The Vetlatori Dance: "Little Angels go to Heaven"

This paper discusses the vetlatori dance performed on the occasion of a baptised infant's death in the Valencia region of Spain until about fifty years ago. Analyses of historical sources that emphasise the noble spirituality of the vetlatori dance are shown to be based on romantic views of traditional culture and emotions related to the loss of an infant, rather than on authentic information. Ethnographic and ethnomusicological data are presented to illustrate that the music and dances performed during the vetlatori dance were meant for entertainment rather than for spiritual impact. Recourse is also had to oral sources, particularly interviews carried out in the 1960s and 1980s with former infant wake participants who experienced the vetlatori dance, and who confirmed the popular nature of the music, song, and dances that were performed. Analysis of written sources and of the choreographic and musical characteristics of the dance also shows that the kind of music performed was typical of festive celebration in the Valencia region. Functional outcomes for such wakes are also proposed.

Massive open star clusters using the VVV survey III. A young massive cluster at the far edge of the Galactic bar

Context. Young massive clusters are key to map the Milky Way’s structure, and near-infrared large area sky surveys have contributed strongly to the discovery of new obscured massive stellar clusters. Aims. We present the third article in a series of papers focused on young and massive clusters discovered in the VVV survey. This article is dedicated to the physical characterization of VVV CL086, using part of its OB-stellar population. Methods. We physically characterized the cluster using JHKS near-infrared photometry from ESO public survey VVV images, using the VVV-SkZ pipeline, and near-infrared K-band spectroscopy, following the methodology presented in the first article of the series. Results. Individual distances for two observed stars indicate that the cluster is located at the far edge of the Galactic bar. These stars, which are probable cluster members from the statistically field-star decontaminated CMD, have spectral types between O9 and B0 V. According to our analysis, this young cluster (1.0 Myr < age < 5.0 Myr) is located at a distance of 11+5-6 kpc, and we estimate a lower limit for the cluster total mass of (2.8+1.6-1.4) · 103 M⊙. It is likely that the cluster contains even earlier and more massive stars.