Another blessing commonly administered at the church door was the one given to livestock and domestic animals. More recently, motor cars were blessed outside the church by the priest, who would emerge from the church flanked by the altarboys.

It was also common for the municipal authorities to be received by the ecclesiastical authorities in the church porch on feast days and other solemn ecclesiastical occasions. The custom is still maintained on the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, when the town council parades to the church to recite the Salve Maria.

THE FIRST CEREMONY OF BAPTISM.

Until 1970 Catholic baptisms were still celebrated in accordance with the rite of 1614. The priest would emerge from the church, robed in his garments and accompanied by an acolyte, and would administer the sacrament in the doorway of the church. Before the ceremony began, the priest would verify the parish to which the parents belonged and talk to the godparents; who would previously have attended catechism. From the fourth to the sixth century, it was the custom for the priest to blowing three times on the child's forehead, thus rejecting Satan. He then marked the child's face and chest with the sign of the cross, and placed his hand on its head to signify that the church took it into God's protection. The child was then given salt to anticipating the Eucharist and the heavenly feast, and the churchdoor ceremony was complete. In the ritual of the "arrebuchas" still practised to this day the godparents throw sweets, nuts and coins to children waiting outside the church.

FUNEREAL ROLE.

Gipuzkoa has maintained many of its old traditions and customs, and the church porch has acted as a backdrop to many of them. It used to be common to bury the dead in the area adjoining the church, and as a result meetings in the porch were said to be held in the cemetery (cimiterio) of the church. It was also common practise at funerals for the coffin to be rested on a table or bier, sometimes made of stone at the main door of the church in the porch while the funeral mass was being celebrated inside. This construction was known as the "il-arriaga" or "stone of the dead". An example can still be seen next to the church of San Andrés in Elosua. Members of local associationsóguilds and confraternitiesóalso awaited the funeral cortege in the church porch. It used to be common for the members of the cortege to bring offerings. As they were borne in a basket, candles would be lit in the porch as the priest recited the prayers for the dead. This rite is associated with the idea of illuminating the path to the afterlife or giving the soul light in its new abode.

In some places, the priest still receives the coffin in the porch, accompanied by some members of the congregation. After a prayer, the cortege then sets off towards the presbytery. This is a relic of the old comitiva which used to walk from the house of the dead person. In some towns the closest family did not enter the church, instead staying at the door with the coffin, accompanied by hired mourners. Inside the church they would be represented by other members of the family. It was also common to leave the offerings in the porch until the offertory. Seventeenth century accounts relate that it was common for animalsógenerally a ram or two oxenóto be brought as an offering. They would head the cortege or be led next to the coffin, and when they reached the church they would be tied to a ring in the wall. Some of these rings can still be seen inóthere is one in the church porch in Aitzarnazabal, for example. The animal was covered in a mantle lent by the parish and bore a ring-shaped bread roll on each horn. The size of the offering depended on the exequies provided. According to eighteenth century accounts, at large funerals a live bullock was offered up. After the funeral it was returned to the household, who paid a certain amount depending on the weight of the animal as payment to the priest for the service. This custom was also practised in the nineteenth century when the head of some important household died: the funeral cortege would be accompanied by oxen wearing black mantles and a golden cross and bells, or by a fine heifer with flowers and rosettes on its horns. Rams, pigs or poultry were also led to the main entrance of the church. Although the Provincial Assembly and Government of Castile tried to ban this practice, a garlanded bullock is known to have been offered up in the Oikia district of Zumaia as late as in 1917.

In some places, the family of the dead person would offer mourners some bread and wine, which was served up in the church porch after the burial. There are accounts of this practice taking place in Zerain and Zegama. This meal was known as the "Karidadea" the "Charity". The mourners would form a circle with their backs to the wall, speaking in low voices. Men and women would serve the members their own sex. When the mayor of the town, who always presided over the event, saw that everyone had finished, he would take off his beret and being to pray aloud. This meal was known in Oiartzun as "amaiketako" (elevenses) and in Getaria as "seixiak" or refreshment. In some towns in the early twentieth century it was the custom to give the pall bearers a dish of cod in the church porch. In the portico of the church in Oiartzun people would also recite prayers for the dead after high mass on the days of the faithful departed or animas, while women left coins in a bonnet as they left the church. In Karranza this mass was held in the doorway of the church. After the mass, the altar boys would wait in the porch until the priests emerged, scattering ochavosósmall brass coinsóthat had been left in the collection.