, Pollenca, to the dama, who is restrained and gen- The devil prances around, provoking Alaró, Felanitx, Porreres, Santa Maria, tle and never puts a foot out of place. the dancers, until he is finally beaten. Valldemossa, Sineu, etc. At present, Dressed in white, almost always sur- But the fiction, the death of the sha- though, they only survive in Montuifi rounded by the cossiers, she represents dows he represents, only lasts a mo- -the only place where the tradition has Good, the forces that fight against the ment. Soon he returns to his games never been interrupted-, Algaida, Po- devil. This is the hidden meaning be- amongst the same public who, year llenca and Manacor. hind these dances: the terrible, bitter after year, applaud his defeat. The ritual is a complex one; each gest- struggle in which, in spite of al1 the The most solemn dance is that of the ure is measured and al1 the movements obstacles, life always wins. offering. In the church, on the day of are predetermined. There is no room The colours of the cossiers of Algaida the great ceremonies, at the moment of for improvisation in a ceremony which are red, green and yellow. During the the offering, the dance of the dama has been repeated unchangingly for cen- rituals, they raise the handkerchiefs in guides each of the cossiers to the priest. turies. The dancers therefore have to their hands and the ribbons on their The music of the tamborino and the have a perfect knowledge of each of the headwear. The short cloaks, covered in flabiol, and sometimes also of the xere- pieces they perform, because fidelity mirrors, and the pointed hats with mies, or bagpipes, sets the rhythm for and precision are two of their funda- folded brims are also part of the festivi- the dancers. At Montuiri the festival is mental constituents. The stage is always ties of Sant Jaume, on 25th July, and of held on 15th August, the day of the double: the open air, the streets of the Sant Honorat, on 16th January. In sum- Virgin Mary, and on 23rd and 24th of town, often right in front of the church mer, the smell of the basil the dancers the same month, the eve and the festi- entrance first, then the square; and in- always carry becomes part of the event. val of Sant Bartomeu. In Manacor it is side the church itself for the only dance In Algaida, the dance as a popular tradi- held during the May fair, and in Pollen- not involving the devil, who accompa- tion was interrupted for a number of ca, on 2nd August, for Our Lady of the nies the cossiers when the dance is not years, just at the time when the owner Angels. In these last two towns the held in the church as part of the litur- of a restaurant organised a group of dance was interrupted for many years, until gical celebration. paid cossiers who danced for the foreign groups of university students revived it. In the street, the devil plays amidst the visitors. These were the years of the No-one would deny that away from public watching the celebration. Before tourist boom, the start of many corrup- their town and on any day other than starting, a ring of spectators forms tions of the island traditions. Soon, their own, the cossiers lose al1 signifi- around him, and he drives them off though, the festival was recovered. cance. For this reason, they are never with movements which are mocking A festival in which the dama -who seen at another time or another place and provocative. Dressed in sackloth, used, for social reasons, to be played by apart from those indicated by tradition. with a mask on which are symbolic re- a man- has a key role: it is she who The ritual is complex and can only be presentations of fire and snakes, he directs al1 the movements of the cos- performed at the times laid down by the jumps and runs, in a grotesque parody siers; during the dance they become the festivity. m of the movements of the cossiers and of centre of attention, and in one of the .

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