Learn the customs
Discovering the wonders of Val d’Arán only requires desire and time. The cultural richness of the valley is pleasantly offered to the visitor; only a quiet walk on foot or by bike is needed to encounter its charm.
A peaceful visit to any populated centre allows the visitor to get up close to the daily routine of the inhabitants, know their customs and the Aranes language. To immerse yourself better in its ancestral traditions, you have to know its dances and popular festivals which take root in the country life. Festivals such as Eth Haro in Les and Eth Taro in Arties, which complete the summer solstice with the burning of a fir trunk as an act of demand for the purification of the land, are kept intact. They loyally remind us of how life was in the valley centuries ago.
The traditional life
For centuries, the house represented the basis of social, economic and political life of Arán. Only as a member of a house, the Aranes person could have access to communal goods, participate in the community life and thus guarantee his subsistence. The house was seen as a collection of four elements:
- An extensive or main family made up of members from three different generations.
- A material patrimony composed of the house premises and lands.
- An immaterial patrimony which consists of the name of the house, collective rights, political position and moral reputation.
- An economic exploitation of an agricultural and stockbreeding nature.
The head of the family managed his house and represented it to the town. It was passed down, generation after generation, to only one son: the heir. The other sons, if single, could stay in the house or they could leave receiving the dowry as compensation. It was very common for some of the sons to become priests.
In every town, a council made up of the heads of the families managed the numerous communal goods (mountain pastures, forests, mill, etc). At a political level, the towns, in groups of 6 terçons (political divisions of the valley), had representation in the Conselh Generau (General Council), the highest institution in Arán.
The lack of agriculture, aimed at domestic consumption, forced people to obtain basic products that the land did not provide outside the town. The muleteers were in charge of transporting the goods through the mountain passes. Stockbreeding (ovine, bovine and equine), mountain passes rentals and forest exploitation represented substantial income. In spite of this, many Aranes people were forced to migrate seasonally to subsist.
Industries from the past
Throughout the centuries, industries and homemade procedures, associated to activities and resources of the traditional economy, have been developed to obtain certain products (wood, flour, cheese, stone, slate and lime for construction, textiles…). Some of these procedures were carried out within the domestic scope. However, others required more specific installations/premises (flour mills, sawmills, lime kilns, fulling machines, wool factories, etc). Many of these industries, traditionally and until the middle of the XX century, took advantage of the water level of the rivers as the only source of energy.
At the end of the XIX century, lead by the industrial revolution, a lot of mining companies eager to exploit the iron and zinc deposits, settled down in Val d’Arán and started the construction of expense infrastructures still visible today; The aim of these structures (cable railways, light trucks, mineral washing stations and galleries) was to extract, transport and purify the mineral.
Intangible heritage
Besides the material culture legacy, Arán possesses a rich intangible heritage made up of its language, festivals, traditions and legends.
The Aranes language, mother tongue of the Val d’Arán, is a branch of the Occitan, the Gascon language spoken in south-western France. Currently, it is an official language in Val d’Arán and all of Catalonia.
During Saint John night (June 23rd), the towns of Les and Arties, located at both ends of the valley, celebrate the arrival of the summer solstice by burning a big fir trunk in the town square. The Haro or Taro festival, as it is respectively known, has a very ancient purifying meaning.
Other well known festivals are: the festival of Santa Creu in Salardú, where the crosses and the faithful from the higher part of the valley gather together every year on May 3rd, Easter in Bossòst and the pilgrimage to Montgarri sanctuary (July 2nd) which brings together the Aranes people and people from the neighbouring French valleys to this beautiful landscape by the Noguera Pallaresa river.