We often like to talk about Menorcan traditions in our blog, ones we celebrate and enjoy, as it’s an easy way to help understand Menorcan life. One of these fiestas is called Cincogema, which is held during Pentecost (seven weeks after Easter) where the general public goes “to vega” a Menorquin expression meaning to go out into the country to eat. This year Cincogema lands between the 2nd and the 4th of June and once again the city will become empty, much to the surprise of the tourists seeing the vacant streets. The party will be extended until Monday 5th which is the “dilluns de Cincogema”.
As you can well imagine, the origin of this fiesta is religious, but as the local anthropologist Jaime Mascaro explained, the celebrations became popular in Menorca at the beginning of the 20th century, transcending from the purely religious. It is known that in Mahón “the men sang with guitars through the streets and paraded until they came to the estate of San Isidro”, where they ate something, a party with style marked by its masculinity.
As from the fifties, the party was basically held in Ciudadela and Ferreries, where it was only the men who left the towns to stay the night in the country, on the beach or on some urbanization. Pre-elections of the Cincogema, the men were allowed to sleep on the beaches, until camping was prohibited and they moved on to the urbanizations.
Over time the women also joined in the celebrations of the party, some separately but most in groups to spend the fiesta near the beach. Now a days it is mostly the teenagers, who take the opportunity to leave home and spend the weekend among their friends. Some Mondays if a school day, the teachers find themselves alone, as the teenagers take advantage of the long weekend.
Cincogema is without doubt the lead up to the fiesta of San Juan, which is just around the corner.
