Where have all the witches gone?

[Emily]

I walked the Camino Frances 15 years ago and remember seeing lots of tourist and other items with witches on them as soon as I entered Galicia. Santiago in particular had lots of kitschy witches. I just walked the Camino Portugues and arrived to hardly a broomstick or witch in sight. What has happened to the witches?

 

[Felipe]

That's because we are officially in the AHPM era.
AHPM being the acronym for "After Harry Potter Movies".

 

[CWBuff]

I agree
the more correct question should be "wat happened to the broomsticks?"



that said...here is a link to one of Annie's posts from her blog:
The Witches of Logroño

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Are witches a thing in Portugal? They abound in O Cebreiro and again in Santiago, but Portugal? There is not a lot of commerce between Tui and Santiago, so it does not surprise me that witches are missing.

 

[doctorherman]

A few years ago I was shocked to see the albergue Hostal in Moratinos transformed into a hostal of horror. When I got there cancelled my reservation and stayed in the albergue San Bruno instead. http://rutadelterror666.blogspot.com/

 

[K Turner]

Last month I only recall seeing "witch" items in Finisterre. It stood out to me because I hadn't seen any before on the CF, but I could have just missed them. Finisterre though was memorable because of the quantity of items.

 

[NorthernLight]

The ones that weren't burned at the stake, or drowned, are likely still hiding.

 

[Anamiri]

I walked the Camino Frances 15 years ago and remember seeing lots of tourist and other items with witches on them as soon as I entered Galicia. Santiago in particular had lots of kitschy witches. I just walked the Camino Portugues and arrived to hardly a broomstick or witch in sight. What has happened to the witches?

About 3 weeks ago I was in Lugo - there witches abound.

 

[TaijiPilgrim]

When I walked the Frances in 2011, I also noticed the presence of things "witchy" in Galicia. In 2015, there was a lot less. When I reached Santiago in 2011, I visited the Galician folk museum and asked about the witches. The receptionist told me Galicia has a long tradition of wirches. There are "braga" (not sure of spelling) and meiga. Meiga are good witches - more like knowledgeable healers using their herbal knowledge than like the wicked witch of the west. Then the receptionist told me she was a meiga from a family of meigas! I believed her. If you walk the Camino Ingles you walk through the "enchanted forest" and pass a flying witch on a broomstick!

 

[Anniesantiago]

I walked the Camino Frances 15 years ago and remember seeing lots of tourist and other items with witches on them as soon as I entered Galicia. Santiago in particular had lots of kitschy witches. I just walked the Camino Portugues and arrived to hardly a broomstick or witch in sight. What has happened to the witches?

Oh, there ARE witches in Portugal.
:::whispering::: they just don't advertise.

 

[Anniesantiago]

I agree
the more correct question should be "wat happened to the broomsticks?"

View attachment 65818

that said...here is a link to one of Annie's posts from her blog:
The Witches of Logroño

LOL! I'd sort of forgotten about that blog post.
I remember now what inspired me to write about this.
A friend of a friend of a friend was wanting to walk the Camino so the friend's friend invited me for coffee to chat with the gal and help her a bit with her planning. She was convinced she was going to meet up with some Basque witches and celebrate Full Moon. In the end, it didn't work out as she planned. She left the Camino after one or two nights on the Camino, where her fellow pilgrims apparently laughed at her for snoring too loudly. Needless to say, the witches stayed hidden. ::

 

[TSchulen]

Last year on the CF

 

[lt56ny]

Don't know about the witches but the CP has lots of cool scarecrows in the fields.

 

[CWBuff]

There are "braga" (not sure of spelling) and meiga.

Spanish is bruja (pronounced Broo-HAH) and Galician is bruxa (Broo-ZHAH). I don't think I've ever heard of braga being a witch (in both languages it means panty or panties....)
But then...who knows what with local dialects

 

[Pelegrin]

Spanish is bruja (pronounced Broo-HAH) and Galician is bruxa (Broo-ZHAH). I don't think I've ever heard of braga being a witch (in both languages it means panty or panties....)
But then...who knows what with local dialects

Yes, the word is bruxa (not braga), pronounced Broo- Shah.

 

[jerbear]

Washington DC

 

[CWBuff]

Broo-Shah, Broo-Zhah… which is why I mentioned local dialects
kind of the same way some Germans say 'eeKH' and some - 'eeSH' for ich

But over-all we are on the same page; I can easily see how it was mistaken (if you will) for braga (may be some Rioja helped....

 

[Pelegrin]

Broo-Shah, Broo-Zhah… which is why I mentioned local dialects
kind of the same way some Germans say 'eeKH' and some - 'eeSH' for ich

But over-all we are on the same page; I can easily see how it was mistaken (if you will) for braga (may be some Rioja helped....

In all Galicia the X of bruxa sounds SH, no matter the dialect.
I think that ZH would be the sound of Portuguese J,

 

[CWBuff]

Then I propose that @TaijiPilgrim talked to a Portuguese

 

[Emily]

Washington DC

Don't go blaming witches for that mess.

 

[Emily]

Last month I only recall seeing "witch" items in Finisterre. It stood out to me because I hadn't seen any before on the CF, but I could have just missed them. Finisterre though was memorable because of the quantity of items.

On my way!

 

[Tulle]

Hard times for witches on Camino Ingles. The two first pictures from 2016, the last from 2017.

 

[biped]

I encountered this mural on the left side of the trail as I walked into Burguete.

 

[Purky]

I encountered this mural on the left side of the trail as I walked into Burguete.

Maybe a nod to the history of the Sorginaritzaga forest, between Roncesvalles and Burguete.

 

[cecelia]

I love the story I was told at the end of my first camino in 2003.
Like many, after the excitement of arriving at Santiago and receiving my compostela, I wandered into various stores, not willing to just sit and rest. One of the first stores I entered was full of what I thought of as "kitchen witches".
I asked a 30-something, young (to me) man if there was any significance to the overwhelming number of "brujas" hanging from the ceiling. He looked at me slowly and said in Spanish, "Well - you are perhaps aware that the people from Galicia are of Celtic origin". I nodded and he continued "The Celtic people have a tradition of having certain families of females who are healers. They are called "Meigas", not brujas, and that tradition has not been completely forgotten by us here in Galicia."
"However," he continued, "Of course we are now a very modern people and we don't go to Meigas, we go to doctors and hospitals when we are sick. As modern people, we want to forget all the strange old traditions and when we create these witches to look funny, it helps us to forget."
"But" he said, "When the doctors can't heal us, we know that the Meigas can, and we go to them for healing. It is in this situation, that our funny witch images help us to remember".

 

[NorthernLight]

Was Galicia able to protect her Meigas from burning, during Isabella's inquisition?

 

[Chenahusky]

I think that they have all gone to lunch in A'Coruna.

 

[Pelegrin]

Was Galicia able to protect her Meigas from burning, during Isabella's inquisition?

Meigas survived the inquisition but no the modern times.
The last meiga in the Galician area that I know died 50+ years ago.
She was an old woman who lived alone in an old house but I don´t know what she did and why she was considered a meiga, so I have my doubts about it.

 

[Anniesantiago]

A few years ago I was shocked to see the albergue Hostal in Moratinos transformed into a hostal of horror. When I got there cancelled my reservation and stayed in the albergue San Bruno instead. http://rutadelterror666.blogspot.com/

I didn't understand this post.

 

[WayWalker]

Walk the Espirtual variante on the Portugese and you will see an entire town of them in Combarro!

 

[gerip]

View attachment 65850View attachment 65851View attachment 65852Hard times for witches on Camino Ingles. The two first pictures from 2016, the last from 2017.

Still there a couple of weeks ago.

 

[nycwalking]

Based on caption; they went to work.

 

[TaijiPilgrim]

Spanish is bruja (pronounced Broo-HAH) and Galician is bruxa (Broo-ZHAH). I don't think I've ever heard of braga being a witch (in both languages it means panty or panties....)
But then...who knows what with local dialects

Thank you. As I said, not sure of my spelling.