Life-size dolls, the Mounaques are made of rags and hay, dressed in clothes
They are the result of an old local tradition, brought up to date in the 1990s, during a local festival in the town of Campan, the Fête des Mariolles.
Since then, every summer, from July to September, these Mounaques are displayed in the streets, on balconies or in the middle of gardens.
History tells us that in the past, in Campan, people got married between themselves, between people of the village.
When a man of the valley of Campan married outside the "norm", a widower marrying a young girl for example, he was the object of a "charivari".
The "charivari" was a very noisy manifestation of social discontent that hit those who were to be punished. In Campan, this tradition was linked to the system of inheritance: the eldest child, girl or boy, inherited all the property of the parents: land, animals, house. The rules of marriage took this into account: one did not marry an heir and an heiress. The wish of any younger child was to "become a son-in-law" in a family by marrying the eldest.
If an heiress planned to marry a boy from another village, if a widow or widower planned to marry a young man, the inhabitants of the village demanded a kind of compensatory tribute. If this tribute was not paid, it was a hullabaloo. In the month before the wedding, every evening, all the young people, cowbells around their necks, came to make a din around the house of the bride.
A couple of rag dolls, the Mounaques, were hung in her house. They were supposed to represent the defects of the future bride and groom.
All this ended on the wedding day when the bride and groom passed under the pair of Mounaques and the young people received a substantial sum of money to allow them to celebrate.
Today, human-sized Mounaques made by volunteers adorn the streets, squares, wash houses, balconies and galleries of the houses of Campan during the summer months.
Two dates to remember:
- Exhibition of the big Mounaques in the village of Campan from July to the end of September.
- Mariolles festival on the second Sunday of July.
Mounaques and company
Clairefontaine House
(workshop of the mounaques of collection)
65710 Campan Bourg
Tel : 06 47 61 54 76
http://mounaquesetcompagnie.fr/
