Basque Identity and French Unity
Fearing the loss of regional identity, at the end of the 19th century, the French Basques invented a cultural tradition – but did that make them a threat to national unity?
In August 1897 the coastal town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the French Basque country, hosted the Congress of Basque Tradition. The event, sponsored by the Society of National Ethnography and Popular Art, was an eight-day festival that celebrated Basque history and culture. It included pelota matches, improvised poetry competitions (bertsolaritza), Basque folkloric dances, Basque theatre plays (pastoralak and maskaradak), lectures on various aspects of Basque history, including the famous Tree of Gernika, and an exhibition, which displayed Basque arts and crafts and advertised Basque cuisine. The orchestra played Basque tunes, including Gernikako Arbola, the unofficial national anthem of the Basque country, and a Basque flag waved in the town’s main square. The festival started and ended with masses, which emphasised the significance of piety to Basque identity. Religion, the official proceedings of the event claimed, had allowed the Basques to preserve their traditions unaltered over the centuries. ‘Euskaldun Fededun, Basques and faithful, are one and the same thing’, the document explained.
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