BEAR DANCES

The Bear Dances take place around Candlemas (2 of February) right in the moment in which, according to popular knowledge, the plantigrade ends its hibernation, in order to forecast the arrival of spring. The Bear is seen next to young people dressed in sheep skins who ring the cowbells in Bielsa, Ituren, Zubieta and in many other masquerades in rural Europe, which are celebrated between New Year and the end of carnival. They seem to keep former ritual propitiatory functions. It deals with pagan rites which the church tried to prohibit since the early Middle Ages, like Hincmaro, the archbishop of Reims who condemned the disgusting games with the bear in a pastoral in the year 852. The Bear Dance is generally carried out along a lively march that used to start in some naturalistic place outside the village end ended on the square. The dances stage the fight between man and plantigrade, an image elaborated from the gypsy bear tamer and embellished with heroic arguments about the hunting of the wild beast. Referring to the staging, Les Festes de l’Ós of Vallespir are similar to The Hunting of the Wild Man, a game with carnival masks that, among others, was illustrated by Pieter Brueghel the Elder in the XVI century. It represents the myth of the savage that has to be civilized. So that the bear embodies the caos and the sexual strength, being symbol of fertility since ancient times and synthesis of all the sins, according to the medieval interpretation. Occasionally the dance turns in a chance to make a satire on tradition and also serve for a caustic revision of the events happened during the year as shown in El Ball de l’Ossa of Encamp.

Apart from the ritual festivities in winter, there are more solemn Bear Dances that have been documented since the XVth century. The four boys, dressed up as bears, who appeared during the royal entry of Fernando de Antequera in Valencia in 1414 or the black sheep skins that, according to the Llibre de les Solemnitats of Barcelona were necessary for the bear disguise that appeared in the Corpus procession in 1424, are just a few examples. In the festive imagery of the Corpus and the town festival of Solsona, four carnival figures with a large bear head have been recovered in 1940, thank to a documental reference of the 1727. They perform a Stick Dance that reminds of the role they had making way for the procession. Their function and appearance was very similar to the bears with the mace during the royal entry in Barcelona in 1677, in honour of Charles II. The festive Bestiary of Valls counts with the figure of the Bear that dances in the procession of the Town Festival and the one dedicated to Saint Ursula. This beast was created in 1999, led from a document of the 1764 where it is mentioned along with the Eagle, the Mule, the Giants, the Dragon and the Ox.

Eloi Ysàs
University Rovira i Virgili