He parades through our streets, populates our storefronts: Olentzero is everywhere. The architects of its success promote the dissemination of the deep meaning of Christmas: the rebirth of nature celebrated by a community gathered and actor of these celebrations. All this in Basque! A highlight, which echoes old practices masked today by the religion of the “ready-to-give gift”.
Do not tell them that Olentzero is a Santa Claus made in the Basque Country! Yet we quickly forget that there was a “positive” Santa Claus, far from the jovial papi that the advertisers made of him.
Olentzero is not that “unique”.
Like Father Christmas, under his name, he catalyzes a set of practices and customs that have been personified in a single character. It would seem that originally, Olentzero primarily referred to the end of the year period. In Olentzero there is “ero” / “aro”, “the period” in Basque. Olentzero became a character late in life.
But who is Olentzero?
First of all, he has a profession, which, it is true, distinguishes him from his sled pilot counterpart. He is a charcoal maker and, moreover, it is charcoal that he offers to children. But this is not a punishment: charcoal is synonymous with fire, therefore light and heat. This present carries with it the gradual return of the sun following the solstice and was once able to be distributed as such elsewhere in Europe, before it became synonymous with punishment.
Where is he from ?
He comes from the mountain to announce the birth of Christ to us … like the shepherds. He is a being of the heights, working on his txondorra his coal grindstone. But more concretely it would come from Hegoalde. Some argue that it was first found in Labourd but it was indeed in the South that it was staged, still at the beginning of the 20th century. It arrived in Iparralde mainly thanks to the ikastola.
A being neither good nor bad
If he can be grumpy and boorish, he also knows how to be benevolent. He has become as jovial and likeable as Santa Claus to decorate our shops and stores. But our ancestors knew him, dirty, fat and big eater. Authentic Olentzero has a strong penchant for alcohol. A song, one of the best known, speaks of it in these terms: ”Olentzero, big head, without understanding, last night drank a 160-liter bottle of wine. Ouch, pot-bellied pig … “.
A being neither good nor bad as were its counterparts: Father Janvier, Saint Nicolas, the Fairy Befana. Their kindness was not expressed until late, requiring the creation of a negative alter ego charged with punishing when the former cannot reward. With our charcoal maker, the opposite happened. His clumsiness is compensated by the gentleness and good manners of a Mari Domingi, a recent invention sometimes considered caricatural.
Until recently, there was no Olentzero that was unanimously approved, nor a common corpus to embody it. In some regions, it was called upon to scare children. On December 24 in many villages of Hegoalde, we dragged on a cart, a villager embodying the coalman or a mannequin, passing from house to house, to collect enough to make a meal. In exchange, we sang verses. The next day we could then feast. But on the 24th it was necessary to be lean. If this injunction was not respected, Olentzero could cut off your head with his sickle.
Sickle that he sometimes wears on his belt, a tool that represents the breaking of time into two seasons: uda (summer) and negua (winter), the other two seasons being only intermediate times as shown. the Basque language (udaberria, the new summer / udazkena autonomous). This instrument could also be hung in the kitchen around the solstice, without further reference to Olentzero… Moreover, in the kitchen a log burned during Christmas night… which in some regions was referred to as Olentzero .
He brings gifts simple and in small quantities
Today the Olentzero Lagunak association, with its Olentzero charter, offers a coherent framework, which avoids giving in to consumerist facilities and solicitations and which recalls its link with the solstice. An Olentzero that is certainly less bawdy than its predecessors, but which nevertheless does not compromise on certain values. Thus he expresses himself exclusively in Basque, mastering all its variants, all the Basque. The charter specifies that he is not Santa Claus, these gifts being very simple and in small quantities.
Let us allow ourselves to say that it is not what we made of Santa Claus and hope that he will know how to protect himself from our bad habits.