Fest Noz, Breton for "night festival" or Fest Deiz, Breton for "day festival"
They came in troupes: little girls in pink aprons, women in severe black dresses with stiff, white lace hats perched on their heads, broad footed horses harnessed to two wheeled carts, and men puffing up their cheeks to breathe life into their bag pipes and bombarde.
The main road through Loperec was blocked for a few hours as they paraded and danced past the houses and the hoard of locals who were looking on. Their destination was a large meadow, where the crop had been harvested, leaving only the bare soil which rose up into dusty clouds as the dancers went round and round, faster and slower, their black shoes pounding and skipping across the earth.
Women wearing modest lacy caps drive their decorated horse and cart.
(even Louise watches)
Some dancers wear taller caps, 'bigouden', made of starched embroidered linen that are tied
under the chin. In the past the style was a three-cornered peak, then in the 1900s
they evolved into a tall cylindrical shape.
In the twentieth century the cap had increased in height,
reaching fifteen to twenty centimeters in the late 1920s
and taller still after the Second World War.
Since 2000, the cap has hovered between 30 and 35 centimeters in height.
reaching fifteen to twenty centimeters in the late 1920s
and taller still after the Second World War.
Since 2000, the cap has hovered between 30 and 35 centimeters in height.
Breton dancing has its roots in the middle ages, and many of the hundred or so different dances originate from this time. In rural areas the social event of a dance was very important for many reasons. The act of dancing as a group helped to bond all ages in a celebratory way, it gave the younger people a chance to eye up and meet the opposite sex, and it kept alive a traditional cultural identity.
In the past, apart from the pure physical pleasure, the dances were used to trample down the soil to make a firm earth floor for a house or agricultural structure. They were also part of the celebration of a saint's feast day. Today, especially during the summer months, Brittany is throbbing with Fest- Noz which pull the locals like bees to the honey pot, but are also quite welcoming to people with two left feet, like me.
On the 5th of December 2012, the Fest Noz was added by UNESCO to the "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity". This category really appeals to me because so much of life is intangible.
And of course, Plato argued that the intangible, e.g. such qualities as justice, temperance, knowledge etc was of more worth than the material.
An interesting website to visit to see and hear for yourself.
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/RL/00707
the Fontaine of Saint Beneat
I was shown the fountain by some English friends who have immigrated to Brittany.
Their young son ran ahead, thrilled to be showing me
something he had recently discovered in the village that his mother knew nothing about.
Newly restored, with fresh pointing and a varnished sign
did make the Fontain of St. Beneat quite easy to find if you wandered
between the houses and were looking for a fountain.
However, who is St. Beneat?
I have scoured the internet and several old books on the lives of the saints.
Wikipedia! even you have let me down.
