"Traffic signs, ATMs and storefront signs are hidden under heavy fabrics. The 21st century is only noticeable through the payment terminals at some of the craft stalls, and on the cell phones of the nearly 3,000 people who visit this municipality in the Salazar Valley each year to enjoy Orhipean (in the Basque language, it means beneath Ori, the mountain that guards the village)."
"For a weekend, they dress up in the outfits of the era and pretend to turn into washerwomen, spinners, bakers and even a barber-dentist who stands in front of a price list: 10 cents for trimming a mustache and 20 cents for a beard. And if the problem is a badly-rooted tooth, the fussy ones who need anesthesia to pull it out will have to pay one peseta (the Spanish currency before Spain adopted the euro)."
"The idea of going back in time arose more than two decades ago, when organizers of Orhipean saw the need to turn the festival around. There used to be concerts, but they were too expensive, recalls Jone Villanueva, 68, a local researcher and one of the festival organizers. It wouldn't have been possible to turn the festival into what it is today, she acknowledges, without the village's older residents."
Ochagavia's Orhipean festival transforms the village each late summer into an early 1900s setting by hiding modern signs and staging period scenes. Nearly 3,000 visitors come to the Salazar Valley municipality while roughly 500 local residents and returning émigrés participate. For a weekend, participants wear era outfits and reenact forgotten trades such as washerwomen, spinners, bakers and a barber-dentist who posts period prices. Some modern conveniences remain visible through payment terminals at craft stalls and attendees' cell phones. The festival began over two decades ago to redirect prior costly programming and depends on elder residents teaching traditional skills to younger participants.
Read at english.elpais.com
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