Want To Play A Game?

Traditional and popular games. They appear with regularity in the programmes for fairs and fiestas. They even have their own fair. Biniali is holding its traditional games fair this weekend. They are always referred to as both traditional and popular. Yet isn't this the same thing?

As with pretty much any aspect of Majorcan culture, you can be assured that someone (several more than just a solitary someone) has conducted research and analysis. This is, however, mostly confined to the practice of games from a learning and physical education perspective. The tradition is almost taken as being given, as is the popular nature of the game.

The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana, what else, supplies a definition of the traditional game. It is one which has been transmitted, normally by word of mouth, from generation to generation - the practices, the customs, the beliefs, etc. Only quite recently has the traditional game been given a write-up; it had always relied on its own oral tradition. Popular, on the other hand, relates to or belongs to a "poble" or "pueblo", a word either in Catalan or Castellano that has more than a single meaning. The popular game is one which is apparently practised by residents of a "poble". It was at one time the preserve of the hoi polloi. In other words, the aristocrats and nobles declined to participate; they were above such things.

The distinction is therefore indistinct, but when it comes to the dissection of all things cultural, such definitions are deemed to be essential. Locating the origins of games is a further pastime for researchers. Scholars suggest that there are regions of Spain which have done little for the traditional (popular) game: Andalusia is one. Catalonia has been far more active, but the Basque Country and Navarre are apparently responsible for most.

Then we come to Majorca and the Balearics, where there is little evidence of games having actually originated. There are, nevertheless, a whole load of them - traditional or popular or probably both. One with a physical element is the sack race. It would appear that nowhere lays claim to having invented this. It was first apparently referred to in English at the start of the nineteenth century, though the chances are that it is considerably older.

More identifiably Majorcan are the jewel races, staples of many a fiesta and fair, for which the prizes aren't jewels. They were originally, but these jewels weren't to be found in Majorca. Nor were the races on foot; they were on horseback. Farmworkers in Valencia would challenge each other to see whose horse was fastest. Jewels, it would seem, were the prizes for only a short period of time. They were replaced by, for instance, silk scarves.

The horse jewels races crossed over to Majorca and were a feature of fiestas until at least the time of the Civil War. Perhaps the most notable example of the tradition having been maintained is what happens in Muro during the Sant Jaume fiestas in July. Les corregudes del Cós de Muro feature horse races and the more familiar running races, which are normally for children.

Another physical game doesn't have specific Catalan (or Valencian) connotations. From the start of the nineteenth century, the "marro" was considered to be an excellent form of physical education, once certain violent aspects had been removed from its original form. The marro is Prisoner's Bars or Prisoner's Base and is essentially tag. There is another marro which is a form of board game. It was included in The Book of Games that appeared in Castile in the thirteenth century during the reign of Alfonso X. This book also made reference to, among other games, chess and alquerque, the original draughts, or so it is said.
 
Other less physical games include "bales", i.e. marbles, which is ancient and owes nothing to Spanish culture, and "la baldufa", which is very much linked to Catalan culture, even if the baldufa itself (a spinning top) is based on something truly ancient and was developed by numerous cultures, seemingly independent of each other.

There is a whole host of games with Catalan names that are basically variants on familiar themes. "El mocador", for instance, involves two teams for whom the prize is a scarf. Players get eliminated until one team has no one left. "El sardinal", in which all players are sardines except for two who are fishermen, is along similar lines.

And then there are games which aren't, as they fall into the category of sport. In this regard, Majorca and the Balearics can claim something which is definitely local, and that is "tir de fona", sling shot. The fona is the sling, and the "foner balear" was the Balearics slinger, whose skills for warfare were so great that the Carthaginians and the Romans gathered foner mercenary troops for help in battles.

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