Festes de Sant Bartomeu (Montuïri) — Cossiers i Dimoni
The patron festa of Montuïri, in the agricultural interior of Mallorca, is built around its Cossiers i Dimoni — the oldest ceremonial dance troupe on the island to have survived uninterrupted, traceable to 1821 and awarded the Ramon Llull Prize in 2012. Six cossiers — two in yellow, two in pink, two in green, in straw hats and with handkerchiefs in hand — dance to flabiol and tambor through the streets and across the Plaça Major, guarding the Dama (femininity, fertility, the Good) from a horned Dimoni dressed in black (the Evil). At the close of the dance the Dama treads the devil underfoot: the triumph of good over evil. It is one of only three occasions in the year that the cossiers dance. They set out first as a prelude on 15 August (Mare de Déu d'agost), touring the village, then again on the eve of the festa (23 August, followed by Completes at the parish church) and on the feast day of Sant Bartomeu, 24 August, when the day opens with the albada of the xeremies, the cossiers dance in the Plaça Major, and the sung Mass (Ofici) is held in the Església de Sant Bartomeu. Watching in the square is free and open to all.
