Every year on the last day of October the Gaztaina eguna (day of the chestnut) takes place in Orozko to commemorate and celebrate the town’s past.
Chestnuts have been an essential element in this area for centuries, both in people’s diet and in the local economy. Until quite recently the mountainsides in the area were full of chestnut and oak trees.
The Gaztaina eguna recreates the festivity of the collection (harvest). Once the chestnuts have fallen the nuts are picked up with tweezers so as not to get pricked by their spikes and are put in baskets that are later emptied into the ericeras or kirikiñausis (stores for the chestnuts).
These stores are stone pens with 1.5-metre-high circular walls built in the chestnut grove itself. The chestnuts were kept there all year, covered with leaves and branches to conserve their freshness. The size of the ericera depended on the size of the chestnut grove, and some even reached a diameter of 8 metres. Some are still kept to this day in the Gorbea area, thanks to the efforts of the Supelaur association to maintain them.
As well as people living in the area, many seasonal workers came for the campaign and gave the place a festive atmosphere with a lot of food and popular music.
Every year the Town Council of Orozko recreates the past by associating the collection of chestnuts in the Gaztaina eguna with a popular pilgrimage through the ericeras and hamaiketako (elevenses) accompanied by chorizo and chestnuts and, of course, trikitixas (Basque accordions).
So that everyone can enjoy the route, buses are put on from Plaza Zubiaur up to the neighbourhood of Usabel, from where a 7-kilometre circular walk starts, at the end of which the chestnut stores that are still conserved can be seen.
Photos copyright of the Town Councils of Orozko and Argazki.Irekia
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