Sources

To complete this annuity schedule, as has been said, we have had the Dantzan newspaper library as an essential source of information and other means of communication: Berria, Euskaldunon Egunkaria and Argia, among others. We have also been questioned in other publications such as Aitzina Pika by Jean Mixel Bedaxagar and Les mascarades souletines by George Herelle, in various leaflets of the shepherds of Zuberoa, in the book Maskaradak edited by the association Sü Azia, in the magazines Dantzariak, in this article by Kepa Fernandez (URL).

In doing this yearbook we have been drawn to attention several things and we will also share them with you a little further down, but first you have the list of the organizers of the masks of Zuberoa, year after year.

Mask yearbook

Gaps

Although we’ve managed to collect a lot of interesting data, you’ll have noticed that the list is full of voids. There are two main reasons for this. On the one hand, it may be that there was no mask that year, or on the other hand, that we could not get detailed information about that year and that we do not know if it had been masked. So, the first request to friends who can have more information will help you to complete the list?

Unmasked years

The gaps, but knowing that they can influence our consequences, have drawn our attention to a different blow of an eye cuestiones.Cuanto the more we go back in time, the more difficult it has been to get the right information. That is why it is not clear whether in the years when they appear empty there were masked or not. However, thanks to the articles by Allande Sokarros, Thierry Truffaut and Kepa Fernández Larrinoa, we have been able to see, for example, that in the years 1988 and 1990 there were no masks and from the book by François Fourquet it can be deduced that they were not probably done in 1986, since a list of masks at the time jumped from that year. In the rest of the dates we have not been able to check whether there was a carnival in Zuberoa. The breaks of the Two World Wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945) are easy to explain. On the other hand, what François Fourquet says in his book is also worth mentioning: "Après 1959, plusieurs années s'écoulent sans qu'on voie une seule mascardans toute la Soûle. The tradition paraît définitivement éteinte". That is, as of the 1960s the inhabitants of Zuberoa were barely able to assemble masks on a regular basis.

Irregular travel

We can think, therefore, that the reason for many other voids from the other decades of the twentieth century may be the same, the difficulties to shape the masks. In fact, from the photograph that shows us the (incomplete) calendar, it can be deduced that the masks were organized into groups in different times of the last century. A people restarted their customs, encouraged young people from other towns and gained strength from carnival —II. After the World War, for example. So much so that in the same year 2, 3 or even 5 villages assemble their masks at once (2 masked in the same year: 1906, 1920, 1913, 1923, 1925, 1928, 1930, 1933, 1946, 1952, 1979 and 1992. 3 masked in the same year: 1947. 5 masked in the same year: 1925), but a few years later the initiative had lost strength and spent several years until the cycle resumed, at risk of losing itself.

In this sense, it is significant that the masks of 1974 were organized by the association Zohardia de Zuberoa, with dancers and local artists, with the objective of giving a boost to the weakest carnivals.

Reactivation

Although in recent times it has been mentioned more than once whether the future of the masks can be in danger, according to this yearbook it can be concluded that since 1980 the masks have lived their most stable time in the last 120 years. During the four decades, young zuberotars have managed to bring together at 35 times enough people to assemble masks and when there have been problems, such as in 2012, when the risk of masks being canceled for two consecutive years, they have had ingenious solutions. That year, faced with the risk of the Santagrazi mask being suspended for the second consecutive year, the former students of the ikastolas of Zuberoa took over the installation of masks in a few weeks. All of them were Basques that year and their decision makes clear the importance of giving continuity to the rope of the masks for these young people from Zuberoa.

Pioneers in pioneers

One of the first temptations after arriving at a list of these characteristics is to see which people have given the most masks. Has it happened to you? Well, we do. Therefore, from the locality with the least masked according to the list, the order would be as follows: Astüe (1), Etxebarre (1), Maule (1), Ozazu-Zühara (1), Sarri🚫 -gaina (1), Aloze (2), Idauze-Mendi (2), Montori (2), Lexantzü (2), Santagrazi (2), Altzürükü! ! Don’t miss it in Altzürükü 12. Masked since 9 February!