Palma.—The Festival of the Standard got underway last night.
This is said to be Europe’s oldest national fiesta and it commemorates the date in 1229 when Moorish power came to an end in Majorca and, yesterday evening, another chapter was written in the long history of the festival.
The traditional ‘Prego’, the official address which marks the beginning of two days of commemorations, was, for the first time, ever read by a foreign resident to Majorca.
Californian Jackie Waldren has lived in Majorca for the past forty years and ruing that time, along with her late husband Bill, has become very much part of the fabric of the island’s history and its culture.
Hence why she was given the great honour of reading the ‘Prego’ in fluent Catalan inside Palma Town Hall yesterday.
The fiesta (or festival) of the standard - the Catalan-Aragonese flag flown by the conquering army of Jaume I who, with his trusted allies, rode into Palma and defeated the amalgam of Moorish, Jewish and Christian life that was in existence and created a new order.