As with every people on earth, the Basques have their own sports which are common events now at Basque festivals but which grew out of competitions between two or three villages as each pitted its local champion (and the town's honor) against the other. Most Basque sports celebrate indarra (strength) and grew out of necessity to clear the wooded and rocky fields to cultivate them. The most common is of course pilota (handball). The strength and endurance sports include harri jasotzea (weight lifting), aizkolkaria (wood chopping, seen here), pizu tiraka (weight-dragging), txingak (weight carrying), orga-actchatzea (ox cart lifting) and lasterka or korrika (long distance running). Also along the coast one will also see estropadak (rowing regattas) where entire towns turn out to cheer their champions on.

Handball's attraction...