At Roncal they have everything ready to celebrate Uskara Day within ten days and are already heating motors. This weekend will be held in the Pyrenees on I Kantuz, where all the singers of Aezkoa, Salazar, Roncal and Pyrenees of Navarra will meet to sing for the people, in Basque.

But that will only be a prologue, on 19 May an event has been organized for the youngest with Pirritx, Porrotx eta Marimotots, and on 20 May it will be a great day, Usura Day. In the morning popular Olympics will be held, and the Dantzaris of Ochagavía will act with the Lumbier Butters; at noon there will be a change of witness and popular food. Then there will be games, music, concerts... and the organizers have prepared a broad program.

Travelling language

Since its birth in Uztárroz in 1997, Usura Day is held every year in a village in the Roncal Valley, on a rotational basis, driven by the cultural association of Keben. This year’s edition has had as a motto Erronka, the walker of Uskara.

"Roncal was first and foremost the people of the walkers," they recalled from Kebenko. The eels or the migrant spartinges that headed north, south to make transhumance or to transport timber with almadías... "We are a people that lives in an innocent way, and in a way, the Basque country has also gone along for us and with us, back and forth", they stress. That is why they have taken into account those who have been "drawing the future of the Basque country step by step".

Depopulation, Basque Country and zoning

These kinds of celebrations are important in the Navarran valleys affected by the depopulation, in order to also unite citizens around language.

According to recent data from the Statistics Institute of Navarra (Nasnat), 26.5% of the population of the foral territory has some knowledge of the Basque country, but it has only increased by two points in the last ten years.

In addition, the situation of the Basque country is very different according to the region. The zoning imposed by the Law of the Basque Country has a clear incidence, and in the non-Basque and mixed zone has put a stop to the development of the Basque Country, according to the study of Nasnat: "The people of origin of the citizens influence the knowledge of the Basque Country", the report says textually.

The municipalities of the Roncal Valley are located in the mixed zone and, according to the latest statistical data, the number of vasco-speakers exceeds 18% in their main municipalities, Isaba, Burgui and Roncal.