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Formentera is a very modern island. Nevertheless, those traditions that are considered part of the particular folklore of the island and the people living in it have not been left aside.
Here we have some examples:
Ses matançes (animal slaughters): Slaughters have traditionally taken place because of the necessity of having something to eat. Pig slaughter has turned into a fiesta which gets a great part of the family and friends together, who help with those tasks belonging to this activity (killing the pig, quartering it, elaborating products with the meat thereof like sobrasada, botifarra, botifarró, camaïot, etc.) There are typical products of this date: arroç de matançes, bullit d'ossus and frita de matançes.
La matanza del cerdo, costumbre muy arraigada en la sociedad formenterense.
Vintage: Producing wine is always a fiesta. Friends and relatives meet to gather grapes and tread them in order to obtain a kind of wine that is barely different from the wine that has been obtained over the last centuries. It is a high alcohol content wine with rough flavour and dark colour, perfect to drink with meat or fish stews.
Pastar: Producing bread has been an essential task in the island until not so many years ago, because there was no bakery. Each house produced its own bread (of a much higher quality than in current bakeries) with flour coming from wheat of its own harvest. This activity used to begin grinding the grain at the mill, and continued at the forest, where the people should pick up wood in order to conrar (heat with wood) the oven, pastar (to produce the pastry for the bread, the cocas and the bescuït) and, finally cook everything in the oven.
Pan tradicional, hecho con ingredientes naturales y horno de leña.
Tirada de galls (cockerels throw): It is a very ancient game in which you have to knock down some wooden sticks placed in a vertical way on the ground with a juniper wood ball (in fact, a type of skittles) from about 50 meters far away. It is necessary to highlight that neither the ball nor the ground are even, which makes it very difficult to knock down one of the sticks, due to the bounces of the ball. In order to take part in the game, you have to pay a minimal amount of money for every 4 shots to the organizer of the game (who is also responsible for the winner's prize). The prize, it could not be something different, is a cockerel.
Fishing: Parallel to commercial fishing, there exists in Formentera a pleasure fishing that still uses the same methods than in the past. Most common fishing tacks are: volantín, curricán, palangre (paternoster line) and red (net). Apart from these, there are also another commonly used tacks like morenell, llença, rall, bolitx, etc., with which you can fish a great variety of species.
Hunting: This activity has in Formentera a lot of followers. The most spread art is the one which, as hunting tools, only requires the hunter's skill and his/her dogs' ability (Ibiza hounds, a native breed). In this case it is the dog which is in charge of combing, locating, pursuing and catching the trophy (rabbits mainly). There exist some other traditional hunting tacks, although the majority of them are now forbidden because they are considered to be not so much respectful with the environment: traps, filats de canya, filats d'ala, vesc (glue), etc.
Dry fish: Some species of fish, like ray or milano, among others, are hung from a dry savine, previously prepared, that is called parrera. The fish has been previously cut, salted and finally left in the sun for its final consumption (see gastronomy section)..
Ballades: They are meetings of festive character at which the people dance the ball pagés (Formentera regional dance). These ballades usually take place coinciding with special dates like traditional fiestas (Virgen del Carmen, Christmas, etc.). In the past, ballades used to take place in a natural environment like a cove or somewhere next to the sea. Today the ballades take place at cities or towns.
Cantades: They are the greatest exponent of the musical tradition in Formentera. They take place in private houses where the cantadors get together (they recite gloses, composed by themselves). The only instruments they have are their voice and a drum.
Gloses: They are the only literary expression of the island. Gloses are (almost all of them) stories of humorous, erotic or satirical character, which combine some more or less careful verses with a great deal of imagination and joke.
Textile: Finally we must cite one of those customs that years ago was a very important labour, since it contributed to the economy of each house: spinning woollen thread. This custom, unfortunately, is being forgotten, although it is one of the oldest. Women were in charge of producing with their own hands this woollen thread with which they used to weave garments. The raw material was the wool coming from sheep. Thanks to some craft and very careful procedures, this wool became thread, ready to use.
Hilatura de lana, una costumbre ya casi perdida en la actualidad.
This labour was carried out by the oldest women of every family, like the one we can see at the picture on the left, wearing typical clothes. Black clothes have the symbolic meaning of mourning.
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