Les Festes De L'os a L'alt Vallespir
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154 Miscellanea Catalonian Journal of Ethnology December 2018 No. 43 Claudie Voisenat CROSS-BORDER COUNTRY OF ART AND HISTORY OF THE TECH AND TER CATALAN VALLEYS Lead anthropologist in the drafting of the candidacy dossier to include the Bear Festivals of L’Alt Vallespir on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. Lecturer at École du Louvre and head of research for France’s Ministry of Culture, working alongside the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Institut interdisciplinaire d’anthropologie du contemporain. The Bear Festivals in L’Alt Vallespir 1 hree villages in L’Alt Valles- gated by the Tech River and its tributaries. L’Alt 1 pir, Arles2, Prats-de-Mol- Vallespir refers to the upper basin of this river, This article was written in collab- oration with Christelle Nau, head lo-la-Preste and Saint-Lau- which begins in the Costabona foothills. It is of the Bear Festivals’ UNESCO rent-de-Cerdans celebrate a mid-mountain area associated, since 2012, candidacy. the Bear Festivals (or Bear with the French Grand Site of Canigou, which 2 Hunts/Days) every year in constitutes its southern side. With a popula- Arles-sur-Tech. late winter. Lasting a few hours, the Festivals tion of around 5,200 inhabitants, the three consist of young male villagers who dress and rural municipalities together cover an area of T 2 make themselves up as bears and, surrounded over 220 km , with predominantly woodland by a pack of Hunters, roam the streets scaring landscapes that open into deep stream pools passers-by who run and hide or egg them on. and what were once high-altitude pasturelands. Festivals of time-honoured tradition Given the area’s isolating geography, the Bear The territorial region known as Vallespir is the Festivals and the corresponding customs have result of organisation amongst the former Cat- primarily been passed down through oral tradi- alan counties prior to the Treaty of the Pyrenees tion. As far as we know, festivals involving bears in 1659 and the subsequent establishment of date back to a distant past. The ninth-century the current French-Spanish border. This border archbishop of Reims, Hincmar, condemned The Bears from the three Festivals gathered in Prats-de- territory, the southernmost of metropolitan the turpia joca cum ursis (vile games with a Mollo-la-Preste (2013). France, comprises a number of valleys irri- bear), as well as other games of a despicable JEAN DABAT The Bear Festivals in L’Alt Vallespir Miscellanea 155 nature involving masquerades and obscene and representations carried out by the media. Paraules Clau: Festa de l’Os, representations. El Llibre de les Solemnitats After the first ethnographic research was con- Alt Vallespir, Arles, Prats de Barcelona (The Book of Solemnities of ducted at the beginning of the 1970s, scholars de Molló, Sant Llorenç de Barcelona) of 1424 provides an account of and researchers would take a growing interest Cerdans 7 Palabras Clave: a man dressed in black lambskin to give the in the topic. Fiesta del Oso, Alto Vallespir, Arles-sur-Tech, appearance of a bear during the Corpus Christi Prats-de-Mollo, Saint-Laurent- 3 procession (Duran and Sanabre, 1930: 12). The majority would choose to highlight the de-Cerdans Festivals’ antiquity and their link to a highly Keywords: Bear Festival, L'Alt Although their origin and prior evolution are rich legendary background. The Festivals’ start Vallespir, Arles-sur-Tech, Prats- de-Mollo-la-Preste, Saint- something of a mystery, the Bear Festivals of date, 2 February, coincides with two related Laurent-de-Cerdans L’Alt Vallespir have been the object of several religious celebrations: the Purification of the ethnographic mentions, appearing as far back Blessed Virgin Mary and the Presentation of as the nineteenth century, which claim to have Our Lord Jesus (also known as Candlemas). 3 “Os o onsso ab tot son com- borne witness to the celebrations. One of the According to some historians (Pastoureau, pliment, e es de pells de anyins oldest known references to the Festivals dates 2007: 149), the Catholic Church may have negres” (An excellently-repre- back to 1835, when historian Dominique initiated these two cultural celebrations, which sented bear, composed of black 4 lambskin) (Duran and Sanabre Henry spoke of them, although without take place 40 days after the winter solstice, to 1930: 12). specifying the geographical area: hamper or replace ancient pagan devotion to 4 […] une mascarade de tradition que chaque the bear. This ancient devotion is evidenced Dominique Marie Joseph Henry année voit se renouveler. Un homme de la lie by the Europe-wide belief that bears come (1778-1850), historian and curator du peuple se déguise en ours ; ses camarades out of hibernation on 2 February (or around at the Villa de Perpignan Library. vêtus de haillons les plus sales, et barbouillés that date), a belief which appears in numerous 5 de la façon la plus ignoble, l’accompagnent meteorological sayings, such as the following: “A masquerade of a tradition repeated year after year. A man et le font danser au bruit assourdissant de Per la Candalera, l’ós surt de l’ossera, i, si from the dregs of the village dresses up as a bear; his com- sifflets, entonnoirs, crécelles et de tambours troba que fa bo, se’n torna a fer un gaitó 5 rades, donning the dirtiest of rags […] un usage de grande antiquité. (Henry, (On Candlemas, the bear leaves his den and with their faces sullied in the 1835: CVI-CVII). and, if he sees it’s a nice day, goes back to most despicable way, accompany napping) (Amades, 1951: 967). him and make him dance to the deafening sound of whistles, A few years after Henry’s account, English folk- funnels, rattles and drums [...] a lorists Violet Alford and Basil Collier were able Bears are plantigrade animals showing a like- custom of great antiquity.” to provide a much more detailed description ness to humans in many ways; they are also 6 of the Festivals’ structure (Van Gennep, 1999: the subject of numerous legends, of which p. 771-775. It delves into various 771-775).6 The description was completed the most widespread in the Pyrenees revolves previous works, including Alford, 2004 (1937); Collier, 1939; with ritualistic interpretations inspired by Sir around John the Bear, the son of a woman Amades, 1950; and other local James Frazer, which fed the local imagination and a bear who, after many adventures, frees, scholars. Les Festes de l’Os de l’Alt-Vallespir tenen Las Fiestas del Oso del Alto Vallespir The Bear Festivals in Alt-Vallespir takes lloc una tarda de final d’hivern. A tres acontecen una tarde de finales de invier- place on a late winter afternoon. In three pobles de la vall, homes joves vestits d’os no. En tres pueblos del valle, jóvenes villages of the valley, young men dressed recorren els carrers, jugant a espantar la hombres disfrazados de oso recorren las up as bears go thought the streets, trying gent. calles, jugando a asustar a la gente. to scare people. L’interès per aquestes manifestacions El interés por estas manifestaciones va The interest on these celebrations has in- augmenta a partir dels anys vuitanta. Per en aumento a partir de los años ochenta. creased since the eighties. For its inhab- petició dels habitants, que hi estan forta- Por petición de los habitantes, fuerte- itant’s petition, who are highly involved ment lligats, són presents des del 2014 mente ligados a las fiestas, des de 2014 on the feast, it was introduced in the a l’inventari francès del patrimoni cultural éstas forman parte del inventario francés inventory of the French intangible cultural immaterial i candidates a la inscripció de del patrimonio cultural inmaterial así heritage. It has also been a candidate to la llista representativa de la UNESCO. cómo son candidatas a la inscripción de be registered to the UNESCO’s repre- La seva valorització cultural s’acompanya la lista representativa de la UNESCO. sentative list. Its cultural value comes with d’una aproximació etnogràfica de la qual Su valorización cultural se acompaña de its ethnographic approximation to which aquest article en dona compte. una aproximación etnográfica de la que this article explains. da cuentas este artículo. 156 Miscellanea Catalonian Journal of Ethnology December 2018 No. 43 alongside his companions, a group of prin- in summer to garner attention from visiting 7 cesses being held captive in the underworld. tourists. Today, the Festivals adhere to a more Such as Daniel Fabre and Jean- Dominique Lajoux. The scholar In Vallespir, various local versions of the legend set schedule: the first Sunday in February in Robert Bosch mentions the main exist in which a bear kidnaps a shepherdess, Arles, and the first and second Sunday of the ones in his chapter “Les grands keeps her under lock and key in a cave and tries Académie de Montpellier’s winter break in témoins de l’ours” (Bosch, 2003). to mate with her. The girl is ultimately saved Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste and Saint-Laurent- 8 by hunters or forest dwellers who cunningly de-Cerdans, respectively. Carles Bosch de la Trinxeria, who was born in Prats-de-Mollo-la- draw the bear away from the girl before tak- Preste, lived in La Jonquera and ing it down. Another local version modified Another important adaptation, a direct result made a living by managing his by the Christian Church was transcribed by of people’s change in mentality regarding the lands. An avid traveller, he pub- 8 lished numerous essays, some of writer Carles Bosch de la Trinxeria in 1891; Festivals over the last few decades, involves the which are tied to the Renaissance.