Sunday 23 Jun 2019

Having read all of the background to the festivities of Sant Joan (John the Baptist) in Ciutadella, we were determined to experience as much of it as we could. The festivities date back to the 14^th century although it has been amended a little over the years, and now has a party feel. 

There are different elements of society represented, including the nobility, the Caixer Senyor, the clergy, the Caixer Capella, the farmers, Caixer Pagesos and the craftsmen, Caixer Menestrals.  The festivities are spread over a number of days in the week leading up to the saint’s day.

On the Saturday before the saint’s day, a lamb is prepared to be spotlessly clean. On the Sunday before, the various members of the Board of Caixers, meet at the Caixer Senyor’s house. Later the Homos des Ba, representing Saint John, carries the lamb on his shoulders through the streets.  This is followed by a “War of Hazelnuts” in one of the streets.

On the eve of the saint’s day, the “Fabioler”, a man with a flute and drum mounted on a donkey, processes through the street to the home of the Caixer Senyor, to start the gathering of the cavallers.  Then at about 6:00 in the evening, the first mass event occurs, the Caragol des Born. This is a parade of the horses to the music of a live band.  The horses do various tricks, with the crowd in very close proximity.  This is followed by another battle of hazelnuts.

I’ll leave the description of the actual saints day elements until tomorrow’s blog.

We knew that we would not be able to stay for the whole thing today as we had to be back at the boat for Chris’ arrival, but we wanted to see as much as we could.  All this was complicated by the fact that we were anchored some way away from Ciutadella, and the bus service was even more limited on a Sunday than it was the rest of the week. 

As soon as we were ready, we went ashore in the dinghy, and then took a taxi to Es Mercadal, a town about 10 km away, where there was an enhanced bus service running for the people wanting to attend the festival. The bus took us to the edge of town and we walked in from there.  Many of the streets were blocked to traffic, and large quantities of sand had been put down over the cobbles, where the horse would be processing.

There was a party atmosphere and many of the bars, restaurants, shops and even people’s homes, were selling the traditional drink of the event, gin with lemon or lemonade. The lemon elements had been frozen so that you got a sort of gin and lemon slush puppy.  Needless to say, we had to try this.

While we were there, there was not too much action to see, but we took in the lay of the land and the atmosphere.  There was a guy walking round with a drum and whistle/flute, playing a rather repetitive tune, which we subsequently found to be the Fabioler’s tune, although this was not the real guy. We also bought one of the special cakes that seemed to be essential for every family. 

On our way back to the bus, we came across the real “Fabioler’s” procession, riding a decorated donkey and being followed by a large crowd.

From here it was the reverse of the outward journey by bus and taxi. We arrived back on the boat in good time before Chris arrived.  He had a transfer from the airport who dropped him at a slightly unexpected place, and we had a couple of minutes of frustrating phone calls trying to work out exactly where we each were and how to get between these points, before either of us ran out of phone battery. He had had an uncharacteristically good trip, the flight arriving on time and the transfer otherwise being simple.  It is great to have him with us and hopefully he will get some good sailing this time, to make up for the frustrations of his visit at Easter.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	885	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	885	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)