La Vijanera, o fiesta de la flor

     The "Vijanera" is a Carnival celebrated in the winter season, within New Year´s Eve and the first Sunday that follows the Epiphany. Long ago, it was a feast that different parts of Cantabria shared in common, with only small variations in its features, according to the natural and social setting of these areas. The "Vijanera" dates back to the first century, before the adaptation to the Christian calendar took place. We have to point out that shepherds and dancers were fond of wolfs and used to adore animals during the performance of the ancient rituals. When the Catholic religion became official, the Church considered the celebration of the "Vijanera" a pagan celebration, that deserved to be banned.
Later, the most important "vijaneras" were steadily loosing independence, until they finally disappeared in many Cantabrian towns.
But, although the celebration was banned in the dictatorship, it is said that one "vijanera" party was celebrated in a private country house in Santa Cruz de Iguña. Thanks to the determination showed by the inhabitants of some towns, between 1979 and 1981, the celebration was restored in one village named Silio, and from that time till now, the Cantabrian people from this place have been celebrating the "Vijanera".
Siliò is placed 50 km away from Santander.The village has 1400 inhabitants approximately. Life en Silió is calm and peaceful.Two small grocers and four taverns liven up the daily life which turns around the greenness of fields. The village celebrate on three occassions along the year: " La Vijanera", on first sunday in January; St James ,the patron saint of the whole region, on July 25th , and finally, the patron saints of the village, Facundo and Primitivo, on 27th of november. They have 2 patron saints. It seems as if having only one patron saint wasn’t enough.
The main characters in "La Vijanera" are the bear and his owner. The good and evil allegory is culminated with the simbolic death of the animal. This impressive ritual fight of strength has turned into a sort of "mountain carnival", a mixture of macabre dance and a Middle-Age ball of bears , but now with more colour and less agrarian sense. (We use the word "montañés" for everything related to our region). "La Vijanera" drives out the old year whith its problems ,satirizes all sorts of relationships: social,political,couple relationships, and, like in a lot of ancient celebrations,it is used to assert the virility of the organizers themselves.
Jano is a Roman god that presides the celebration; the god for "entrances" and "leavings" , the one that looks back to the past - the old year -, and forward, to the future - the new one -. Besides, one whole month is under its care: January. Latins represented the god under an effigy of a two-faced head that was placed on the top of a big stone used as a frontier sign. On the other hand, the name of Jano comes from "Jauna" (door) , that joined with the particle "bi" means "door between two years". The influence of the word Jano and its derivatives in the local places named remains in the mountains and villages of the whole region.

Esperanza Irizabal y Raquel Martín