els peixos a l'aigua i els amos al clot

Rainy Bubble Tea

Caucasus — Svaneti, Georgia

This is a form of backdoor bigotry from both normative facts (there are more straight than gay relationships) and well represented bigoted beliefs (men are superior to women).

Shit used to be wild, and this is just what I could find that had decent sources, I've heard a lot more horror stories.

Photos and short video showing the Dance of the Eagles and Hairy Saint John (Ball de les àguiles i Sant Joan Pelós) parading in Pollença, Mallorca (Balearic Islands).

The most characteristic element in Pollença's procession for the festivity of Corpus Sunday is this dance. The procession walks the streets and squares of the town which inhabitants decorate with palm and pine leafs, and is met with flower petals that the inhabitants throw from the windows and balconies.

What does the dance represent?

There are three characters. First, Hairy Saint John. He's a barefoot man with long hair wearing the Saint John costume, a wooden mask, with red lines drawn on his feet and legs to represent sandals, and carrying a wooden cross and a shepherd's bag with a lamb inside it. He represents Saint John the Baptist, a preacher who lived an austere life and lead the ritual of baptism in Jesus's times. He dances for the whole time the procession lasts.

He is followed by the eagles: two girls who have the figure of an eagle attached to their waist. The girls are selected to look as similar to each other as possible, with twins being preferred. They perform a very simple dance while playing the castanets (they will perform a more complex dance in the church and in the houses of important people of the town).

These girls wear a dress with many embroidered jewels on the head, torso, and hands. These jewels are given by people from Pollença as offerings some days before Corpus when the girls go house by house performing a dance. The jewels then are embroidered on the clothes and will be returned to their owners after the holiday. As a result of these jewels, the clothes the girls wear weight up to 5 kg.

Why so many jewels?

This has to do with the origin of this dance. Originally, this dance used to be performed on the festivity of Saint John (Midsummer) instead of Corpus. Around the Catalan Countries, it used to be common to lay coins and other gold objects under the sun on the festivity of Saint John, which was said to propitiate the wealth to multiply. It's thought that the eagles wear all these golden jewels because of this.

Fountains decorated for the ou com balla tradition in Barcelona, Catalonia. Photos from Cultura Popular Barcelona.

On the festivity of Corpus, some towns and cities in Catalonia have a curious tradition. Fountains are decorated with flowers and cherries, and then an empty egg is placed on top of the water source to make it spin. In the Catalan language, this tradition is called l'ou com balla ("the dancing egg").

It's unknown how this tradition got started, we only know for sure that it started in Barcelona. The oldest written proof of it is a document from the year 1636 where the Barcelona cathedral buys eggs for the Corpus festivity. Some historians claim another source from 1440 could also be talking about it but it's unsure.

There are three theories on what it could mean. Take into account that the Feast of Corpus Christi is one of the most important Catholic religious holidays, celebrated in May or June (moves according to the moon calendar) to celebrate Christ's presence in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a part of the religious service where believers eat a bread and drink a wine that is believed to be Christ's body and blood, respectively. Here are the three theories:

The most widespread interpretation is that the egg represents the sacramental bread and the fountain with water represents the cup with Christ's blood. The cherries and other fruit that decorate it would be Christ's blood.

Others believe it's a representation of the fullness of spring, because the egg, the water and the abundance of flowers and fruits are a symbol of the fecundity and regeneration that takes place in spring.