by Anne-Marie | Mar 4, 2019 | Sports |
Some interesting news has been happening in the world of handball this past week.
A Basque handball player, Bixintxo Bilbao, was banned last week from playing internationally for one year. Why? Because he held up the Basque flag on the winner’s podium at the 2018 World Championships of Basque Pelota in Barcelona.
Bilbao and partner Peio Larralde won gold in the pairs category. During the presentation of the medals, Bilbao held up the Basque flag, despite representing France during the competition.
According to some who witnessed the medal ceremony, the ikurrina (Basque flag) brought many cheers from the crowd. But clearly some powerful people at the International Basque Pelota Federation (FIPV), who organized the competition, were less than enthused.
by Anne-Marie | Feb 26, 2019 | Euskara |
Can you believe it’s practically March already?
How are your New Year’s Resolutions going?
In case your goal for 2019 was to learn Euskara, the Basque language, I want to share some resources to help with that. If you haven’t gotten too far in your learning so far in 2019, no shame! There’s always time to start once you make the commitment.
In doing research for this post, I’ve come to discover how many online resources there are for learning Basque. People have been telling me for years that there really are no excuses to not learn Basque with the internet at our fingertips, and I’m starting to believe them.
by Anne-Marie | Feb 12, 2019 | Culture |
It seems a lot of Basque Americans are interested in learning more about Basque mythology. While Catholicism is strongly entrenched in Basque American communities, before the Basque Country was Christianized (around the 16th century) the Basques had a long history of paganism.
The Basques had their own myths and legends involving unique deities and creatures to explain natural phenomena, passed down through an impressive oral tradition. These stories go back to prehistory and provide an interesting look into how pagan Basques saw and explained the world and their connection to nature.
Once you start looking into it, it’s a fascinating subject. So I want to make it a little easier for those of you who are interested to get started in learning about these ancient Basque tales.
by Anne-Marie | Jan 30, 2019 | Culture, Entertainment |
They say a great way to learn a language is to watch movies. Immerse yourself in that language and get the hang of it.
Unfortunately in the United States, there aren’t too many places to immerse yourself in Euskara and even fewer opportunities to see movies in Euskara. But what do most of us have right at home? Netflix.
I looked into what Basque movies are on American Netflix, and it turns out there are quite a few more options than I expected. Only two are actually in Euskara, but there is a decent selection of Basque-themed movies in Spanish as well.
by Anne-Marie | Jan 15, 2019 | Culture, Events, History |
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.
by Anne-Marie | Jan 9, 2019 | Euskara, History |
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.
