"Halloween scares the souls. The black night aims to attract the souls of those we love."
- “I have three children, and when one of them had a heart surgery, I went to look for books to explain death to the children. Everything I found was linked to religion, and I've always thought about it, until last year I saw it clear: For the Black Night we celebrated in my cafeteria in Lezo, we decided that we had to invent a character and use it for a book, it was all one: Why not make a tale of death by pulling the Black Night? Because believing in the magic of October 31 can be a way to sweeten death: at the feast that night we don’t see the dead, but he will see us and we will feel by our side”, says Edurne Mitxito. This is how the tale Gau beltza was born.
In the story Lur the protagonist tells what happened to him a hundred years ago, mixing the atmosphere of the farmhouse, the dead and the Black Night. The author is Edurne Mitxeo and the drawings of Kepa Etxebarria accompany the text. Thanks to the support of the City of Lezo, the book that has just been published aims, among other things, to facilitate grief for children. “Death often surprises us suddenly and in some houses you may not know how to talk about it with children; we would like this story to help us. To boys and girls we tell them that the person who died has fallen asleep, or that he has embarked on a long journey… but it must be told the truth, that that person has died, that his heart has remained, that his heart has remained, that the book wants to be a means for it.” From each book sold, a euro will be allocated to the Congenital Heart Disease Society.
The black night or the night of souls is a good excuse to talk about death. More and more people have recovered old Basque customs, in the face of the strength of Halloween. Thus, the customs of our ancestors are becoming more frequent: they lit candles through souls and emptied pumpkins, beets or potatoes to introduce candles into them. Mitxito explains that the meaning is contrary to the Halloween party: Halloween drives away souls, and the Black Night seeks to attract the souls of those we love, “that’s why candles are turned on to guide them on their way home.” After all, at one time death was very present – the living conditions were not the present ones – from a young age they understood that it was part of life, and they had a day to think about souls. “When do we live death today?”
A party that will involve all the people
Another objective of the story is to promote the local party. Mitxito celebrates the Black Night in her cafeteria in Lezo since 2016, as well as a great success, many children and adults meet every year, but her idea is to expand the festival to all the people. Go to search for chestnuts, order food disguised from house to house, then get together to eat roasted chestnuts and what was achieved from house to house, send messages to the fire… This represents the Mitxeo day. “It’s a great party for children: disguised, at night, eating muddy… What else can you ask for?”
It can also be a fear management night for children. “It is good to have some respect and fear, but the fear that leaves us immobile is not good, because it does not allow us to move forward, and in those occasions it is important to know how to turn the situation around. This pandemic is a good example to reflect on our relationship with fear.”
First of all, we wish to extend our condolences to the family and friends of the woman killed in early August.
The people of Gaintxurizketa are fed up with the disillusionment of the administration and those responsible.
Those of us who live in the neighborhood are forced to... [+]
Paris 1845. The Labortan economist and politician Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) wrote the satire Pétition des fabricants de chandelles (The Request of the Sailing). Fiercely opposed to protectionism, he ironistically stated that the sailing boats asked for protection against... [+]
(Azken aldi luzean ezin naiz gauez atera, eta arratsaldez ere larri, eta asteburuetan ere ez, eta (jarri zaizue jada ihes egiteko gogoa), marianitoak eta bazkari azkar samarrak izaten dira nire enkontruneak. Konpainiak ondoegi aukeratu behar ditut. Ezin ditut poteoak... [+]
