I asked Xabi Aburrzaga to tell me something about Christmas and music in the Basque Country, and his response was very original and beautiful. He told me about the song 36ko Gabonetan.
Xabi Aburrzaga - 36ko Gabonetan
« This song was composed by me and has lyrics by the writer Kirmen Uribe, National Literature Award winner and one of the most renowned writers in the Basque Country. It’s titled “36ko Gabonetan” (“During the Christmas of ‘36”), about 1936. The song talks about how, during the Civil War, people from both sides declared a ceasefire for some days. Look, now it’s happening in Israel and Palestine… They decided to cease fire because it was Christmas. They stopped and not only that: they sat down at the same table to eat together. There were cases where even brothers from different sides were eating together. They were young people from Bizkaia and Navarra, who possibly spoke Basque.
In the chorus, the song asks, “What would they talk about during that meal? Why weren’t they able to stop the war definitively? If they were able to stop for a few days, to make that beautiful gesture because it was Christmas Eve, special dates… why weren’t they able to reach agreements instead of continuing to kill each other?”
The song is very sweet, and I used a very small trikitixa to perform it. It’s very special. It’s on my third album, ‘Geure.’ »
