Portal de Totana
www.portaldetotana.com
The last day of October, and the first two of November, are days full of traditions that are already centuries old.
And although tomorrow we will talk about All Saints 'Day, today we can stop to remember an old tradition, our own and "indigenous", of La Huerta in our beloved Region of Murcia, which has to do with the Eve of All Saints' Day.As we all know, the media and advertising campaigns have the power to "institute" and give relevance, -even from one year to another-, to any subject that is appropriate for any reason.
And this is in part what has happened with the night of October 31.History shows us that already in the 19th century, in the Huerta de Murcia, there was a custom of similar characteristics to what is being implemented in Spain, -each year a little more-, with the night of the "jalowin" (if we spell correctly in English: Halloween).
This new trend is related to the macabre (vampires, zombies, skulls, monsters of all kinds, etc.), but since it comes from one of the most powerful countries in the world, the United States, it seems that you have to quickly make room for it, although for this we have to "displace" our original traditions.The Eve of the Saints, in its original huertana key:In the Huerta of our Region took place, (even from the middle of the 19th century), what, using current terminology, we could call a Huerta "trick or treat.When sowing time came, farmers always left a corner of their tahúlla free to plant products classified in their time as "delicacies": pipes, medlar, pomegranates, dates, ...; They called that small piece of land the "orillica del quijal".
In Totana, we call this plot of land: el cornijal.On the night of the Eve of Saints' Day, the Huerta children took wicker baskets, and went out in a gang to visit and knock on the doors of all the neighboring houses.
When the neighbors opened them, they told them: "The shore of the quijal, if you don't give it to me, I'll piss on your portal.Here in La Huerta in our municipality, the expression was used more: "La orillica del cornijal, if you don't give it to me, I'll break your portal."To please the children (and also to avoid the possible "consequences"), the huertanos gave them "a good handful" of the "exclusive" products that they had harvested in their cornijal: pipes, medlar, figs, ...Logically, to "penalize" those who did not heed their request and hit them "with the door in their faces", the children pulled down their pants and pissed on the door.
In the case of La Huerta de Totana, they damaged the portal.As we see many times in the news, the neighbors who do not attend to the demands for candy, and do not respond to the "trick or treat" proposal, instead of wetting them or breaking the portal, they put the lost facade of eggs ...
And what is worse is unknown!(Note: For those who are not familiar with the measures of land in the Huerta, the tahúlla is a measure of land that is expressed in m2, and is equivalent to approximately 1/6 of a bushel.
And one bushel is equivalent to approximately 6700 m2 of Earth).Diego Jesus Romera Gonzalez
Source: Diego Jesús Romera González
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