You’ve probably heard of the Three King’s Night. That many Spanish children have to wait until January 6th to rive most of their Christmas gifts, delivered not by Santa, but by the three holy kings. But once again, as is so common in Spain, customs vary widely among regions. In Basque Country, children receive their presents on Christmas Eve. But their wish lists are given to a figure who, while somewhat similar in appearance to Papá Noel, is closer in height and size to the Nordic elves and goblins. And on Christmas night, Olentzero, last of the giants, arrives with presents for the Basque children.
(Featured image: Santa Claus as many of us know him today in red and white costume and accompanied by reindeer. Norwegian-Swedish Magne Osnes Haugen is a professional Santa Claus, actor and stuntman. With permission from Magne Osnes Haugen.)
Oddly, Olentzero, a character whose roots are firmly in the pre-Christian era, is the one who preaches the birth of Christ to locals in northern Spain. Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished and every Christmas Eve, Olentzero, arriving from a mythical past suffers a rather sad fate: the last of the giants is burned in streets and squares across the Basque Country. A Nordic goblin would hardly have tolerated such treatment.
The Basque Pyrenees, i.e. the western parts of the mountain range that separates Spain from France, were once inhabited by a hairy family of giants, called jentil or jentilak. They measured an impressive 3.5 meters and weighed well over 700 kilos – if we are to believe the stories about them. Like Scandinavian trolls and goblins, the Basque giants had enormous powers. Among other things, they are said to have used these powers to throw boulders from mountain to mountain. The many stone monuments, burial mounds and cairns that characterize the landscape in this part of Spain are attributed in Basque folklore to the jentilak.
Only one member of the giant family has survived to modern times. He goes by the name Olentzero and is strangely enough the one who every year tells the people in the Basque parts of Spain that Christmas is approaching. Funny because the name jentil or jentilak comes from Latin and means non-Christian. Like Scandinavian goblins, the jentilak are in a kind of borderland between an earlier religion and Christian times. The stories of these giants reflect that.
The jentilak are supposed to have inhabited the Basque Country in a distant, somewhat indefinable past, but they were not alone. Just like goblins and trolls in Scandinavia, they shared these lands with humans. The giants had both human traits and supernatural abilities. For example, they could shape-shift, disappear and reappear in new places. They were intelligent and had, among other things, learned to extract metal from ore and invented the saw. And they cultivated the land. The relationship between people and the jentilak was close. According to legend, the giants taught humans how to farm. This connection to farming is something we recognize from the Scandinavians, where goblins often had a connection to a specific farm.
The Giants and Kixmi
There are several versions of the story of the giants’ encounter with Christianity and how the family of giants was reduced to just one member. In one of the most common stories, it is said that the giants one day discovered a luminous cloud in the sky. The cloud shone so brightly that none of them could look straight at it, no one except an aging, half-blind old man.
The giants asked the old man to examine the cloud for them. He confirmed what they feared most, namely that the light in the sky was a sign that Jesus, or Kixmi as he is called in Basque country, would soon come into the world.
The old man himself must have been so upset about Jesus’ coming that he asked the other giants to throw him off a cliff so that he would be spared the experience of having to live under the new religion. But as the giants threw the blind man down the cliff they themselves stumbled and slid down into the depths with him.
Only one jentil survived – Olentzero. He is said to have embraced Christianity, and this may explain his role in Christmas celebrations in the Basque Country. He becomes the link between the old and the new religion. The fact that he is burned to death every year for then to be resurrected next Christmas is attributed to ancient pre-Christian customs where the winter solstice was celebrated with various rituals of rebirth.
Like Nordic goblins, Olentzero can also change form. When Christianity came to the Basque Country, this last of the giants transformed himself into a coal burner, i.e. a human being. It is quite amusing that having a “coal burner’s faith” in a number of languages is used in the sense of “naive, blind belief in authority.” The anecdote about the coal burner is known in many countries and cultures and goes something like this: A coal burner is asked what he believes in, and answers: “What the church believes in.” This question is followed by: “What does the church believe in then?” His answer is: “What I believe in.”
When Jesus was born, Olentzero was given the honorable commission to descend from the mountains and bring the message of his birth to the people. The giant did so in the shape of a coal burner – that is why the Basque Santa, if we dare call him that, often has a grimy face. That transformation put an end to the age of the giants, and the Christian era began. In this way, the Basques take a bit of old mythology into the Christian age, in much the same way as people in the Nordic countries have brought the whimsical farm goblin with them to their Christmas celebrations.
The farm goblin had to be taken care of if crops, people and animals were to do well on the farm. The porridge that was served on Christmas Eve is part of this tradition. The farm goblin is, however, not a kind and pleasant fellow like the Santa Claus we know of today. But if you are a good friend to him, he can make a formidable effort on the farm with his “superpowers”.
The modern Santa Claus colors Olentzero and other goblins
The modern, kind Santa Claus dressed in red and white who travels the world in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, is primarily a Coca-Cola and Disney character. In the early 1930s, Swedish-born American cartoonist Haddon Sundblom drew advertising posters for Coca Cola. His goblin was dressed in red and white from head to toe, had a large beard and was a pleasant figure in every way. Gone were all the signs of a whimsical and a somewhat difficult goblin who wanted his own demands fulfilled before he was willing to help.
And Coca-Cola’s American-Swedish goblin became the starting point for Disney’s popular comics which made “the new Santa” known all over the world. Spain got its Papá Noel, Denmark replaced its goblin described as an old man who wore a long, green cloak with the red-and-white dressed American version we all know today.
Like the modern Santa Claus, Olentzero is these days a pleasant and child-friendly creature. He hands out sweets to the kids, receives Christmas gift wish lists from them and gives gifts to well behaved little ones. On Christmas Eve, local choirs perform the story of Olentzero in the streets and squares of Spain’s Basque region. Also, they often bring an Olentzero doll or a person dressed up as the giant in human form at these performances. There he is portrayed as a cozy, pipe-smoking grandfather figure with a big beard. Outwardly, he seems to represent all that is pleasant and good. But what happens when darkness falls reminds us that Olentzero is a more complex figure than Papá Noel. On Christmas Eve, the Olentzero dolls are set on fire. The burning symbolizes the end of the age of the giants. But next Christmas, Olentzero will again resurface, just as surely as Christmas will return.
Merry Christmas!
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