A characteristic celebration of the patron saint's day festivities of the city of San Sebastian, which since relatively recent times has also been held in other towns in the province such as Azpeitia, Eibar, Pasajes, Rentería, Tolosa, Zarautz, Arrasate-Mondragón, Mutriku, etc. The different tamborradas (drummers' parades) start on 20 January, the day of San Sebastian, and consist of a parade of a series of characters divided into companies of drummers and barrels, the former dressed in costumes from the War of Independence (1808-1813) and the latter wearing the characteristic cook's costume. Both groups are joined by the ‘aguadoras’, the name given to the women who take part in the fiesta dressed in the customary costume of 19th century women from San Sebastian. Each tamborrada has its own music band. The adult tamborradas, of which there are more than a hundred, bring together an average of 100 and 150 participants, and are organised by different popular, gastronomic, cultural, recreational, social and other societies. More than fifty companies representing the city's schools take part in the children's tamborrada, each made up of 90 and 125 children. During the twenty-four hours that the festival lasts, and in all the scheduled events, only the music that the maestro Raimundo Sarriegui wrote for it in the last third of the 19th century is performed, the main titles being Tatiago, Diana, Iriyarena, Polka, Retreta and the March of San Sebastián, composed in 1861.
Possible antecedents
The exact origins of this celebration are not known, although different authors, such as Martín de Anguiozar, José Berruezo, José L. Valentín, J. M.ª Arozamena, José María Salaverría, etc., have reiterated more or less reliable versions of it. Let us say that the most widespread is the one that places the birth of the tamborrada in an improvised burlesque parade held when water carriers, soldiers of the garrison and different idlers - bakers, artisans - coincided around one of the three fountains of the city when it was walled in, that is to say, before 1863. The horseshoes of the women and the barrels of the soldiers would have served as improvised drums for a march that soon became the first act of the early carnival festivities that did not end until the celebration of the Burial of the Sardine. The participants would dress up anarchically and would leave at 3.30 a.m., after dinner, from the society ‘La Fraternal’, located on the ascent to the historic castle of La Mota, and would walk through the streets of the walled quarter until 8 a.m., when they would stop at the corner of Iñigo and Narrica streets to wait for the ‘sokamuturra’. Possible music would be Urra papito, Pastelero and Iriyarena, and from 1868, a march-zortziko by maestro Santesteban. A txistulari (txistulari) (El Vizcaíno, Cirilo Latierro or Marcelino Galatas) would accompany what was still a barrilada. The Carlist War suspended its celebration in 1874-1876. The merger of ‘La Fraternal’ and the nascent ‘Unión Artesana’ in 1879 would give new impetus to the event which, according to Anguiozar (1944), was equipped in 1881 with the drums that lay in the artillery park abandoned by the British in the assault of 1813 (others would be from the British Legion and the Spanish army).
The first organised tamborrada
The fashion for sea bathing and the demolition of the city walls opened up new expectations for the city. The visiting colony needed entertainment, among which the carnival, already celebrated by large crowds, was to be restructured by ‘La Fraternal’ and the ‘Unión Artesana’. The tamborrada, a motley parade of Donostiarras dressed as militiamen and cooks, appeared in the last decades of the 19th century with almost all the essential characteristics of today's tamborrada. Indeed, according to documentation from San Telmo cited by Luis Larrañaga (1988), the carnivals of 1881, 1882 (retreta) and 1883 saw parades of cooks wielding giant cutlery and soldiers of the 2nd French Empire. A detailed description of the costumes and groups accompanied by drawings by the architect Morales de los Ríos (Manterola, 1883) includes the entire 1883 carnival troupe, including the tamborrada, which that year was given the Marcha de San Sebastián by Raimundo Sarriegui and Serafín Baroja and diplomas by Rogelio Gordon for its creators.
According to Larrañaga, this tamborrada would have arisen from the desire to parody the article ‘Las Guardias Reales’ (The Royal Guards) published in a Madrid newspaper. The part of the cavalcade corresponding to the tamborrada was:
a) Band of grenadier sappers.
b) Band of drummers preceded by the Drum Major.
It was paraded in the morning and at night. Seda reports (1977) that, the following year, the morning tamborrada was preceded by two giants, brought from Germany, and several dwarf-headed figures on loan from Pamplona City Council. It is made up of the ‘gastadores’, a miniature squadron of sappers, a squadron of drummers, music and the carnival gendarmerie. At 19.30 the retreta paraded: two standard-bearers on horseback, eight Offenbach carabinieri, the kilikis of Pamplona, two companies of adult sappers, a large Chinese lantern, 40 drummers and a Chinese band. After the tamborrada in the morning came the ‘sokamuturra’, then mass (contested in 1934), a stroll, a concert at 12 o'clock on the Boulevard, a performance in the bullring, another parade, theatre, dinners and dances, generally masked dances. It was not until the 1930s that it was a full festival in the official centres.
Structure and successive elements
Figurants
The tamborrada of 1886 incorporated the figure of the ‘harineros’ and re-established, in addition to the drums, the barrels. Each year, however, new elements were added that rarely survived: squids and barnacles, muskullos and lanpernas, warriors, Chinese, necromancers, demons, limpets, carraqueros, frog-riders on swans, municipal music band, pierrots, variations in the attire of the mílites, squads of children pipers, Cossack choirs, etc. In 1902, the sokamuturra that followed the morning parade was abolished (it was reinstated, unsuccessfully, in 1934). In 1913, the Town Hall made costumes which it gave to the societies.
Timetable
It underwent various changes, with morning, afternoon and evening stops, and in the 1920s three stops were established: at 12 midnight on the 19th, at 5 a.m. on the 20th and at 7 p.m. After the war, one was established at midnight on the 19th, run by ‘Gaztelubide’, and another at 7 a.m. by the ‘U. Artesana’, which was changed to night in 1957. Artesana’ which was changed to the evening in 1957. The lowering of the flag began in 1963.
The San Sebastian dinner
It seems to be a tradition established at the beginning of this century, with the mayor, representatives of the Orfeón, the director of ‘La Voz de Guipúzcoa’, etc. attending the ‘Unión Artesana’ and other societies - ‘Euskal Billera’, ‘Umore Ona’, ‘Donosti Zarra’, ‘Gaztelupe’, ‘Ollagorra’ - and the rest of the people in charge. After the war (see the last section), the main dinner was held at ‘Gaztelubide’ until 1989, when the authorities held it at the María Cristina Hotel.
Popular societies
They are the core and driving force of the fiesta, not only of the dinners and the tamborradas but also of the rest of the popular festivities such as dance concerts in Amara, Gros (verbena of the Universal Garage), Antiguo and Parte Vieja, aurreskus, races, various games, pelota matches and theatrical performances. In 1930, the mayor promised to increase the subsidies they received from the City Council. See Popular Societies.
Successive tamborradas
The second one arose in 1896 in the ‘Donosti Zarra’ society of the Antiguo. Its members also wore military costumes and covered their heads with a fez. In 1908, five societies organised parades: ‘Bella Easo’, ‘Sporti Clai’, ‘Euskal Billera’, ‘Donosti Zarra’ and ‘Umore Ona’. Other societies and tamborradas from other neighbourhoods began to join in: the Egia tamborrada in 1936, the Luises del Antiguo in 1943, Ibaeta in 1956, ‘Kresala’ in 1972, Añorga Txiki in 1974, Mons and Intxaurrondo in 1984, Larratxo in 1985, and so on. Moreover, as early as the 1920s, the festival is known to have been held in the Basque colony in Argentina and in Azpeitia. In 1994, the following tamborradas took place in the streets of Donostia:
19th January
18.30: Children's Tamborrada of Los Ángeles (Old Part).
23,45: Drumming of Gaztelubide (Old Part), Ondar Gain (San Martín, Umore Ona (Gros), Loyolatarra, Atotxa Erreka (Añorga), Boskotarrak (Altza), Larratxo, Euskal Giroa (Herrera), Jolastokieta (Altza), Irurak (Intxaurrondo), Gurea ‘Altzako Koxkorrak’ (Altza), Donosti Berri (Amara), AAVV Buenavista, Bidebieta (Bidebieta), Kañoietan (Parte Vieja), Sansustene (Antiguo), Donosti (Amara Berri), Ur Zaleak (Egia), Los Corcones (Centro) and Martutene.
24.00: Flag raising at the Town Hall (Gaztelubide).
20th January
01.00: Tamborrada Casa de Alava (Old Part), Arrano Beltza (Old Part), Haritza (Amara).
02,00: Tamborrada of Herria Elkartea (Old Town).
02,30: Tamborrada La Espiga (Centre).
03,00: Euskal Billera and Cofradía Gastronomía (Old Part).
07,00: Juventud Antiguotarra and Kresala (Old Part).
08.00: Donosti Gain Society Tamborrada (Egia).
08.30: Tamborrada C. D. Vasconia (Amara-Centre).
10.00: Ibaeta Tamborrada (Ibaeta).
11.00: Tamborrada of Itxas Gain (Gros).
12.00: Children's Tamborrada, with more than 5,000 children.
12.00: Children's Tamborrada in Altza and Intxaurrondo. Artzak Ortzeok Tamborrada (Intxaurrondo).
15.30: Scout-Guide Tamborrada (Egia-Centre).
16.30: DYA Tamborrada (Amara) and Zubi Gain (Old Part).
17.00: Tamborrada La Gaviota (Gros), Peña Anastasio (San Martín-Centre), Marianistas (Centre). Antiguotarra Children's Tamborrada (Antiguo).
18.00: Tamborradas Esperanza (Old Part) and Gizartea (Centre).
18.30: Tamborradas El Cangrejo (Gros), Mons (Intxaurrondo), Zulo Zahar (Intxaurrondo) and Abandotarra (Amara Nuevo-Centro).
20,45: Tamborrada Ollagorra (Old Part).
21.00: Tamborradas Baso Etxea (Old Town), Atlético S. S. (Centre) and Arrano Elkartea (Egia).
21.30: Tamborradas El Sauce (Amara Nuevo), Asoc. Padres C. P. Amara Berri and Juvenil de Loiola.
21,45: Unión Artesana Tamborrada (Old Part).
22,00: Tamborrada Kondarrak (Gros).
24,00: Jolastokieta Tamborrada (Altza).
24.00: Arriada at the Town Hall (Unión Artesana).
Historical vicissitudes
After the Cuban disaster and the conversion of San Sebastian into a cosmopolitan city, certain traditions, including the tamborrada, experienced a decline. The fundamentalist media made it a constant object of criticism. It ceased to be held in 1903. The following year it was organised by the Cantabrian Club. It was officially revived in 1905 by the societies ‘Sporti Clai’, ‘Port Arthur’ and ‘Amistad Donostiarra’, although it was at the centre of a controversy those who wanted to suppress it as too populist, even ‘immoral’, and those who felt a great attachment to it.
In 1914 it was suspended as a sign of mourning for the recent death of Sarriegui, and was held on the 25th. During the First World War it suffered an eclipse due to the ecclesiastical onslaught against carnivals under the pretext of the situation in Europe. Another reason was (Sada, 1977: 131), already in the 1920s, that ‘in the past, in the tamborradas, people of representation took part, real personalities of the city, who greatly enjoyed mingling with the people in these festivities of true democracy’ and that ‘today (1922), on the other hand, we have become “oysters”, and it seems ridiculous, in some cases, that “serious people” dress up to go out into the streets as part of the troupes’. The fundamentalist attack intensified and its protagonists managed to get the night-time tamborradas suspended in 1930 in the midst of great controversy.
During the Republican period, they were re-established, although the prohibition in 1935 of spontaneous tamborradas led the council to withdraw the municipal balcony. From 1937 to 1939 there were no festivities due to the war. After the war, there was a great lethargy due to economic and psychological reasons; the prohibition of the Carnival deprived it of its natural environment. The main ‘tamborrada’ became that of ‘Gaztelubide’, for men only, which began on a platform in the Plaza de la Constitución, christened ‘del 18 de julio’, in front of the old town hall.
During the final years of the Dictatorship, the tamborrada was to experience a few upsets. On the night of 1967, the appearance of a Basque flag was to be the first. In 1969, the opposition organisations put pressure on the societies not to hold the festival as a sign of protest against the state of emergency. At ten o'clock at night, in bitterly cold weather, only the armed police and the occasional hurried passer-by circulated in San Sebastian. In 1971, they again managed to boycott the fiesta in protest against the Burgos trial. As a result of the mayor's actions, during the following years it became a tradition to boo the mayor when he tried to address the people gathered in the square.
Finally, in 1977, the recently legalised ikurriña was hoisted in the crowded Plaza de la Constitución, which did not prevent the Armed Police from charging the drummers of the ‘Basconia’ society of Amara. V. Ikurriña.
Children's Tamborrada
The first one started at 12 noon on 20th January 1927, thanks to the initiative of Mauricio Echániz, president of ‘Euskal Billera’. In 1931, it debuted uniforms inspired by the 1st French Empire. Its celebration was interrupted by the war. After this hiatus, the tradition was resumed and in 1960 Luis Larrañaga and the Centre of Attraction and Tourism decided to extend the parade by admitting several schools, all exquisitely uniformed as boys, and a float of girls. Colourful military uniforms inspired by the Gipuzkoan battalions of the Foral Foral give the parade an unusual colourful appearance, superior to that of the adult tamborrada.
It did not take long for the ikastolas, mixed schools, to ask for girls to parade with drums. After a lengthy controversy, they were allowed to do so in 1986, provided that they removed their earrings and wore their hair down. In this way, the children's tamborrada currently welcomes around 5,500 boys and girls in uniforms of different nationalities. This multitudinous march is organised by an assembly made up of one member from each company or school that takes part in it.
Women in the tamborrada
As a component of the carnival troupe, there were always men and women in the tamborrada. In the 1928 ‘Unión Artesana’ society's tamborrada, the press tells us, specifically, of ‘a section of beautiful girls pretending to be Lord Wellington's troops’, as well as the traditional standard bearer, escorts, captains, barmaids, etc. Some girls also take part in the children's parade as standard bearers, captains, barmaids, etc. until their acceptance, disguised as boys, in 1986.
In line with the progress made in the situation of women during the Second Republic, a whole company of ‘tamborreras’ dressed in Turkish costume paraded through the streets of the city in 1936. However, the participation of adult women (dressed as such) in the fiesta was to be the subject of heated controversy after Franco's death.
The more conservative traditional societies, headed by ‘Gaztelubide’, refused to participate. A mixed recreational-cultural society created in 1967, ‘Kresala’, invoked an earlier tradition to break the taboo: despite the opposition of Mayor Alcain, it included 29 barrel-makers dressed as water carriers in its 1980 tamborrada. Since then, and against all odds, 33 women have paraded in the ‘Kresala’ tamborrada, beating barrels, and almost all the new tamborradas are mixed. In addition, since 1994, ‘Kresala’ has sponsored the tamborrada of the Los Ángeles school which, because it allowed girls to dress as water carriers, was not admitted to the children's tamborrada. On the other hand, the traditional dinners on the night of the 19th were also dinners for single men until the 1950s, when the change in customs brought with it the attendance of mixed groups and couples in societies of democratic ancestry such as the ‘Unión Artesana’ or those of recent creation.
The fact that during the Francoist period, mayors, councillors and various authorities acquired the custom of dining in the ‘Gaztelubide’ society would also give rise, during the democratic transition, to discussions and controversy, as it did not allow women to enter, except in service. In this way, the winners of the Tambor de Oro (Golden Drum) and the women in charge were ignored, as was, ostensibly, Pilar Miró in 1987. Finally, in 1988, under pressure from various women's associations, in view of the refusal of the new ‘Tambor’, Gabriel Celaya, to attend without Amparo Gastón, Mayor Javier Albistur decided to create a new tradition: from that date onwards, the authorities' dinner would be mixed, in a restaurant or in a non-segregated society.
Bibliography
AROZAMENA, Jesús M.ª, 1963, San Sebastián. Biografía sentimental de una ciudad, Madrid, 436.
CAT, 1992, Haur damborrada. 1992. Children's Tamborrada, San Sebastián, 28.
LARRAÑAGA BILBAO, Luis, 1988, Some information about the tamborradas, ‘DV’ of 20 January.
MANTEROLA, José de, 1883, Breve noticia histórica de algunas comparsas y fiestas de Carnaval habidas en San Sebastián en el presente siglo, ‘Euskal Esnalea’ 1883, I, 97-114;
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