Christianity and traditional celebrations
Most Spaniards are Catholics, at least by tradition if not by confession, and as far as religion is concerned, the inhabitants of Ibiza behave in much the same way as the peninsulars. However, morals are changing and the pews of the churches are becoming emptier and emptier, especially during Sunday mass. In fact, a good quarter of Spaniards say they are atheists, and the occasions for going to church are limited to celebrations such as weddings, funerals and baptisms, which in many respects are more social than religious gatherings. However, Catholicism continues to play a determining role in the course of the year. In fact, in addition to the many religious holidays that punctuate the calendar, the Fiesta de los Reyes de Oriente (Feast of the Kings, at the beginning of January) or the Semana Santa (Easter week) are moments of authentic religious fervor. The towns and villages of the island - all named after saints, except for Eivissa and Jesus - also celebrate their patronal feasts with great pomp and circumstance every year. These are important moments when young and old meet in the public space and pay homage to the patron saint of their locality in a spirit of good-natured celebration.
For example, the Cavalcada de Reis (Three Wise Men's parade) is celebrated on January 5, bringing gifts to good children; thanks are given to St. Anthony on January 17 in Sant Antoni de Portmanyà and to St. Agnes on January 21 in the town of Santa Agnes de Corona; incredible processions are held during Semana Santa (Easter); the Verge del Carme, protector of the fishermen, is praised in all the ports of the Balearic Islands on July 16, and even at sea; the city of Eivissa is taken by hysteria on August 5 to celebrate Santa Maria de la Nieves, patron saint of the city, and then again three days later around the figure of San Ciriaco, patron saint of the island...
Other pre-Christian religions and cultures
In addition to these religious celebrations, there are some older pagan festivals that were later incorporated into Catholicism, such as the Nit de Sant Joan, on June 24, a great pagan festival celebrating the arrival of summer. Due to the arrival of many foreign nationals, other religions such as Islam and Protestantism are also practiced on the island, although they are in the minority and have their own places of worship.
Buddhism, brought by the hippies who passed through Kathmandu in the 1960s, also has its place on Ibiza, in its Europeanized and somewhat watered-down version. Various spiritualities, more or less associated with Buddhism and the Zen movement, have naturally found fertile ground on this island of freedom. Finally, some sects are established in Ibiza, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Baha'is or the Mormon Church.
But Ibiza and the Balearic Islands, before the arrival of Christianity, were inhabited by various civilizations with their own beliefs that have left behind some remains: the necropolises and their thousands of graves dating from the Phoenician-archaic period (seventh century BC) such as that of Puig des Molins (Ibiza) or Punta dels Fenicis (Mallorca), from which archaeologists have been able to extract various objects related to funerary rites.
Regarding these Punic amulets (Carthaginian civilization), pieces of carved bone or necklaces of pearls and bronze bells with a clearly Egyptian typology, most of which were found in children's tombs, the most likely hypothesis is that they were fetishes that were supposed to protect the youngest, and therefore the weakest, from diseases. The figure of Tanit, goddess of Ibiza, also comes from the Punic period.
Some legends of Ibiza
The history of Ibiza is full of testimonies about strange cults, witch flights and UFO apparitions. Each one has its own version and does not hesitate to add its own personal touch: it is indeed not rare to collect for the same subject a good twenty different versions. This is notably the case of the cult devoted to the goddess Tanit, on the island. As Ibiza has been occupied by many civilizations (Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals and Arabs), there is a great mix of legends in Ibiza folklore due to the legacy of these different cultures, with a clear predominance of legends mixed with Christianity. Here are some of the most remarkable stories and legends of the White Island.
The goddess Tanit. The great lady of Carthage is also the goddess of Ibiza. Probably imported by the Cathaginians during their pre-antique occupation of the island, her cult was assimilated to that of Ba'al Hammon (the main god of Carthage, itself associated with the cult of Cronos/Saturn). According to Diodorus of Sicily, a Greek historian of the first century B.C., human sacrifice was part of the practice when paying homage to him. Although the fact could never be proven, funerary urns containing children's bones mixed with those of animals, discovered on Ibiza tend to support this thesis. At the time of Diodorus of Sicily, it would also seem that the island had the reputation of a land where a kind of sacred prostitution was practiced under the figure of Tanit. Rumor or truth? In any case, long after the fall of Carthage, the goddess continued to be honored throughout the Mediterranean basin, from the Berbers of North Africa to the Romans, who associated her with their goddess Juno (queen of the gods and protector of marriage and fertility). You can go to the Cala de Sant Vincent (Punta Grossa) to go to the foot of the Es Cuieram cave: in the hollow of the cave was discovered, in 1907, a Carthaginian temple dedicated to the goddess Tanit.
The legend of the fameliars. According to the legend, there are particularly ugly little creatures in the area of Santa Eulària, gifted with an absolutely amazing work force: the fameliars. To capture one, you have to go under the Old Bridge of Santa Eulària, equipped with a black bottle into which you have poured a little holy water, and pick a glittering flower that only appears in this place on the night before the feast of St. John, and put it into the container. Some time later, a fameliar is born, which the owner can release at will, ensuring that he can satisfy the ferocious appetite of this little being that has become his servant, namely, to provide him with colossal amounts of work or food. For as soon as the fameliar is out of the bottle, it demands " Feina o menjar !" (" work or food! ") and only calms down once one of its two requests is met. If the fameliar 's master is unable to provide him with enough food to satisfy his appetite or enough work to satisfy his strength, the fameliar will devour the entire pantry. The only solution to avoid such a calamity would be to ask the little being to accomplish an impossible task... Along the river of Santa Eulària winds a small path along which we can cross some fameliars... statues!
Es Vedrà and its legends. The southwestern region of Ibiza has always been rich in myths and legends: the goddess Tanit was worshipped there, the mermaids of the sunken city of Atlantis were sought, but also, with the arrival of the new wave, UFOs, in the depths of the sea. If science tends to refute all these hypotheses, the experience of a somewhat non-conformist monk of the Carmelite order on the islet of Es Vedrà in 1864 is quite historical. Francisco Palau (1811-1872), who had become an embarrassment to the Church because of his unconventional ideas, was sent to Ibiza in 1854 by the ecclesiastical authorities, where he set up a hermitage in a cave on the side of Es Cubells. At the beginning of 1864, he decided to get involved again in the life of the city, with the aim of exorcising the impious peasants of the island. Soon, tired of preaching to the people, and with the help of a fisherman friend, he withdrew to a cave in Es Vedrà, devoting himself fully to meditation. It was then that a series of intense nocturnal revelations came to him, which he later compiled in a collection that combined the theme of ecstatic self-transformation with a symbolism linked to gardening, an activity held in high esteem by the islanders. Francisco Palau became an important figure on the island and his first hermitage in Es Cubells became an important place of pilgrimage. The monk was beatified in 1988.
The Buddha of Atlantis. A hundred meters above the natural pools of the place called Atlantis, partially hidden behind juniper branches, we find one of the hidden treasures of Ibiza: a huge circular painting printed on the rock representing a Buddha. Rumor has it that it was done by a Vietnam veteran of Japanese origin, judging by the date that accompanies the drawing, 1979, written in Japanese ideograms. In reality, it is a Bodhisattva of compassion with multiple arms that became a symbol of the island in the 1980s. In 2011, however, the work was vandalized with spray paint, which admirers of the Buddha have subsequently meticulously reproduced. Today, the place is still a sanctuary for those who seek peace and it is not uncommon to come across apprentices meditating in the lotus position. Nevertheless, the mystery remains around the author of the Buddha of Atlantis. All we know is that his name was Mabo and that he had something to do with the island of Kyushu.
