MAJORCAN GIANTS-MAJORCAN FOLKLORE-GIANTS ENCOUNTER
MAJORCAN GIANTS-MAJORCAN FOLKLORE-GIANTS ENCOUNTER-MAJORCAN ROOTED TRADITIONS
To find the origins of the early
giants in Mallorca we would have to go back to the seventeenth century and to the village of
Soller where we found the first giant in the
procession of Corpus Christi.
To raise awareness of the biblical passages, the roman catholic church organized the «entremeses» (short theatrical performances) where are already i
nvolved the giants.
It seems that the first documented reference to the
existence of giants appears in Cataluña,the year 1424 (solemnitats book of the city) and refers to King David and the Giant.
Chronologically the next
giant in Mallorca that we know is in
Sineu. It Appears disconnected from the feast of
Corpus Christi and is part of the celebrations of
Sint Roc in 1653 and was made by the local artist Pere Antoni Real.
In the city of
Palma, the
giants were appearing in the
procession of Corpus Christi in 1734,after requesting permission from the
Dean of the Cathedral to participate on it, finally ,the permit arrived on June 21st and the
Palma´s Giants may participate in the
procession of Corpus Christi in Palma, and were allowed to enter into the
cathedral «La Seo» and they were installed in the chapel of
Our Lady of the Navigators, nowadays dedicated to St. Benedict.
In 1762 in
Sant Llorenç (Mallorca) we find “Puput» ,the first
Mallorcan giant that we know the name.
And so gradually the
giants figures were proliferating across the whole island,
Pollença, Manacor, Llucmajor …..
But the
giants had to face the prohibitions imposed by the
Council of Trento(1545-1563), the
decret of nueva planta by King Philip V (1716) and
the Royal law issued by Charles III in1780 among many other local restrictions .
All these laws were clearly designed to limit and prohibit the
participation of the giants in any
folk event,
“entremeses” or ecclesiastical procession. Because,specially the roman Catholic Church in Spain considered that this representations had become farcical,burlesque and had lost its biblical sense.
Unfortunately because of this
break between the Catholic Church and the tradition of the giants, many of these figures will disappear and will be the
craft guilds, the ones who adopted the
giants, eagles, dragons, horses … as their emblems.
But the decree of Nueva Planta will impose that “entremeses” and other properties of the
craft guilds will become municipal property, so the giants will be in hands of the different municipalities on the island.
The law promulgated by king Carlos III will be another blow to the
tradition of the giants, because it specifically prohibits the participation of the
giants in any popular procession or demonstration, in this situation many figures will disappear or have to hide ,to avoid being destroyed and there were people, who even turned a deaf ear to the prohibition and
remained using giants.
In
Mallorca it seems that
giants have been protected by the
Augustinians in the convent of Bon Socors.
The
giants will reappear in Palma in 1814 during the festival of
San Fernando (in honor of
Ferdinand VII) and during the nineteenth century will be part of the stories written by the
Archiduke Ludwing Salvador of Austria in his book
Die Balearen and also in this century will be the birth of other emblematic
giants, the giants of Llucmajor, which were participating in the festivities of
Santa Candida (1893)
In 1902 taked place in Barcelona the first
giants encounter ,who joined 150,000 people around the
giants.
In 1904 the
city of Palma Mallorca ordered to the ceramic Factory
”La Roqueta” two
giants similar to those that today are exhibited in
Cort.
There were two proposals, the first, made by the sculptor Miquel Vadells which was disregarded and the one which was accepted, was the one of
“la Roqueta”.
The works were directed and coordinated by the owner of the factory, Pere Cetre, and there comes a
giant and a giantess dressed as the
peasants (payeses).
They were baptized with the names of
Tofol and Beth-Maria and had certain peculiarities for that time, his eyes were moving and the giant smoked a pipe with smoke coming out continually.
The jewelry carrying by the
giantess had been developed by the goldsmith from
Palma, Paul Taronjí and were composed of set of buttons, lacing, a Cross of Malta.rings….
But
Tofol and Bet Maria(called by everybody
Francina or Francinaina) had a tragic fate in 1936 they left
Mallorca towards Barcelona to participate in the opening ceremony of the popular Olympics, at the very momento when then
Civil war breaks out and there we were losing their track forever, and never returned to
Mallorca
So in 1940 the municipality of
Palma,requested Sebastian Alcover to build other
two giants similar to the missing,
Tofol and Francinaina, but their destiny was not better than their predecessors and were destroyed years later, by a wind gust when they were exposed in the entrance of
Cort and finally the vandalism of a group of young ended up leaving them unserviceable.
Mallorcan giants can be classified into five major groups:
–
Couples of peasants, is the most numerous, and the oldest members are the ones from
Inca (Abdó i Maria), 1928, to this group belongs
Francinaina and Tofol from Palma (1961), 1983
the peasant (payes) f
rom Son Rapinya, in 1987 the ones from
Sa Pobla (Antoni and Margalida), in 1989 the ones from
Alcudia (Rampell and Pipella),
Llucmajor (Miquel i Càndida),
Sant Llorenç (Jaume Belluguins and Angelina Trevolina) 1996 the ones from
Sóller (Antoni and Catherine ). In 1999
Palma ordered a couple procesional
peasants (Tomeu and Margalida) to accompany the giants
xeremiers, in
Selva 2002 (Pau and Rosa), in 2005 in
Son Espanyolet (Gaietà and Catalina) and to all of these are joined two couples one from
Felanitx and one from
San Jordi and we don´t know either the name or the date when they were made.
-In the second group we would include the
giants inspired in
characters coming from our rondalles or legends such as those of
Llucmajor, ordered in 1970 to Valencia, Pere Taleca and Fada Morgana and in 1971 the Amo de So Na Moixa i Na Joanota.
In
Montuïri, Queen Catalineta, private property of Vicente Alberdola(1994) and Na Tomassa from Alaro 1995, in
Colonia de Sant Jordi, a Queen and Marti Tacó 1997-98.
In 2000 the Magisterium Theatre Group in the University (UIB) built several giant for the representation for the theatre play”l´amor de les tres taronges”. In 2002 from
Puigpunyent the Bou and Na Fatima, and finally from
Palma, Banyeta Verda and Banyeta Vermella (2004).
And
the third will be time lucky in 1961, the City Council paid 35,000 pesetas to Monserrat Palmer and Joan Francesc Vives Bellaflor for the actual
Tofol and Francinaina, exposed in the
lobby of Cort, they are 4.20 mtrs tall and are made of wood, cardboard and wicker but they are too heavy to be carry so in 2005 the municipality invested 15000 euros and the workshop “Xicaranda” wil restored them and makes the garments which they wear nowadays.
-The third group consists of
traditional crafts representing each locality on the island, as the
shoemakers from Inca (1994), in
Capdepera ,Roc (fisherman) and n’Esperança (
llatadora palm-craft) 2003 in 2005 from
Sineu (Maria Angels
figs harvester and Marc, the
blacksmith) and from Manacor de la Vall (Joan,
coalmen and Llucia,
embroider maker)