Artajona shoe-polish-tin zumbaderas

zumbaderas

Source term: zumbadera

zumbadera: Spanish, 'buzzer,' from zumbar, to buzz; the page groups these improvised whirlers with the bramaderas, the wooden boards swung for the same sound.

Shoe polish came in flat tins, and the lids had a second life. Children in Artajona folded them over, flattened them, tied them to a cord, took the far end and swung them in circles until the metal buzzed: zumbaderas, from zumbar, to buzz. The man who wrote them down for the Etniker survey of children's games, José María Jimeno Jurío, was recording his own village — he was born in Artajona in 1927, and spent a working life documenting it.

Particulars

Object

Folded flattened shoe-polish-tin lids fastened to a single cord.

Function

Children swung them in circles to make noise.