Archives

Good Friday procession. Zeanuri (Bizkaia), 1920. Felipe Manterola Collection. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Two feasts dedicated to the Holy Cross mark the most intense period of agricultural work in the traditional calendar. On May 3, the Finding of the Holy Cross, blessed hazel crosses were planted in the newly cultivated fields for protection. Crop harvest began five months later, on September 14, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and preparations were undertaken for grape harvest. From Holy Cross to Holy Cross, “De Santa Cruz a Santa Cruz” as shepherds in Álava would say, was the more appropriate season to pasture the flock in the mountain. That is the time of the year with longer and warmer days. (more…)