Patron Saint Day - Acquavella

mercoledì, 5 luglio 2017

As many of you saw on Facebook, Acquavella's celebration of its Patron Saint was this past weekend.  A week before, the village is in preparation.  I had posted pictures of the lights that are displayed throughout the village. I am posting some here as well for those not on Facebook.  

 This festa is the most important of all for this village.  Unlike other villages many of the religious ceremonies are celebrated in similar ways to years ago.  I will point out examples along the way but I am sure you will be able to see for yourself in some of the pictures and videos I have taken.  A week before, many different masses are held in the church.  Church bells ring much more than just to announce the time.  And the program for the weekend as well as a few days before is full of tradition.  

It all starts with the Patron Saint - Maria della Grazie.  Basically the Madonna.  But the history says that she saved the village (if my memory is correct).  And many who have received blessings from her will be participating in the processions and offering a votive to her.  The statue of the saint is in the church.

Unlike other villages they only remove the statue for the procession every five years (not sure why).  The other 4 years a picture of the saint is carried during the processions.  

On Saturday the band arrives and marches to one of the main piazzas where many flags are flown.  You will see they have an American flag as well as Europe countries.  This piazza has memorials for wars.  The band plays a version of taps as well as the National Anthem of Italy.


https://youtu.be/VyALS4r93JE

 

This is the first time in 2 months the fountain was on - sure wish they would
keep it on - assume it could be due to money.

The band then marches throughout the village playing marches.  After the mass the first procession will start at an alter just outside the main village.  The women I mentioned above march in procession to the church from the alter.  They will carry on their heads, an offering of thanks (votives) to the saint.  These offerings are structures (best word I can think of) that have been made by them.  They must remain in the family and ONLY a family member (female) may carry the votive in the procession.  Also take note in the video - many of these women are walking barefoot. All of the women are in traditional Cilento costume.  The video is not that long so take a look.  

https://youtu.be/Jw47Y6Eylaw


The main procession is Sunday night.  But earlier in the day there is another smaller procession with the band and the church clergy along with the people attending mass.  They go to a small chapel in the village and I think they take a crown from this chapel and bring it to the church to crown the statue.  She normally wears a silver crown - I think this one is gold.  I watched the procession from my front porch.   After mass the day is quiet but all the families are now getting together for celebration lunches.  Many people come back to the village for this event so families spend the day together in anticipation of the procession in the evening.  I was invited to spend the afternoon with cousin Marinella, who celebrates a birthday every year on the day of the procession.  She and her family come to Acquavella and have a celebration lunch in her mother's house (usually closed up but sometimes rented in the summer).   After lunch and visiting I went home to take care of Oscar before the big evening ahead.

The main procession starts about 8 p.m. after another mass.  Again this procession will include the women with their votive, the church dignitaries and others.  Some of the townspeople will march while others decorate their homes using lace bedspreads/curtains/draping and watch from balconies.  I chose to watch this one and video the procession when they came close to my house.  As in the other patron saint day there are stops along the way.  There was a stop near my house so I was able to video the entire stop. As you watch pay attention to the fact that they have to climb steps to get to the stop (as well as throughout the entire village).  The band does not make the trip up the steps as it is very narrow but stays behind and plays. A few other things to point out to watch in the video.  Notice two girls carrying a blue board that is loaded with gold jewelry.  If I remember correctly these are gifts that are given to the Madonna (eventually the church I presume).   
The video is 11+ minutes.  If you fast forward to about 4 minutes in you will see the picture of the saint being carried.  Then about 10:25 you will see the blue board with jewelry. 

https://youtu.be/4azP37Ouglo

The stop near my house.

Notice the band down below waiting for the procession to
come back down the steps after making the stop.

After the procession everyone ends up on the Main Street between the church and the main piazza.  Everyone mills around greeting those they have not seen in some time or just visiting with friends.  There are a few food vendors and a few vendors selling childrens toys.  It was fun to see the commaraderie.  I talked with many cousins and families that were there.  As it got close to 10 p.m I left to go to the other piazza as there was going to be a band concert.  The marching band was going to do a more symphonic concert and I did not want to miss it.  After hearing them play marches I was impressed so didn't want to miss this concert to see how good they really were. I researched them prior to the concert and discovered they have a following and are from Agropoli (a bigger town north of me).  

The concert started not too much after 10 - I was impressed as nothing is ever on time here.  They did 4 sets.  The first was an interesting piece of many classical pieces rolled into one.  I heard Beethoven, Rimsky Korsavoc, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Rossini, and more.  Rather interesting as I had never heard this before so wonder if someone local arranged it.  The second, third and fourth sets were respectively, selections from Operas, Popular (Italian) music and finally Neopolitan songs.  However by this time it was already after 12:15 a.m.  so while they played the Neapolitan songs I walked home so I could be at home for the fireworks. 

As I walked the 132  steps to my house, at the top what do I find????  The fireworks site!!!!  Now for those that really know me well they are are saying "oh no!"   For those that don't know me from years ago - I used to shoot fireworks (professional shows) while living in Cleveland.  Yes another interesting side of me.  So I got really excited when I saw this.  But it was so late and my Italian brain had shut down I couldn't even begin to try and communicate with the fireworks team. I just walked home and got ready for the show.  (you can bet I will be ready next year!!!)   But knowing the site was so close I knew I would have wonderful seats for the show - and I did - right on my front porch steps.  I did not even have to look up.  They were eye level with me.  I took a video of the show.   Don't watch the whole thing (unless you want to) but fast forward to about 6:30 in the video.  Pretty fun shells going off here but when they light up if you look at the bottom of the video you can also see the rooftop of the house next to me so you can get an idea how high up I was. It was a great show for a little village. 

 https://youtu.be/gTZcwJu-EuI

The festivities continued on Monday night.  The local town organization was selling pizze fritte (fried pizza) along with wine, in the main piazza.  Fried pizza is just lightly fried pizza dough - you can have plain or with sauce and cheese. It is crispy for those that like a crispy crust.  YUM!!  There was also traditional cilento music from a local band.  A fun night to end a great weekend.   Now we can all rest up as next weekend will be Acquavella's Sagra - gee - a celebration of food!!!!!  What a great idea!!

I hope everyone had a great July 4th Celebration!!