I thought it very interesting when I read that Ludwig van Beethoven once wrote an orchestral piece entirely based on events that happened in the Basque Country. My obscure interests in classical music and the Basque Country have aligned!
This week on the Hella Basque YouTube channel, I’m going back to basics and giving a brief introduction on the Basque people.I explain a little about recent theories on where the Basques come from and some stereotypes about them.
This Sunday, January 20th, the streets of Donostia-San Sebastián will fill thousands of people for the annual Tamborrada festival. It is the most significant festival for donostiarras (the locals of Donostia) all year.
The festival will see more than 15,000 people playing the drums for a full 24 hours. At midnight on January 20th, kicking off the feast day of the city’s patron Saint Sebastian, the mayor will raise the city flag on Constitution Square to mark the beginning of Tamborrada.
The Basque language, Euskara, is an endlessly fascinating subject.
Just as I’ve been obsessed with my Basque heritage since childhood, so have I been strangely obsessed with Napoleon Bonaparte.
So when these two interests of mine slightly overlap, I’m all over it.
But if you’re not a big fan of Napoleon, fair enough. He was kind of awful.
This story is really about his nephew anyway.
Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, son of Napoleon’s brother Lucien, spent much of his life studying and documenting the dialects of the Basque language in the 19th century.
