Sant Antoni 2014

[Mark]

I hope they smooth out that big bump near the top or that is going to be very painful on the slide back down!!

Does that mean you will be having a go

At least you know about the bump so will be careful on the way down.

 

[sws97sdg]

They look like they have started the party already!!

 

[sws97sdg]

Does that mean you will be having a go

At least you know about the bump so will be careful on the way down.

Lol, no chance Mark, I get a nose bleed if I go up a step ladder, although some English guys had a go last year, didn't get very far!!

 

[Sparky]

Here is the Ajuntament poster showing the timetable. It says that at 7pm on the 16th the judges will start visiting the fires accompanied by the Xeremiers (pipes and drums band). Then on the 17th they get the tree from Formentor, for those going by road, transport will be leaving from C/Roger de Flor (behind the church) at 9am. The blessing of the animals is from 11.30am at the church. The tree will arrive on the beach at 12 noon and will be in the square at 1.30pm, of course these times are very flexible as any of you who have been here for Sant Antoni will know :-


Sant Antoni Poster. by lyn.sparkes, on Flickr

 

[Sparky]

The Ajuntament have posted some pics of the Pollensa tree on FB, it is 21.5 metres so a bit smaller than the PP pine.

The mayor helping to chop it down.


The Pollensa Town tree. by lyn.sparkes, on Flickr


The Town tree. by lyn.sparkes, on Flickr

There has to be music.


The band. by lyn.sparkes, on Flickr

 

[Sparky]

For all members who are flying over in the next few days, i hope you all have a safe flight........ buen viaje .

 

[Sparky]

I have just heard from Colin(Nostalgia) and the kitchen is open for Sant Antoni week, an a la carte menu cooked by Chef Kenny will be available every night from 6.30pm - 10.30pm and bar prices have been reduced .

 

[majprop]

The town hall have released this posters for the San Anton fiestas.......with the correct dates but the wrong days.........I have just read one on a doorway in the Juan XX111, also, as always for anyone not having been to the night of the fires before, please watch children if you are with them and ensure that you wear old/er clothes as there is always live ash flying about and a hat is always a good idea.

 

[majprop]

I should say that I never saw Sparky's post with the new post and the days corrected but I saw one with the incorrect days and I was not the only one to see it as I was with three Mallorquin friends..........

 

[Sparky]

Andrew has written a very good article about the history of the Sant Antoni fiesta and it has been printed in the Majorca Daily Bulletin here :-

Just One Of Those Things: Sant Antoni and Sa Pobla

View of the North
By Andrew Ede


Sant Antoni is a big deal in the north of the island. The deal is biggest of all in Sa Pobla, but in Artà, Muro and to a lesser extent in both Alcudia and Pollensa, the fiesta is also a pretty significant deal and one which is looked forward to each year with great anticipation. As I mention elsewhere in today’s paper, the fiesta originated in Sa Pobla in 1365, the pretext having been that the Sant Antoni d’Uialfàs church was built in the Vila Real Sapobla de Vialfás (aka Uialfàs) in 1357.
In 1300, when Sa Pobla was named as a “royal town”, it was, in effect, a new town. A Sapobla de Vialfás had existed before by what is the oratory in Crestatx, not far from present-day Sa Pobla and the site of the veneration of the martyred Santa Margalida (the Vialfás part of the name and its variants refers to water meadows; Albufera, one presumes). It would appear that the new site offered greater potential for development; hence, the inhabitants of Crestatx relocated a couple of kilometres up the road. It took 57 years for them to get a new church, and Sant Antoni lent his name to it. In the history of Sa Pobla it is said that it wasn’t therefore strange that the fiesta should subsequently be celebrated, but there is no obvious explanation as to why Sa Pobla was selected to have a Sant Antoni church and to therefore be the focus of attention for this saint whose endeavours had made him massively popular among the Catalans.
Jaume II, who was the real driving force behind the importing of Sant Antoni, wanted every village in Majorca to show its devotion to the ancient Egyptian monk, but when it came to naming churches after him, Sa Pobla got preferential treatment. As far as I am aware, there was no other Sant Antoni Abad church in Majorca (though I might be wrong), so why was Sa Pobla chosen? It has been suggested that Jaume II had singled Sa Pobla out for the Sant Antoni treatment, but if he did, then evidence to back this theory up is pretty thin on the ground. Indeed, the first time that Sant Antoni became a possible name as a parish (a future one at that) was in 1315. Jaume II had been dead for four years by then. It was his successor, Sanç I (Sancho), who seemingly gave the green light to the name when he arbitrated in the matter of the splitting of Sa Pobla off as its own parish from the San Miquel church in Campanet.
So the naming of the church and the consequent fiesta seems to have just been one of those things and a stroke of luck for Sa Pobla, which has been revelling in being the centre of Sant Antoni attention ever since, and there are various reasons why, over the centuries, it came to have a fiesta as we now know it and which is copied (in lesser ways) by other towns. One reason, which doesn’t have anything to do with Sant Antoni specifically, is the lighting of fires, to symbolise the rebirth of the sun and, in more practical terms, as a way of fertilising land with the ashes. A second reason also doesn’t have anything to do with the old monk. He was, after all, not known as Anthony the Anchorite (hermit to you and me) and the founder of reclusive monasticism for nothing. Over the years, the fiesta became a mix of the profane as well as the religious; Antoni would be turning in his grave.
The other reasons are directly attributed to the Antoni narrative. Prolific patron saint that he was - skin diseases, amputees, butchers, basket weavers, gravediggers (and other hermits) - it was and is his protection of animals that helped secure him a leading role in the annual fiestas’ merry-go-round; there are, of course, blessings of animals on 17 January. This said though, animal blessings carried only so much interest, and it was the story of what happened to Antoni while he was being hermitic in a cave in the desert that really helped to make the fiesta catch fire - pretty much literally. Antoni was bedevilled by devils and their supernatural temptations. They appeared before him or, more likely, were hallucinations (it might be interesting to know what types of herb or fungi were available in the particular part of desert he preferred). It was the devils or demons, whose presence at the fiesta is documented from before the nineteenth century, who gave the occasion its X factor.
To come up to more recent times, it wasn’t until 1958 that the demons were given a central role in the fiesta and accompanied the image of Sant Antoni, and then, in 1966, came a major breakthrough. On 21 February of that year, the Sant Antoni fiesta was declared as being of “touristic interest”. This was a resolution from the tourism ministry in Madrid and was set out in the Official Bulletin. Of course, it is questionable as to quite how much “touristic interest” has ever been paid to the fiesta, but this is a separate matter for discussion and centres on an apparent inability to promote winter fiestas adequately. Nevertheless, with official approval from the State, Sant Antoni assumed greater significance and importance, while Sa Pobla was confirmed as the home of the celebration.
Of other participants in the fiesta, these are modern creations. The “caparrot” big heads came along in the 1950s and their junior versions in 1983. The giants followed in 1984, but they are not a specifically Sant Antoni phenomenon. As with other giants, they turn up to other fiestas and indeed their premiere was at the summer Sant Jaume fiesta in 1984. The fire-breathing “Grif” dragon was first unveiled in 1998.
This, therefore, is something of a history of Sant Antoni. But while other towns, such as Muro and Pollensa, have borrowed the traditions of the fiesta, there is one event over Sant Antoni that is not a Sa Pobla tradition and is very much a Pollensa one only: the climbing of the pine tree on the night of the 17th. As with the obscurity which surrounds the reasons why Sa Pobla acquired Sant Antoni, so there is obscurity as to why a pine tree is climbed. No one seems to know. It was taking place in the nineteenth century, but how it came into being, well, maybe it’s just one of those things.

 

[Sparky]

The Hustlers will be playing in Mulligans from 9.30pm on Friday 17th Jan (day of the Pine) .

 

[El Gordo]

OK shall we have a forum meeting on Tuesday 14th January at 11.30am but for a change how about the new "Casa Manolo" (formerly Can Torrens) .

Wished I had read this before installing myself in CC. But then I needed to get online to read this...... chicken egg ch ......... hope you all had a good meet up Cheers

 

[Sparky]

Oh but you did eventually meet up with us my little chick and it was a very enjoyable event. Thank you to Cath and John, Lorenzo, Gordon and Dorothy, i had a lovely time chatting to you all. John you are a bad (but lovely) man, i couldn't have been led astray by anyone better .

 

[CathB]

It was great to see everyone too ..where did the time go.

 

[Sparky]

Hell's Lumberjack Party.

Hell's Kitchen are having a party on Friday 17th, starting at 4pm and John Lynam will be singing .

Main courses 10 euros
Menú 15 euros
Reduced drink prices

 

[El Gordo]

Oh but you did eventually meet up with us my little chick and it was a very enjoyable event. Thank you to Cath and John, Lorenzo, Gordon and Dorothy, i had a lovely time chatting to you all. John you are a bad (but lovely) man, i couldn't have been led astray by anyone better .

Yes.....it was great to see you all. Lovely to see you both, Lyn and Colin. Great to see Mary again and Thanks Cath and John for the treat.

 

[Sparky]

Lots of huge piles of wood and logs in the streets but the delivery of the sand which the fires are built on seems to be running late . It feels like the Port is holding it's breath, waiting to start the preparations .

 

[Lorenzo]

Pension Bellavista in Carrer des Monges

Great news that Pension Bellavista will be having a bonfire again this year (16th Jan 2014). The hotel side is open but the restaurant has closed for a well earned rest.

The San Antoni bonfire offer is only 10 euros and includes BBQ food (suitable for vegetarians and meat eaters alike), drink, music etc. and the proceeds will be given to their preferred charity ONG.

"Un año más, este próximo jueves 16 de enero a partir de las 20.00h nos complace invitarte al ya tradicional fogueró de Sant Antoni-DSR.

Éste estará ubicado como cada año en la calle Monjas 14 de Pto Pollensa (en frente de la Pensión Bellavista).

¡Habrá botifarrons, ximbomba, xeremíes, mesclat y muchas ganas de fiesta!

El precio de la torrada será de 10€ y lo que se recaude irá íntegramente a la Ong."

 

[Sparky]

The sand was delivered during late afternoon/early evening so all is well with the world......let the festivities begin

 

[marilyn]

Happy San Antoni to all Forum members in the Port. Wish we were there with you!