Discover our traditions – follow the ethnological route around the valley and hear villagers speaking in the aragonés – cheso language. In May we celebrate Las Navatas – timber cut in the valley used to be transported as rafts down the river. You can also hear traditional music from our local folk group and enjoy other music at our fiestas and festivals.
FOLKLORE
Music is an important part of people´s lives with traditional songs and tunes still surviving here. The Val d´Echo folk group celebrates and conserves this musical tradition and dress in aragonese traditional clothes for their performances. They have released four albums of songs sung in cheso. In Embún the Palotiau dancers continue an ancient dance form and the Os Chotos band perform new songs rooted in the past. The traditional clothes worn by villagers well into the 20th Century are celebrated in fiestas when the finest costumes are brought out for dances and going to mass.
| The Val d´Echo folk group | Hecho | |
| Coral Subordania music workshop | Hecho | |
| Ronda Os Chotos | Embún | |
| Danzantes del Palotiau | Embún |
Las Navatas – floating tree trunk rafts down the river
The Hecho valley transported timber out of the valley by river with rafts documented as early as the 13th Century. Our forests were used for shipbuilding and building palaces. This spectacular and risky way of transporting timber is celebrated by Los Navateros de la Val d’Echo every May with log rafts descending the river. You can see a full size raft all year at the water museum – Lo Lavadero de Siresa.
| Descent of navatas | May 11 -12 |
LO CHESO
Medieval aragonese is still spoken in the valley and in a few other parts of the Aragón Pyrenees. It is also reviving in the towns and cities of the region. Hecho is one of the valleys where the language is best conserved and the dialect here is called Cheso. As well as listening to the locals speak there are is plenty of written work in Cheso from authors such as Veremundo Méndez, Domingo Miral and Rosario Ustáriz. You can also read articles in Cheso in the valley magazine, Bisas de lo Subordán.
ENJOY OUR FIESTAS, FAIRS AND FESTIVALS.
The villages in the valley all celebrate fiestas, summer ´romerias´and fairs. Come and join us. You´ll be made very welcome.
| Hecho | September 8 |
| Embún | First Sunday of October |
| Siresa | February 3 |
If you live our traditions you will need ...
