And then there is the “stroll” along the main street of the village, in Irpinia or elsewhere, a custom that favors meetings, arranges marriages and business, and gives the opportunity to show off new clothes. But beyond appearances, each event is different from the others. Some celebrations like the “commanded festivals” are strictly religious in nature, with mass, the statue of the Patron Saint carried on shoulders, the donation of ex-voto offerings, acts of homage, and the devotion of the faithful, which can sometimes be very dramatic.
Other times, however, popular festivals are linked to the changing seasons, and in rural villages, for example, they follow the agricultural production cycle. This is even more true in small communities where the local economy is almost exclusively based on farming. Haymaking, harvesting, corn gathering, grape harvest, and chestnut picking are some of the appointments tied to the yearly cycle that mark these propitiatory festivals.
The town square festival, with processions and ancient propitiatory rites, becomes an occasion to give thanks for the harvest and to ward off future famines. Both drought and heavy rains represent a serious danger to the crops, so farmers invoke divine help and protection, entrusting their sowing to this or that Saint.
In the farming world, both seasonal celebrations and religious ones dedicated to the Patron Saint are very common, all based on ancient customs passed down orally from father to son. Although today those ancient ceremonies are often personalized and updated by drawing from current events and societal trends.
And so, amidst those distant memory rites, more and more frequently, modern features and details emerge, and sometimes this new folkloric connotation can obscure the true rituality of the festival. But a careful observer will not miss the peculiar characteristics of the ancient rite, which through people’s movements, facial expressions, and the details of things will always remain alive.
In any case, those who hold the tradition remain the only reliable source for anyone wanting information on the origin and reasons for a festival, celebrated in gratitude or devotion.
Village festivals are often very moving and the reasons for celebration are so many that every occasion is good for going to see one. Moreover, in an area dotted with hundreds of small villages like the Avellino countryside, the festival calendar is truly dense, and there is an embarrassment of choice.
For example, the “angel’s flight” is a must-see, a festival of unknown origins, very common in Campania. Angels have always been considered “guardians” and intermediaries between the people and God. Through them, one can ask for divine benevolence and grace. In Prata di Principato Ultra, for the celebrations of the Madonna dell’Annunziata, a festival takes place whose main event is the “Angel’s flight.” Two girls dressed as angels are suspended a few meters above the ground and are slid along a rope stretched between the bell tower window of the Basilica of the Annunziata and a large tree in the center of the square. Halfway through the journey, and amid the silence of the crowd, the suspended girls throw flower petals on the statue of the Madonna below and sing a long greeting lullaby accompanied by the band music. The girls must be light and have a beautiful voice, and they are often difficult to find; once chosen, they will be “trained” and will cover their role for a few years until they become too big.
In Gesualdo, the angel’s flight is truly spectacular. For the celebrations in honor of Saint Vincent Ferrer, the “saint with wings,” a rope is stretched between a window of the Castle of Gesualdo and the bell tower of the Church of the Holy Rosary, to which a child is suspended at a height of over 40 meters. After some declamations and when the angel reaches about halfway through the journey, a verbal battle against the devil begins from above, who recites his part from below, from a stage set up in the square.
At the end, a thunderous applause breaks the silence and shatters the tension that involved all the people present at the sacred representation.
But devotion and gratitude are also expressed with symbolic gifts offered by the population to the Patron Saint or the Madonna. In Mirabella Eclano, for example, during the “carriage festival” held on the third Saturday of September, a gift with an evident reference to fertility is offered: a grand obelisk 25 meters high, made using only woven straw and with a statue of the Madonna of Sorrows on top. Until three years ago, the obelisk was transported on a cart pulled by six oxen, crossing, not without difficulty, the main streets of the village. After about 6 hours, the cart reached the central square, and the exhausted animals had to be slaughtered. The many protests by animal rights activists have interrupted the tradition, and today, instead of oxen, a tractor tows the large ex-voto. From the obelisk, 42 hemp ropes extend to support the structure vertically during its daring journey. Each rope is pulled by 50 people who make every effort necessary so that the structure does not fall to one side: popular belief holds that if this were to happen, the entire population would fall into disgrace. The origin of this festival probably dates back to the 1600s, when farmers offered the Madonna their carts full of grain as a sign of thanks for the harvest; on top of each cart, a divine figure, a saint or a madonna, was also made in a very artisanal way to whom the vow was devoted. Hence why today, at the top of the obelisk, we find the statue of the Madonna.
And there are truly many propitiatory festivals: in April, in Castelvetere sul Calore, seven girls dressed in white and covered in gold have the task of distributing some rings of blessed bread to all the families in the village, as a sign of prosperity. Each family indirectly participates in the bread distribution by choosing a girl to wear one of their own gold jewels. Throughout the day, the seven girls carry 5 or 6 kilos of gold on their dresses and a basket with the blessed rings on their heads, knocking on every door to offer the precious blessed bread to the inhabitants. To avoid any risks, the young distributors are strictly followed by a “godfather” armed with a stick, under the vigilant eyes of the police and the carabinieri!
Popular festivals are a complex theatrical machine, and during their course, everyone contributes to the success of the event; in fact, the necessary ingredient for the festival to be effective is emotional involvement, and for this reason, organizers always try to make every event of the day spectacular. Preparations are made with great care so that no unforeseen events occur, and generally the family that organizes and oversees the event is always the same, passing down the art of organization from generation to generation, an effective way to preserve traditions over time.
