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Jaialdi also includes a religious component every year linked to Basque Catholic traditions.  In fact, Boise always holds its annual festival on San Inazio as it is called here in Basque, on or close to July 31 (St Ignatius day) with mass.  The mass is traditionally held at St. John’s Cathedral in Boise, and includes a procession of the saint along with dances.  Every five years, Jaialdi amplifies this tradition as it did this year. 

Boise, ID.  Maybe everyone isn’t aware but the Basque festival organized in Boise every year, coincides with the Feast of San Inazio during the week of July 31, a holiday in the provinces of Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia where the saint born in Loyola (Azpeitia, Basque Country) is their patron saint.

Every year, on Saturday during the Basque festival, there is mass where dances are performed by the Oñati group – created in Boise only to dance on this day and during the mass in honor of Saint Ignatius who they also process with carrying the statue in on their shoulders.  Inside, the dancers also perform a special dance during the consecration, on the altar which adds a note of respect and color to the ceremony that attracts more and more people.

This year, the attendance was much larger, nearly 1,600 people, and some guessed closer to 2,000.  

Here is a photo gallery of this year’s mass: