BASQUES (EUSKALDUNAK) Verified listing

The Basques, or Euskarians, are divided between the Spanish state (the Autonomous Community of Euskadi, which includes Bizkaia / Biscay, Gipuzkoa / Guipúzcoa, and Alaba / Álava, while the former kingdom of (Upper) Navarre, Nafarroa Garraia, forms a distinct community) and the French state (north of the Pyrenees, in the provinces of Lapurdi / Labourd, Zuberoa / Soule, and Nafarroa Beherea / Lower Navarre).

There are several Basque symbols. The eight-rayed tapered star is common to all regions that originate from the ancient matrix known as 'Aquitanian.' The black eagle (arrano beltza) is sometimes used. The best-known Basque sign is the lauburu, based on the tetraskelion—a rotating cross formed, on the axis of the pole, by the intersection of the solstitial and equinoctial axes, whose curved or straight extensions indicate, in reverse, the rotary movement—and on the comma shape, which represents half a year, either the dark or bright semester, in such bipartite figures (see Ph. Veyrin, “La croix à virgules dite 'croix basque'”, Bulletin du Musée basque de Bayonne, no. 11, 1936).