The Basques being a very old and culturally isolated people, have been able to maintain a good many of their traditions, many of them going back to pagan and even stone age times. Although cloaked in the trappings of their semi-recent conversionto Catholicism, many are much, much older than and similar to other cultures and reflect a time when man worshipped and respected the forces of nature. The most visible of Basque traditions, the dance, goes back hundreds of years and although now seen in a religious context was originally a pagan ritual. Carnival, celebrated in every Catholic culture, actually is a coming of spring celebration in which the evil spirits are chased away so that the land will be fertile for the coming year. The dance seen here, Kaxarranka, is performed in the fishing village of Lekeitio and succeeds an earlier tradition in which the kaxa (the town's coffers, the large box seen in the picture) was carried down to the sea with a statue of St. Peter on top. Everyone sang songs of praise to St. Peter, their patron saint. However once they reached the sea and prayers were said to ensure a good catch that year, they continued by beating the statue of St. Peter with sticks to show what would happen if they didn't have a good catch.

Religion plays an important part in a Basque person's life.