LA FÊTE DES PAILHASSES

This ancestral tradition -which has taken place for no less than 674 years! - takes place on Ash Wednesday, from 3 to 6 pm, and is open only to the villagers. Legend has it that it celebrates the 1346 victory of Cournonterral over Aumelas (a neighboring village) over a story about wood. Three protagonists participate in this tradition: the pailhasses, the whites and the dirty. The pailhasses, (representing Cournonterral) chase the whites (representing Aumelas), in order to roll them in the wine lees. The carnival takes place in several stages, very codified: there is first the dressing: at lunchtime and until 14:30, white and pailhasses get ready. The pailhasses are publicly "stuffed" on the village esplanade. Then comes the time of the parade, around 2:30 pm: the whites, framed all along by the pailhasses, stand together in rows and follow the band, singing and dancing around the heart of the village. The dirty ones and the carts follow behind. Then, a little before 3 pm, on the town hall square, a round composed in turn of a white and a pailhasse ends the parade. At 3pm precisely, the music stops, the dregs are overturned on the ground and the round dislocates, signalling the beginning of hostilities. Finally in the evening, the judgment falls: around 9:30 pm, Pailhasse is judged on the village square following a different staging each year, concocted by the carnival group. Once the judgement is over, "Mister Pailhasse" and "Mister White" are burned in the public square in a crazy farandole to the sound of the fife and the drum.