La Vijanera is a traditional festival which takes place in Silió, Cantabria.

1. IES Peñacastillo
Santander, Spain

2. la Vijanera, the first Carnival of the year in Europe, is a winter
masquerade celebrated in the village of Silió, Cantabria on the
first Sunday of January.
Silió
There are similiar winter rituals celebrated yearly throughout
Spain as well as in other European countries such as Portugal,
Italy, France, Poland, Germany, Austria, Croatia, etc.

3. The celebration
•
More than 100 villagers take part in this
colourful masquerade representing
different characters and wearing specially
made costumes.
•
The festival starts around 6:30 a.m when
the youngest partipants walk around the
village streets awakening the villagers to
the sound of cowbells.
•
Once everybody gets ready, small groups of
participants start the parade from different
places in the village. Around midday, they
all get together and walk towards the
division line with the neighbouring village.
There they show their strength and skills
dancing while the black dancer blows his
horn and asks for “war or peace”.

4. The celebration
• Then comes the time to analyse the
previous year. The participants move
to the village square where “coplas”
(four-line satirical verses) are read.
They make ironical and funny
comments about the most
important local and international
events of the year.
•The celebration finishes with the
birth of the new year and the
killing of the bear symbols of the
victory of good over evil and the
hope of good wishes for the new
year.

5. ORIGIN OF THIS CELEBRATION
• Some experts associate certain costumes and the animal characters with
the zoomorphic prehistoric paintings in the region.
• Before roman times, the inhabitants of the region worshipped nature, for
example the sun, the moon, rivers and mountains.
• It’s also associated with the celtic rituals of the winter solstice, as days
grew longer and nature started to awake with the hope of the coming
spring.
• Other theories point to the Roman festival “Kalendae Ianuarii” in honour
of the God Jano. This God was represented with two opposite faces
symbolising two years, good and evil. The God also gave name to a 1288m
mountain in the valley.

6. Modern Times
• This celebration continued in Silió until about 1935, but by
1939 the government and the church prohibited this type of
“Pagan” festivals.
•It was at the end of the 1970s when a group of young people
from the valley decided to recover this tradition they had
heard about from their parents and grandparents. The first
thing they did was found a magazine and an association called
“Bigaro”.
•It was not until 1982 when the “Modern Vijanera”
celebration took place in Silió thanks to the Bigaro association
first and later on to the “Asociación Cultural Amigos de la
Vijanera” (Friends of la Vijanera Cultural Association). Since
then they have worked hard to keep the tradition and make it
known outside the region.

7. There are many characters so we are going to mention only some of them
Zarramacos:
they could be described as the good warriors.
Their faces are painted black. They cover their
bodies with sheep skins and their heads with
pointed black hats with bells and other
decorations. Tied to their bodies they carry 8
large cowbells. The noise they make as the walk
and dance keeps evil spirits away.
The Bear and its owner. The bear
represents evil. It’s captured, chained
to its owner, who symbolises good,and
finally killed showing the triumph of
good over evil.

8. White Dancers
They open the parade wearing
white clothes, a red sash and bells
around their waists which tinkle as
they dance
Black Dancer
He wears a jacket and trousers
made of sackcloth covered with
shuckled corncobs and carries a
long stick and a blowhorn.

9. The Knight
He is a man who pretends to be
on horseback.
The old couple
They represent the passage of
time
Pregnant woman and husband.
She is the main character in one of the
most important events in the festival.
She gives birth to an animal (rabbit, hen,
cat, pig, etc. representing the birth or
beginning ot the new year.

10. Trapajeros
Their colourful clothes and behaviour are a
symbol of the lack of inhibition typical of
carnival.
Trapajones
Are all those
characters whose
dresses are made
from elements
taken from nature
such as corn, nuts,
ivy, moss, etc.
Madame, mancebo and
marquesito.
Wearing elegant clothes, they
represent rich people from a higher
social class

12. We have taken most of the information about this festival from the website:
http://www.vijanera.com/ by the association “Amigos de la Vijanera”
(Friends of la Vijanera)
This year the celebration took place on 5th January. If you click on the
next slide, you can watch the video the association made to promote
it and invite visitors to come to Silió