Carnaval here extends far beyond Ash Wednesday for all those who want to party and dress up until the last municipality, Yaiza, celebrates it this year in mid-March. And to be honest, I’m not a particularly big fan of the loud and colorful Carnaval, but I like the traditional, small parades and especially two old Lanzarote Carnaval associations, which I would like to introduce here.
On the one hand, there is the sailors’ troop, “La Parranda Marinera del Buche” or “Los Buches” for short. It goes back to the sailors of the region around Arrecife in the 18th and 19th centuries and stands for the mixture of the life of sailors and farmers. The Buches wear the typical clothing of the time, albeit in a “carnival” version with colorful ribbons, embroidery and sequins on the fabrics. They also wear smiling, friendly masks.
The Buches come along with timples and strong voices in a dance step. But they are particularly characterized by a leather balloon, which reminds me of the pig’s bladder of the Fastnets witches. And it is also used in a similar way – namely to tease the surrounding spectators. But the balloons here, called “buches” and thus giving this carnival club its name, are something that comes from the sea: Namely, the stomach of a species of shark that lives near the coast of the Canary Islands. To make it, the outer skin is tanned, dried in brine and then inflated.
The tradition of the book was banned during the Franco dictatorship (1936) and only resumed by sailors in 1963.
Los Diabletes de Teguise” have an even older tradition.
For more than 600 years, the inhabitants of Teguise have dressed in white, red and black, wearing their demon-like goat masks with their tongues sticking out and parading through the streets of the town to the rhythm of round bells hanging from them, performing dances and re-enacting scenes. Until this was banned in the 18th century and the Diabletes had to return to the carnival, they were part of the Corpus Christi celebrations for over 100 years, despite their pagan origins, and represented evil.
Their tradition contains elements that are probably related to the indigenous inhabitants of the island, the Mahos, the Europeans and settlers from Africa. This makes them ethnographic signposts. The dances, leaps and runs of the Diabletes, according to an article in Lanzarote, “can lead us to the fertility and agricultural rites or to the battle between good and evil of our ancestors”.
In a document from the island government dated July 2, 1658, it is noted that the expenses for the Corpus Christi festival included gunpowder, shoes for the dancers, their food, branches, cleaning the streets, pounds of white wax or even the caratula or the fabric that was bought for the dress of the Diablete.
Mikaela
