Arts and Culture

Gressier “once-upon-a-time” (Part I )

Gressier  “once-upon-a-time” is a page of history that we are attempting to retrace to make known to the young generation of Gressier the manners and habits of our grandparents. Indeed, they gave great particular importance to the traditional values which were centered on mutual respect, morality and solidarity.

One Day cooperation between farmers

The majority of our grandparents could neither read nor write, but they had in common the gift of organization and business management skills. Agriculture was one of their priorities. Apart from their regular professions (tailors, shoe-makers, carpenters etc) they were at the same time all farmers, and they practiced all kinds of breeding in their lots. That enabled them to carry out their duties as parents and at the time make ends meet. They were not scholars or scientists and yet could choose with exactitude at which period of the year they were to plant such or such seeds, by only observing the movements and sizes of the moon. This empirical method allowed them to predict with complete certainty when rain was going to fall abundantly.  Consequently, they organized themselves, in one day of cooperative work, to plow the ground and plant seeds. This day of hard work was proceeded in an atmosphere of delightfulness and fraternity. Work was organized and tasks were distributed in a way to maximize the output. They ate, drank, and worked together in an assiduous way in order to finish in only one day, with the satisfaction of all, a mission of several days.  

What does one say about Rara?

Without elaborating in details the meaning of Rara, we will say that Rara is a traditional musical group. It only used instruments like the drum, the bugle and sometimes the conch shell to sound out the gathering. Raras were sprouting during the Holy month in their district and  surroundings, but the last three days of the Holy Week, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, commonly called Saturday “blessed water”, and Easter Sunday, were a great deal in Gressier.  We do not intend to describe all of the Rara scenes, but would like to introduce some of the characters who were part of its organization and whose mission was to lead Rara to its destination. It was, the empress, the sambas, the colonel of Rara, the jugglers and its president.

Before the exit of Rara, an introductory ceremony  took place to beseech the “spirits”.  Thus, the empress began a preliminary exercise called “Loaded Feet”during which children and the elderly who could not follow the Rara course can go in circle while dancing and hitting their feet on the ground.

The sambas played an important role. They had for mission to accompany the musicians in folksongs.  The animation depended on them throughout the Rara course.  As for the colonel of Rara, he was in front of the crowd with a whip making a clicking sound to rhythmically lead the band of Rara in a normal pace so that the participants won’t feel tired in spite of long hours of walking and dancing. The jugglers were the most popular characters since all the stares were on them for their displays and acrobatics with the aluminum stick.  Lastly, the president of Rara, drawn up on his horse decorated with all colors, would announce the direction of all the courses and it was him who also directed the rara in what great figures courtyard in town it has to go for a séance of animation. These séances were often rewarded by tips given to the jugglers and the president of Rara.