On Saturday, January 15, the Consell Insular de Menorca will adhere for the fourth consecutive year to the original initiative of the Consell Insular de Mallorca “Lighting of the taulas, watch towers and talayots of the Mediterranean, a cry for Human Rights.” This action is included in the Menorca Day program, as it is an event open to the public.
The objective behind this action is two fold: to create awareness about the plight of people who live in situations grave enough to make them want to cross the Mediterranean in rafts in search of a better life; and to recreate what might have been the means of communication between talayotic settlements in prehistoric times, when movement across the Mediterranean was already commonplace.
The talayots of Menorca will be lit on Saturday, January 15, at 1 p.m. with smoke signals and at 6:30 p.m. with light flares, simultaneously in other places in the Mediterranean such as Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera, some points of the peninsula (in Andalusia, the Valencian Community and Catalonia), and other parts of Greece or North Africa.
In Menorca, 28 talayots from Ciutadella, Ferreries, Es Migjorn Gran, Alaior, Maó, Sant Lluís and Es Castell will be lit. Entities on the island and people who wanted to join this initiative will be in charge of lighting the talayots.
The main event will take place at 1 p.m. at the Son Catlar site (Ciutadella), where a manifesto will be read (by representatives of Amnesty International and the Fons Menorquí de Cooperació), and a rendition of the song “Viaje a Ítaca” will be played by the Menorcan singer Clara Gorrias.
You may witness the lightning ceremony in Son Catlar or Montefí (in Ciutadella), Binicodrell (Es Migjorn Gran), Torre d'en Galmés (in Alaior), Talatí de Dalt or Trepucó (in Maó ), because these sites have easier access and better visibility.
For more information, you can contact the organization by email talaiotsdretshumans@gmail.com or by phone: Miquel López (666731072) or Cecília Ligero (679570372).