This section unites
documents, articles, stories customs and uses of caulonian tradition
"
A Svelata "
The “Svelata”, the “Confrontata”,
the “Ncrinata”, and the “Affruntata” according to the different
denominations are still the used manifestations on Easter Sunday,
today, in every town in southern Italy.
About this ceremony,
I. Silone created for the Rai, a beautiful documentary with a
significant title: “In Sulmona the Easter celebrations are a hymn
for Spring”; and he described the topic admirably in his work
of which some passages follow:
“
...the local Christian religiousness finds its roots in a more
distant past than the two millenniums of our era. It goes back
many centuries, enough to be lost in the most ancient history.
A past where the relationship with nature, even today so alive
and tangible, used to be more than the simple conditioning of
man versus the natural elements, it was a relationship between
the mortal (man) and the supernatural (the Earth, Sky and the
Elements). A relationship, in its own way, religious even if still
crude.
At
the root of this tie (fears, hopes, anxieties, joy, anger and
desire), was above all the waiting for the earth to not betray
the people who inhabited it, to continue producing its fruits
without which man could not survive: the green fields for grazing
animals, the buds on the trees, the rooting of seeds.
A
spasmodic wait during the months of cold and snow, when everything
seemed dead, even the water which turned to ice.
Thus
the arrival of Spring was life being reborn: the festivities exploded
everywhere in order to give thanks for a miracle, that it was feared,
might not reoccur the following year. Today, a festivity which reveals
the memory of ancient rites to celebrate the end of winter, under
its Christian surface, is the celebration of Easter in Sulmona.
With our usual helicopter we flew over the town during the crucial
moment of the festivities. The great square was full to bursting
with people. Beyond the houses, in the surrounding hills, we could
still see the snow, but the valleys were already dotted with blossoms
and the grass shone with a pale green light. The crowd in the square,
unmoving until a short while before, began to move as if crossed
by a shiver. It was laid out like a carpet of dark seaweed that
moves with the rhythm if the waves. From above, we saw a vibration
run through it and open it up, leaving a deep passage that cut through
the square, drawing a thin path from the small church right under
the Maiella prospective up to the other side of the square. There,
a canopy had been set up and its drapes were swelling like the veils
of a boat in the blasts of wind.
In
the doorway of the church, a concealed statue had appeared, covered
by a black veil: a Madonna mourning her son. Around the statue,
were the servants of a civil confraternity. Their coloured clothes,
from above, were dots of colour which stood out from the dark crowd.
The statue of the grieving Madonna slowly advanced amidst the crowd,
borne on peoples’ shoulders. All of a sudden, she hesitated and
stopped. The Sulmonesi say it is because she has seen another statue
on the other side of the square: that of Resurrected Jesus. Simultaneously,
loud crackers explode accompanied by the church bells ringing. The
statue of the Madonna almost leaps: the four men bearing her have
begun a race to take her to stand next to her son.
At
the beginning of this race, her black veil, which is fixed to her
with pins, folds and an internal system of seams whose extremity
is held by a member of the confraternity, conceals her second dress,
green and luminous. During the race, the black dress is ripped off
with a quick tug and as if by magic the green dress is revealed.
The
optical effect is helped not only by the race but also by the flight
of doves, freed from around the statue at the same time as the dress.
Another string is pulled and the white kerchief held by the mourning
Madonna is replaced by a red rose. The whole process, in reality,
takes less time to consume than it does to read these words.
Easter
in Sulmona is closely tied to the topic of protohistoric and prehistoric
roots of the population of Abruzzo. That black cloak and that dress
which becomes green, represent nothing if not the Earth which, after
months of arid and cold winter, covers itself with spring green
grass and germinating wheat. The white kerchief is snow: its disappearance
and the appearance of the red flower, which in nowadays rituals
means the end of mourning and the end of the Madonna’s tears, used
to represent the evident melting of the frosts and the appearance
of the first flowers”.
As
well as giving an exhaustive and complete description of this
ceremony, I. Silone also gives us an interpretation apt to help
us to better comprehend our own “Svelata”.
On the Lunedì dell’Angelo
(Angel’s Monday), known as “Pasquetta” or “Galilea” is for the
Caulonians, as is for all Italy, a day for the country. It
represents the first pick-nick of the year and our people, even
today, take the opportunity to taste and enjoy everything; naturally,
good wine is always present along with excellent salamis (supprezzate
and capicodi), asparagus omelettes, “pitte” a kind of focaccia
stuffed wuth “salamori” and “ngute” with symbolic eggs. Lastly,
the sound of a small bell warned, as it still does, the people
that the parish priest, beginning the blessing of our houses,
was opening the Pentecost period, but that is another story...
A
heartfelt thank-you to Prof. Gustavo Cannizzaro who chose
our
web site
for the first publication of his work
The
story of Lent, otherwise said the
rites of the holy week in Caulonia.
The Caracolo
by Gustavo Cannizzaro
Translated
by Alexia Mazza www.caulonia2000.it
- March 2001 Top
