And then there is the “struscio” along the main street of the village, in Irpinia or elsewhere, a custom that favors encounters, arranges marriages and business deals, and gives the opportunity to show off new clothes. But beyond appearances, each event is different from the others. Some festivals like the “feste comandate” are strictly religious, with the mass, the statue of the Patron Saint carried on the shoulders, the donation of ex-votos, acts of homage, and the devotion of the faithful, which can sometimes be very dramatic.
Other times, however, popular festivals are tied to the changing seasons, and in rural villages, for example, they follow the agricultural production cycle. This is even more true in small centers where the community’s economy is based almost exclusively on farming. Haymaking, harvesting, corn picking, grape harvest, chestnut gathering are some seasonal appointments that mark the popular propitiatory festivals.
The village festival, with processions and ancient propitiatory rites, becomes an occasion to thank for the harvest and to ward off future famines. Both drought and heavy rains pose a serious danger to the crops, so the 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. Even though today those ancient ceremonies are often personalized and updated drawing on current events and social customs.
And so, among those rites of distant memory, more and more frequently modern particulars and details emerge, and sometimes this new folkloric connotation may even hide the true rituality of the festival. But to a keen observer, the peculiar characteristics of the ancient rite will not escape notice; through the movements of the people, the expressions on faces, and the details of things, it will always remain alive.
Anyway, those who are the custodians of tradition remain the only reliable source for those wanting information on the origin and reasons for a festival, celebrated in thanks or devotion.
Village festivals are often very moving, and the reasons for celebration are so many that every occasion is good for attending one. And in a territory dotted with hundreds of small villages like the Avellino countryside, the festival calendar is truly very dense and there is an embarrassment of choice.
For example, the “flight of the angel” is a must-see, a festival of unknown origins, very common in Campania. Angels have always been considered “guardians,” intermediaries between the people and God. It is through them that one can ask for divine goodwill and grace. In Prata di Principato Ultra, for the celebrations of the Madonna dell’Annunziata, a festival takes place whose main event is the “flight of the Angel.” Two girls dressed as angels are suspended several meters above 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 along and amid the silence of the crowd, the suspended girls throw flower petals on the statue of the Madonna below and sing a long lullaby greeting accompanied by the band’s 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 fulfill their role for a few years, until they become too old.
In Gesualdo, instead, the flight of the angel is truly spectacular. For the festivities in honor of Saint Vincent Ferrer, the “saint with wings,” a rope is stretched between a window of the Gesualdo Castle and the bell tower of the SS. Rosario church, to which a child is suspended at a height of over 40 meters. After some speeches and when the angel reaches about halfway through his journey, a verbal joust against the devil begins from above, who recites his part from below, from a stage set in the square.
At the end, a thunderous applause breaks the silence and releases the tension that has 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 protective 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 the statue of the Madonna Addolorata on top. Until three years ago, the obelisk was transported on a cart pulled by six oxen through, not without difficulty, the main streets of the village. After about 6 hours, the cart reached the main square, and the animals, exhausted, had to be slaughtered. Many protests from animal rights activists ended the tradition and today, instead of the oxen, a tractor pulls the large ex-voto. Forty-two hemp ropes depart from the obelisk to support the structure vertically during its daring journey. Each rope is pulled by 50 people who make all necessary efforts to prevent the structure from falling to the 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 handcrafted to receive the vow. This is why today, at the top of the obelisk, there is 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 are tasked with 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. All day long, the seven girls carry 5 or 6 kilos of gold on their dresses and a basket with blessed rings of bread on their heads. They knock on every door to offer the precious blessed bread to the inhabitants. To avoid any risk, the young dispensers are strictly followed by a “godfather” armed with a stick, under the watchful eyes of the police and carabinieri!
Popular festivals are a complex theatrical mechanism, and during their course, everyone contributes to the success of the event; in fact, the essential ingredient for the festival to be effective is emotional involvement, and for this, organizers always try to make every event of the day spectacular. Preparations are made with great care to prevent unforeseen events, and usually 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.
