This section unites documents, articles, stories customs and uses
of caulonian tradition
           
     

  

 

     
     

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" I tri sirati "

Palm Sunday used to be and still represents the culmination of this intense period in the religious lives of the Caulonian community. Even today, on the Sunday morning, a procession of men, women and youngsters bearing big bunches of palms leaves and olive branches, move from the church  del Rosario in direction of the Matrice church, where, following a suggestive ceremony, a solemn, sung Mass begins with the reading of the “Passio”. Once the long liturgy of the Palm Sunday Mass is over, the adoration of the consecrated host placed on the altar in the chapel of Saint Ilarione begins. For the rest of the day, as during the following two days, the bell is rung with resonant strokes at regular intervals to remind all believers of the exhibbition of the Santissimo Sacramento (the most holy sacrament). In the evening, after the afternoon procession formed by all the parishes has visited the Matrice church, the people assist the processions of the three evenings.

These last processions are so ìimportant to the Caulonian people that Prota, as usual, gives a richly detailed description of it from which the rivalry which distinguishes the followers of each procession. He says:

< the three evenings are a display of luxury, races and sometimes, scuffles. Because of the solemnity of the Quarantore, once the sun sets during the three days, the functions begin. All Caulonia is present in the Matrice church, which seems smaller because of the amount of people crowded inside it. It is also a time for showing off clothes, hats, and fashion. There is a general wish to see and be seen and an anxious air of expectation for what will happen between the rival congregations. Once the preacher’s oratory vein has been exhausted amidst the pomp and circumstance, the solemn litanies are intoned and the procession begins to follow the Sacrament which, removed from Saint Ilario’s altar is borne to the major altar by walking round the church. Although this “gira” (route), as the citizens call it, is held in such a small place, it lasts up to half an hour thanks to the slow and spiteful movement of the congregations. Ruthless contention for first place arises among the believers; races and challenges occur for the bigger or smaller size of the candles. Passing from thought to fact, slowing their pace, they let slip a stinging comment and sometimes they push, shove, scuffle, raise their voices, threaten, faint or give way to hysterics.

And during all this they cry: peace, peace, peace! >

Even today, during the three evenings, although with less offensiveness, the same scenes of rivalry between the two groups which head the congregations of the Arch-confraternity of the Immacolata and del Rosario occur.

“Tamarri” and “Scaravagghji” oppose each other. The first group claim the supremacy of the low area of the town, “jiusu”, the second group claim the importance of the high area of the town, “Susu”. This division of the Caulonian people characterised the social life of the historical centre of the town the whole year round, with mounting tension specially during this period. There used to be challenges for the number of people present in each congregation, for the largeness of the candles, for the elegance of each rochet (brother’s cloak). Even today, the members of each confraternity wear a dress made up of a white cotton surplice which reaches down to their feet, a rope known as “cingolo” which ends in a red pom-pom (Rosario) or a blue pom-pom (Immacolata), the whole effect is completed by a long white hood and a rochet. (Black velvet cape with gold Greek fret for the Rosario members and blue silk with gold fringes for the members of the Immacolata. On both capes, at the height of the right hand pectoral, two big medallions are pinned like badges and bear the effigy of the Madonna del Rosario and the Madonna of the Immacolata which today we shall call the logos of the confraternity).

At the end of the religious function on each of the three evenings, after a heated preach and the benediction, the two parish processions leave the Matrice church and return to their respective churches after having crossed the town’s streets singing the Madonna’s litany and carrying candles. Inside each church the evenings end with the “requiem aeternam” and the “libera nos, domine”.


In the afternoon of Holy Wednesday, the “Via Crucis” departs from the church of the SS. Rosario in the hands of the chosen Passionist father. The fourteen stops along the “Via Dolorosa” are the same number of picturesque squares of our historical centre and during each stop there are alternate moments of song and prayer.

At night, in the church of the Immacolata, after a solemn function with a stern speech, the ceremony of Christ’s Kiss begins.

  

 


The followers used to approach, two by two. It is still like that today, friends, witnesses, brothers and members of the “banca maggiore”, after a series of reverences, kiss the foot of the statue of Christ among the intonations of “Populo meo” and the fragrance of the incense. The great procession of Christ on the cross follows this ceremony.

The entire town is affected by the funerary peals of the church bells until the procession reaches Piazza Mese, where the laments of the “miserere” echo round the square and the crowdwath the beautiful statue of Christ pass through it

The statue is a severe wooden sculpture from the XVII century. The sentiment that ties the faithful followers to this sacred immage is strong. We do not know where the statue comes from, nor who its creator was, but there are a number of legends about it.

One of these tells of a ship coming from the East with the statue on board. It is said to have stopped, as if by miracle, in the waters in front of our town. Apparently it did not shift until a group of “massari” brothers of the church of the Immacolata, went down to the beach and exchanged the statue for some sacks of wheat





Another legend tells of how the statue of Christ spoke to its creator once it was finished. Apparently the artist died and went to heaven immediately. It seems that Christ uttered words to the effect that the sculptor, even though not having witnessed Christ’s passion in person, had managed to render the image worthy of intense pity. This second legend would be enough to admit the statue to the standards of sacred art promoted by the Counter-reform, according to which, as work of art, had to have as its first peculiarity, a highly didactic quality, so interesting as to be able to transmit a direct and clear message to the public on its first appearance. For this reason, a sacred work concentrated on one theme, in our case, “the flagellation”, developed on a grand scale.

The spiritual creator of this way of interpreting a sculpture or a painting is Saint Ignazio di Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. Saint Ignazio wants the believer to exalt God with his entire being: heart, intelligence and all his strength, thus with every sense. For each episode of Christ’s life, the Saint asks the believers the questions: “what do you see?” and “what do you hear?”, without forgetting the other senses: touch, taste and smell. One mustn’t forget that this Saint is the father of those spiritual exercises which culminated in ecstasy. The more the Divine is materialised, the more He is perceived, the more he is concrete, the more one can feel His closeness. The aim is to push the believer into the story so that he lives the happenings as if he was a participant in them and so that he asks the question: “What would I do in that situation?”.
The purpose of baroque sculpture is a modern theatre, without distinction between actors and public. In order for the spectator to feel closer to Christ, the Counter-reformist sculpture seeks to absorb the spectator in the scene of the sacred work. This is why the Concilio Tridentino desires a more realistic representation of the various moments of the Passion. As a consequence, the believer-spectator easily recognises himself in the natural sizes figures and is ready to declare his behaviour to Christ and underline the behaviour to be followed in those circumstances, in those painful stories.

Around midnight, after the procession of “Cristo alla Colonna” returns to the church, the evening ends, but the whole day of Holy Wednesday doesn’t finish until the mysterious and dark voice of the “Paternostro” rises in all the streets of the town for the last time.


With the Holy Thursday all is ready for the Mass of the Dinner and the visit to the Saintly Sepulchres.

For many days and in particular during the days of the two congregations, there is great activity in the churches of Caulonia for the preparation of the Santo Sepolcro. From the early hours of the day, the women used to, and still do, bring a vase or serving plate (vacile), used for preserves, holding wheat seeds or legumes (lentils, chick-peas and cicerchia) which have germinated in the dark. These seeds, in their containers receive the humidity they need from broom stems, now replaced by cotton wool, and are closed in the dark inside of benches around the Sunday of the Holy Spirits of Purgatory so that they flower on Holy Thursday.
On the Sunday of the Holy Spirits of Purgatory, the women also set aside dried salamis in enamel coated clay pots “manali”, which are consumed after the joyful ringing of the church bells which declare the Resurrection.

The “sepulchre’s wheat” is what the magno-Greek cities knew as the garden of Adonis; this similarity is interesting because its use was very common among the Locrese population and the myth surrounding Adonis, God of fertility, masculine element of production, was connected to the myth surrounding aphrodite, feminine element of fertility. Adonis was represented as a beautiful adolescent full of life in Spring, but destined to be submitted by the hot summer and be reborn thanks to Aphrodite after the lonf, dark winter period.
The association to cults belonging to the Magno-Greek world and to rites belonging to ancient Italic civilisations are not limited to only this case. All this should induce us to reflect on how many of our rites which have survived for centuries, even millenniums, are now disappearing, destroyed by a fast and frenetic homogenising process which necessarily erases, in the name of a hypothetical progress, the culture, the traditions and the roots of our populations. P.P. Pasolini was prophetic in his warning that very soon we would have abandoned our farming civilisation to be swallowed up by a rapid industrialisation process.

At sunset, the last peal of the church bells before the silence representing the death of Jesus, warns the people that all is ready for the Messa della Cena (Mass of the Dinner). Prota yet again helps us to describe the ceremony about which, in the appendix of his work: “Ricerche su Caulonia”, he writes an interesting page in which he refers to another work, never published, called “Usi e costumi del mio paese” (customs and traditions of my town), in which today we would have had another precious contribution and a vivid testimonial of many of our traditions:

< The dinner consists in a splendid agape, laid out in the church on holy Thursday. On the flax table are set out the largest selection of vases, porcelains, linens and silverware that Caulonia could produce, all disposed as if twelve princes were to banquet using them. For each silver piece of cutlery there is a discrete plate of sweets and after the ritual washing of the feet, the celebrant blesses the lamb (which is made of cake) which lies on a silver plate surrounded by Biblical salad. Having completed the distribution of the plates, each with a bit of cake lamb, and a glass of wine for each apostle, the women who prepared all this are served cakes inside the church appeasing the cries of the others with a few sweets >.

 


 

The story of Lent, otherwise said
the rites of the holy week in Caulonia.
The Caracolo

by Gustavo Cannizzaro

www.caulonia2000.it - March 2001


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