The Day Today (Or Another Day)

Does today's date give you a clue? Well, yes it does, but there again it doesn't. Majorca Day is today, according to some, but it is also and officially, 12 September. Confused? You've every right to be, as the great debate as to which day should be Majorca Day is bound up in the mists of time and in the arguments of claimants to both dates.

12 September, in case you are wondering, celebrates the day, in 1276, when King Jaume II took the oath of the granting of the privilege of the Kingdom of Majorca. If there is to be a Majorca Day at all, and there has been only since 1997 when the Council of Majorca decided that 12 September it was to be, this seems a reasonable enough excuse. You might think so, but others would disagree.

Forty-seven years before the oath, Jaume II's father, Jaume I, the Aragon king who came to the rescue of Majorca, landed at Santa Ponsa on 31 December on his mission (successful, as it was to prove) to drive the forces of Islam from the island. Majorca Day, therefore, is not 12 September but unofficially 31 December.

Who says so? Primarily, it is various Catalanists, independentists and left-wingers who say so, and you can chuck in some historians, who may or may not be one or all of these things, as well. Were you minded to go searching for information about Majorca Day on the internet, you would find a website called diadademallorca.cat, which might suggest that it was the official site for the day, except of course it isn't. The domain suffix of "cat" gives the game away, as it is one used predominantly for sites dedicated to Catalan culture and language.

The website does in fact add a bit more confusion to the debate, as 30 December comes into the equation too, so much so that yesterday there was the "traditional demonstration of the Day of Majorca" in Palma, one of a series of events that start in the middle of December all in aid of the "fiesta of the standard" (which is in fact today) and the parading of Jaume I's Royal Standard.

These events, in different towns across Majorca, are all run by the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB), the most prominent of the organisations on the island that defends and promotes Catalan culture and language. It is not alone, though, in wishing to change the date of Majorca Day. The PSM Majorcan socialists, together with their allies in the general left-wing Bloc, have proposed that Palma town hall adopts 31 December as the official date and gets the Council of Majorca to make the change.

There is, in the PSM's stance, a touch of good old nationalist rival politics at play. The PSM, nationalists with a left persuasion, take issue with the "imposition" of 12 September back in 1997 by the Council of Majorca whose then president was Maria Antònia Munar, she of the now defunct nationalists with a right persuasion, the Unió Mallorquina.  

This might all seem like a pedantic argument, but historical correctness does have a habit of generating dogmatic attitudes, and such dogma can sometimes become unpleasant.

Last year the object of this unpleasantness was the headquarters building of the OCB anti-Christ, the Círculo Balear, the dogmatically anti-Catalan organisation. It was daubed with graffiti and, true to form, it has been again. What particularly riled Catalanist elements was the decision to the Círculo to take part in the Standard celebration on 31 December, a day very much of Catalanist expression. There was also violence at the 30 December demonstration; four "independentists" who were arrested last year had vowed to return this year.

A question worth asking is whether there is a genuine ground swell of nationalism and desire for independence that the argument over Majorca Day, the demonstration and the graffiti might suggest. Or is it confined to a vocal but active minority (and there were a mere 1500 demonstrators yesterday evening)? One is inclined to believe that it is the latter, but this year's alternative Majorca Day has to be considered in the context of moves by the Partido Popular government to promote Castilian over Catalan, moves that don't find universal support and not even within the party itself.

Despite the dogma, there is a very good reason why, assuming there should be a Majorca Day at all, 31 December should be the date. 1229 was in effect when Majorca's history began, in the sense that its current-day culture started to be shaped. Prior to then, and most significantly, there was no Catalan language. It took the conquest by an Aragonese king to supplant what was then a version of Latin. 1229 and all that asks questions of current-day attitudes on the right. To deny its significance is historically incorrect, but to accept its significance is to undermine arguments against Catalan.

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