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Photo credit: Pantxix Bidart Pla.
Anybody who visits us in winter will see the uplands of Iparralde (Northern Basque Country) ablaze. The fires are used to manage and clear the pastures and meadows for the livestock. Given the small size of the farms in Iparralde, they need to graze their animals on the surrounding uplands. Accordingly, the farmers care for and attend to the uplands in the same way as they do with their farmsteads. In general, they use fire to clear those areas which cannot be reached with machines.
Detail of the cemetery of Garruze (Nafarroa Beherea). Emilio Xabier Dueñas.
Despite it not being a priority area in my investigations, I am nonetheless passionate about all matters concerning the broad research field within which the subject of death and dying falls. We refer, in this particular case, to the worship of the dead through different forms of expression: this life is followed by a supposed afterlife.
As a native of Bizkaia, few cemeteries have I seen attached to churches or hermitages in my territory. I therefore remember with emotion the first time I visited a burial ground in Lapurdi (with similar features to those of Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa), for I was surprised by the cleanliness and care of the surroundings, the ornamentation, the souvenirs or the stelae.
Bilbo-Abando
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Derio
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