Lauburu
Encyclopedia
Comma (punctuation)
The comma is a punctuation mark. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight but inclined from the vertical, or...
-shaped heads similar to the Japanese tomoe
Tomoe
A tomoe or tomoye is a Japanese abstract shape that resembles a comma or the usual form of magatama. It is a common design element in and corporate logos, particularly in triplicate whorls known as . Some view the mitsudomoe as representative of the threefold division at the heart of the...
. It can be constructed with a compass and straightedge, beginning with the formation of a square template; each head can be drawn from a neighboring vertex of this template with two compass settings, with one radius half the length of the other.
Background
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
meaning to the ancient symbol. Some say it signifies the "four heads or regions" of the Basque Country
Basque Country (historical territory)
The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....
. The lauburu does not appear in any of the seven coats-of-arms that have been combined in the arms of the Basque Country: Higher and Lower Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
, Guipuzcoa, Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...
, Alava
Álava
Álava is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Álava. Its capital city is Vitoria-Gasteiz which is also the capital of the autonomous community...
, Labourd
Labourd
Labourd is a former French province and part of the present-day Pyrénées Atlantiques département. It is historically one of the seven provinces of the traditional Basque Country....
, Soule
Soule
Soule is a former viscounty and French province and part of the present day Pyrénées-Atlantiques département...
; The Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
intellectual Imanol Mujica liked to say that the heads signify spirit, life, consciousness, and form – but it is generally used as a symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
of prosperity.
It was found in old stelas.
After the time of the Antonines, Camille Jullian
Camille Jullian
Camille Jullian was a French historian, philologist, archaeologist and historian of French literature, student of Fustel de Coulanges, whose posthumous work he published.-Biography:Jullian was born in Marseille...
finds no specimen of swastikas, round nor straight, in the Basque area until modern times.
Paracelsus
Paracelsus
Paracelsus was a German-Swiss Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist....
's Archidoxis Magicae features a symbol similar to the lauburu that is to be drawn to heal animals.
M. Colas considers that the lauburu is not related to the swastika but comes from Paracelsus and marks the tombs of healers of animals and healers of souls, i.e., priests.
Around the end of the 16th century, the round swastika appears abundantly as a Basque decorative element, in wooden chests or tombs, perhaps as another form of the cross.
Straight swastikas are not found until the 19th century.
Many Basque homes and shops display the symbol over the doorway as a sort of talisman
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
. In modern times it has been associated with the swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
.
Sabino Arana
Sabino Arana
Sabino Arana Goiri, self-styled as Arana ta Goiri'taŕ Sabin, , was a Spanish and Basque writer. He was the founder of the Basque Nationalist Party and father of Basque nationalism....
interpreted it as a solar symbol
Solar symbol
A solar symbol is a symbol which symbolises the Sun. Solar symbols can have significance in psychoanalysis, symbolism, semiotics, astrology, religion, mythology, mysticism, divination, heraldry, and vexillology, among other fields.Some solar symbols include:...
, supporting his theory of a Basque solar cult based on wrong etymologies, in the first number of Euzkadi
Euzkadi
Euzkadi may refer to:*Basque Country *Euzkadi , a Basque nationalist newspaper published from 1913 to 1937*Euzkadi, a Mexican tire manufacturer...
.
The lauburu has been featured on flags and emblems of various Basque political organisations including Eusko Abertzale Ekintza
Eusko Abertzale Ekintza
Basque Nationalist Action is a Basque nationalist party based in Spain. Founded in 1930, it was the first Basque nationalist political party to exist running on a socialist program. On 16 September 2008, the party was outlawed by the Spanish Supreme Court based on ties with ETA...
.
The symbol in its positive form (right-facing) can symbolise life
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
, and in its negative form (left-facing) death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
. This is the reason why many Basque tombstones display left-facing lauburus.
It is also used as an alternative to the Christian cross
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...
in the death notices of Basque nationalists.
The use of the lauburu as a cultural icon fell into some disuse under the Spanish nationalist government of Franco, who repressed many elements of Basque culture. For that reason, there is some dispute as to which direction the lauburu faces represents creation (life and good fortune) or destruction (death and misfortune). Some say that what produces the distinctive round heads is the wake created by the rotation of the cross, representing the elements and universe of energy. When rotating clockwise, the wake trails in the opposite direction with the heads facing left, and vice versa.
Etymology
Lau buru means "four heads", "four ends" or "four summits" in Basque. Some argue this might be a folk etymology applied to the Latin labarumLabarum
The labarum was a vexillum that displayed the "Chi-Rho" symbol ☧, formed from the first two Greek letters of the word "Christ" — Chi and Rho . It was used by the Roman emperor Constantine I...
.
However, Father Fidel Fita thought the relation reversed, labarum being adapted from Basque in Octavian Augustus' time.
See also
- LábaroLábaroThe Lábaro is a modern interpretation of an ancient military standard of the Cantabri people from pre-Roman Iberum. It consists of a purple cloth on which there is what would be called in heraldry a "saltire voided " made up of curved lines, with knobs at the end of each line.Additionally, and...
- LabarumLabarumThe labarum was a vexillum that displayed the "Chi-Rho" symbol ☧, formed from the first two Greek letters of the word "Christ" — Chi and Rho . It was used by the Roman emperor Constantine I...
- Mechanical fanFan (mechanical)A mechanical fan is a machine used to create flow within a fluid, typically a gas such as air.A fan consists of a rotating arrangement of vanes or blades which act on the air. Usually, it is contained within some form of housing or case. This may direct the airflow or increase safety by preventing...
- SauwastikaSauwastikaThe term sauwastika is sometimes used to distinguish the "left-facing" from the "right-facing" form of the swastika symbol, a meaning which developed in 19th century scholarship....
- SwastikaSwastikaThe swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
- TriskelionTriskelionA triskelion or triskele is a motif consisting of three interlocked spirals, or three bent human legs, or any similar symbol with three protrusions and a threefold rotational symmetry. Both words are from Greek or , "three-legged", from prefix "τρι-" , "three times" + "σκέλος" , "leg"...
- TomoeTomoeA tomoe or tomoye is a Japanese abstract shape that resembles a comma or the usual form of magatama. It is a common design element in and corporate logos, particularly in triplicate whorls known as . Some view the mitsudomoe as representative of the threefold division at the heart of the...
External links
- The Baskian Swastika Lauburu, its symbolic meaning and history
- "La croix Basque, laubaru": demonstrating the layout for scribing the arms