The image of Veronica and the founding of the Mallorca funfair
Long, long ago in Mallorca, in the years after the 1229 conquest, markets were generally spontaneous events. There wasn’t much by way of organisation. It was only after Jaume II became king
(1276) that a framework started to become established. Fairly obviously, you would think, markets had to be places where the local people could obtain different types of food. This was of course their function, but they came to be controlled in such ways that the local people could be fed. At one time, there was no profit motive, and the individuals who sold food were appointed by the local authority - the town hall or ‘universitat’, as it was once known. There was a ‘botiguer’ (like a shopkeeper), there was a butcher, there was someone in charge of fish, and supervising the smooth operation of this essentially not-for-profit activity was the figure of the ‘mostassaf’, a legacy of the Muslim years.
By 1336, the villages of Mallorca were all operating according to this scheme. Meanwhile, however, the much grander markets started to appear, if only on a limited basis. These were the fairs, strictly controlled by royal privilege and so much so that only two of them were allowed - Inca and Sineu. The strict control, in part at least, was to ensure tax collection, while there were regulations to abide by; the functions of the weights and measures inspector were created.
The fairs were very different to markets, and not just because they were much bigger; their commercial scope was broader, and there weren’t the same price controls.
The assumption is that these fairs, which weren’t expanded until Llucmajor was granted royal privilege in the mid-sixteenth century, were occasions for some entertainment as well as for commercial transactions. But what entertainment? It wasn’t until the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that evidence began to truly emerge of the extras on offer at fairs, the beginnings of the other type of fair the funfair.
By the nineteenth century, the stranglehold that certain villages once had on fairs had disappeared. It’s known, for example, that Pollensa’s fair started in 1784 (and some have argued that it was earlier). They acquired a more festive feel - folk dance and such like - and they were fertile territory for doing politics. Of course they were; anyone important would be seen at the fair.
Where the entertainment was concerned, cinema found itself at the top of the agenda by the end of the century. In 1897, a weekly newspaper in Felanitx reported that the people of the village would, for the first time, be able to enjoy “the most surprising spectacle of our days”. This was “the wonderful cinematograph”. The paper, ‘El Felanigense’, pointed out that this spectacle would have to be in the theatre, and while the innovation was wonderful, it wasn’t wholly convinced by what could be witnessed - “the dead seem to be alive and move with natural gestures”. Still, at least it was entertainment, and Felanitx villagers were doubtless in awe. But it wasn’t a funfair. True, but this was Felanitx and not Palma.
The Fira del Ram, the Easter fair, dates back to either the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and it was all due to the image of Veronica and the relic of Santa
Faz, which is bound up with the story of
Veronica who wiped the face of Christ on his way to Calvary. On one side of the debate as to which century was Cardinal Antoni Cerdà, who apparently despatched the image from Rome in 1459.
It was for the nuns of the Monastery of Santa Margalida. On the other side was Cardinal Jaume Pou Berard, who sent the image to his sister who was a nun at the same monastery just over a hundred years later.
Irrespective of when the image actually turned up, it was to prove to be very popular. It was brought out on three occasions each year - the birthday of the Virgin Mary in September, the Wednesday before Easter, and Palm Sunday. It was the latter which became the most popular. Each year, more and more people went to the monastery, and wherever people gathered in any great number, so trade opportunities arose.
Food was sold and craft was on display, mostly
figures do with the story of Easter.
As the Palm Sunday (Diumenge de Rams) fair gained ever more popularity, so it needed more space. The monastery grounds were inadequate, meaning that streets, such as Sant Miquel needed to be occupied.
By the eighteenth century, the star item of craft was the siurell. And in the final years of that century, the first elements of a funfair began to creep in; there had to be something to entertain the children.
Around the same time as the good people of Felanitx were marvelling at the cinematograph, the first merry-go-rounds were appearing at the Fira del Ram, the Palm Sunday fair in Palma. A businessman from Catalonia brought the first merry-go-round to Palma and so therefore to Mallorca.
This was when the fair was held on La Rambla. By the end of the nineteenth century, the funfair had well and truly arrived.
When the merry-goround was on La Rambla in Palma.