Since the beginning of time, fire has been the main cultural characteristic of the human species, the element which brought individuals together, and united families and societies. That is why, during the thousands of years of coexistence between fire and people, we have given fire many symbolic connotations. Let us mention them, though only briefly:
Fire and tile. In Basque culture, a permanent fire turned any common building into what we call “home” — “home”, a place of fire — a clear feature that distinguished it from huts or other temporary shelters…
According to the Dictionary of the Spanish language, the term “identity” has, among others, the meaning of “the set of natural characters of one individual or group, which characterizes them in comparison with others”, including the following synonyms: identification, affiliation and personality… To those, I would add two more acceptations: singularity and root (origin); without forgetting that identity also manifests itself in rivalry (healthy or unhealthy) in certain sports, celebrations, etc.
Annual festivities, and the ones celebrated during summer in particular, are filled with signs of identity and symbolic elements, general and specific; both from the material immaterial aspects. Who hasn’t heard the expressions “this is a lifelong festivity” or “this is not celebrated anywhere else”. We’ve already covered this topic in other articles from the blog.