Wood and Broom Fires Ritual Change in Southern Italy

H erma n Tak

Tak, Herman 1992: Wood and Broom Fires. Ritual Change in Southern Italy - Ethnologia Europaea . 22: 33-50.

Festivals with fires are still common in Southern Italy, and many have a long tradition. This continuity is relaLed to their possibility of adaptation. The differ ences between broom and wood fires in Lhe mountain town alvello, poi11tsto an elder ystem of proteclion , which l1u·gely faded away with Lhe decline of Lhe agratian society, after the Second World War. However, change, and even. the spread of lire rit.uals alrnady started from the hegimling of the 9th century. Long term development s show that.social changes influence the meaning of these lire 1:ituals . It is not. the riLual itself that changes as a direct response to changing cil'cumstances, but the overall rituals in which they are embedded, and which are related to symbols like saints.

Herman Tak, Uniuersity a( Am$terdam A.S.C. , Oudezijds Acht erburgwal 185, NL-1012 Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

"All over Europe the peasants have been ac theory" versus "purificatory theory", makes customed from time immemorial to kindle bon this clear. The last one is preferred, because fires on certain days of the year, and to dance informants confirmed it. Indeed, Frazer's in round or leap over them . Customs of this kind terest was on "primary" and "original" of these can be traced back on historical evidence to the rituals, however, he did not really consider the Middle Ages, and their analogy to similar cus thesis that one could have been developed out toms observed in antiquity goes with strong of the other, and by reducing them, he under internal evidence to prove that their origin estimated their complexity. must be sought in a period long prior to the After "The Golden Bough", ritual change did spread of Christianity. Indeed the earliest not become a subject which caused great an proof of observance in Northern Europe is fur thropological interest, till recently . This is, nished by the attempts made by Christian syn amongst other reasons, due to the character of ods in the eigt.h century to put. them down as continuity which rituals seem to have (cf. heathenish rites " (Frazer 1922: 609). Bloch 1986; Kerzer 1988). Today, there is a So goes the prosaic introduction of"The Fire growing interest in the invention, revival and fe tivals of Europe". Although, this chapter of revitalization of rituals, especially festivals (cf. "The Golden Bough " contains intere ting ma Boissevain 1983; 1988; 1992), but this does not terial fo1·comparison, what one lacks in Fraz consider ritual change on the long term. How er's argument, is an answer to how i't is pos ever, for understanding ritual in depth, such a sible that. uch fire rites continue? Not only historical approach is necessary (cf. Bloch during the 19th centtu·y or till 1922, but even 1986). today there are festivals with fires, as in Italy The focus of this essay is on the ritual fires of (cf. Ct>langeli 1977; De Simone & Rossi 1.977; a Southern Italian mountain town, during two Pave e 1950; Rivera 1988· Silverman 1975). In centuries. It starts from the down to earth as Frazer's analysis there is nothing about devel sumption that if a society develops, this should opment or change. The discussion on "solar influence the rituals it performs. First it de-

3 Ethnologia Elll'opaea 22:1 33 Under the Volturino The mountain town Calvello is situated in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata, in the province of Potenza , by road 40 kilometers be low the capital with the same name. The vil lage has about two thousand inhabitants. Like many Italian places, it is a nucleated settle ment with a civic character. One lives in town, the country is largely unpopulated (cf. Blok & Driessen 1984). Till the fifties Calvello was characterized by a pastoral agrarian society, with small estates, communal grounds, alpine meadows and woods. The fascist politics of autarky and mi gration ban, were obstacles to the development of local society. The limits of local economy were, thanks to population growth, already re ached during the middle of the nineteenth cen tury. After the Italian unification, when the village had 5800 inhabitants, a migration started, which, among other things, caused a sharp demographic decline. From the sixties a growing prosperity ruled out la miseria. Today economic resources are the subsidies on agriculture, cattle breeding , Fig. 1. Men talking at the wood fire in front of the chapel of Saint Anthony the Abbot on 17th of Janu mountain community (to prevent depopula ary. Photo: Helene Steehouder (1991). tion), and the village's repair after the earth quakes (1980; 1990); relief work of the govern ment;, pensions; and the money of migrants scribes the meaning and performance of these and remigrants. fire rituals today. From there it goes back in Calvello lies at 730 meters in a valley, where time, and shows how these fires were part of a the panorama is dominated by the mountain, complex ritual defending system, itself a prod the Volturino (1836 m.). The old center is built uct of history. Then it follows changes that on a hill. On the top there is the Castello, a have taken place. former ducal building erected in a sober Re This method causes some related problems. naissance style. Its foundations show traces of Rituals are related to symbols, in this case to an older fortification (cf. Masini 1990). Next to Catholic saints; universal saints which became it there is a small church, dedicated to Saint localized during time. Rituals are also con Nicholas, one of the two patron saints. Against nected with other rituals. Today, fire rituals the south side, the present center, called the are part of festivals, which are themselves rit Piazza, is situated. Here, one finds the parish ual performances, and can contain other, church and, since the sixties, the town hall. It though related rituals. They are also related to has new development and most of the shops. other rituals in the annual cycle. To isolate On the east side lies the neighbourhood the them is artificial, it deprives us not only of the Piano, with its old Roman church and con complexity of their meaning, but also of the vent. 1 On the south side, across the river La possibility to analyze how they change. Terra, the neighbourhood Sant' Antuono is sit uated, named after the medieval chapel, dedi cated to Saint Anthony the Abbot. Another

34 frazione (isolated neighbourhood), is Trinita (Holy Trinity), on the west side of Calvello, named after the chapel which is situated on that side of the village. And outside this neigh bourhood lies the chapel of Saint Joseph. Calvello has, besides three churches, thir teen chapels, of which eight are on the border or outside the nucleal settlement . This points to the mental map of the peasants, based on territoriality. The chapels outside the nucleus of the village, were not only sacred places but also marking points. Today, some of them are half ruins. However, the important ones are connected to festivals and fires. Calvello's festival cycle consists of about 30 festivals, from tiny to big ones. Eight of them include fires. This cycle, which is as well con nected with the agrarian year as with the cler ical calender, can be divided into a winter and summer half. In the winter part there are three festivals with a wood fire, and in the summer part five with broom fires . In contrast to the wood fires, the broom fires are still im portant today. To understand why, one needs insight into the meaning and developments of these ritual fires.

Wood fires The first fire in winter is for Saint Anthony the Abbot on the sixteenth of January. On that Fig . 2. Devotional picture of Saint Anthony the Ab day there is a wood fire in the neighbourhood bot. of Sant' Antuono, in front of the saint's chapel. In January 1991, this fire was lit at eight in the morning. In the chapel two Masses were said, ease. The saint's great popularity since the at eight and at ten. During the day, a group of Middle Ages is to be attributed to his being the men stood talking around the fire, which patron against contagious diseases among peo burned till midnight. Till some years ago, the ple and livestock (cf. Timmers 1978: 234-35 ). fire was lit on the eve of the festival. Up to the Although, this iconographic reading is cor fifties, people brought loads of wood on the rect, it is not the only explanation. Religious backs of mules, as a gift to the saint. symbols are results of developments , and uni Saint Anthony the Abbot is associated with versal saints became localized in the course of fire . In his chapel there is a late Byzantine time. In Calvello, as in other Italian communi statue. He has a pig at his feet and in his left ties (cf. Rivera 1988), Saint Anthony's flames hand a book from which flames arise. Accord are associated with his struggle during his life ing to iconographic literature, the pig points to as a hermit, against demons. Saint Anthony Saint Anthony's pig, that walked around the Abbot is the protector from and of fire in freely, was fed by everybody, and given to the Calvello. Which means, that he protects poor after it was slaughtered . The flames in against fire risks and lightning strokes (cf. dicate Saint Anthony's fire, before a feared dis- Thomas 1971 : 28; 32-33). But, he is also the

35 Fig . 3. The procession of Saint Joseph passes the wood fire in front of his chapel at the village 's border. Photo: Herman Tak (1991). patron of fire: "Saint Anthony the Abbot has Padua some horses and cows are blessed. Do given us the fire". nations of wood have disappeared in both fes The relation between saint and fire seems tivals. In 1991, the festival for Saint Anthony older than the one with the pig for Calvello. the Abbot, enjoyed a small revitalization. The The wooden statue has a pig, but this is of tin neighbourhood of Sant' Antuono founded a plate and nailed against it. Also in Calvello committee, which organized, notwithstanding Saint Anthony was a patron of animals . But , the freezing cold, a ball on the piazza in front of there is some symbolic confusion with the the chapel, and concluded it with fireworks .2 other Anthony, the one of Padua . Both are Saint Joseph (19th of March) is the second patron saints of livestock in Calvello. Till re festival in winter with a fire. In Calvello there cently, cattle were blessed during his festival was a wood fire on the 19th of March. It was lit on the thirteenth of June, while the other live in front of his chapel, a little outside the neigh stock, in particular goats and sheep, were bourhood of Trinita. On the eve of the festival, blessed on the seventeenth of January. In this men stood around it. They drank wine and ate period the cattle stayed on the coast of Apulia. lupine, yellow flat beans, which are still tradi Calvello knew of an Anthony's pig, but it tional food during this festival. 3 This wood fire was dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua . Till disappeared more than twenty years ago . the fifties, a lot of wood was donated during his Three years ago it was reintroduced. Here too, festival, which does not include a wood fire. it was an initiative of the neighbourhood . Here is the symbolic confusion between the In contrast, the procession for Saint Joseph two saints. The wood was sold to the local pot has enjoyed a long continuity. At the begin ters, and the profit was used for the festival. ning of the nineteenth century the same course The blessing of cattle at Saint Anthony the was followed as today. The procession, with the Abbot has disappeared. At Saint Anthony of saint's statue, goes from the parish church

36 omy, these aspects disappeared: "Today, it is feast every day", someone remarked. Whether the wood fire was older than the festival, or was added to it, is unknown. The procession strengthened the ritual fire, but there has never been a symbolical identifica tion on fire with the saint, as with Saint An thony the Abbot . Today, Saint Joseph is a church performance . During the procession in March 1991, there was a new symbol added to it. One of the altar boys walked with a ham mer, which symbolizes Saint Joseph the car penter. It partly subscribed the official clerical meaning of the saint. Partly, because the feast of Saint Joseph the laborer is on the first of May, introduced by Pius XII in 1955 (cf. Gial lombardo 1981). In fact, it shows the delocal ization of this saint. Finally, there is a wood fire on the Easter vigil. This Easter fire, which forms a part of a complex number of rituals in the Holy week, is lit in front of the parish church . As Frazer describes, the Easter candle is lit at it (cf. 1922: 614). The fire symbolizes life; the resurrection of Christ. After this clerical ritual, the fire burns up. I did not find direct indications of Fig. 4. The lighting of the pascal candle at Easter vigil in front of the mother church. Photo: Herman other meanings or of ancient origins for Cal Tak (1991). vello. The wood fires for Saint Anthony the Abbot and Saint Joseph were connected with the straight to the chapel of Saint Joseph, where agrarian pastoral economy. The decline of Mass is said. After that it goes along Trinita, their importance, the disappearance of one for back to the church. Because the 19th of March more than two decades, can be related to the is no longer an official holiday, the procession decline of this economy. Today, the meaning of has been transferred to the closest Sunday. these two wood fires, seems more connected This removal has contributed to the decline of with the neighbourhoods which light them, its importance. than with the saints. In both festivals there The relation between Saint Joseph and fire have been attempts at revitalization . is obscure. The festival has spread over Europe from the 15th century. Neither in the Apoc rypha nor in his iconography is there a relation Broom fires between him and fire. In Calvello his festival Festivals with broom fires are in the summer was connected with the arrival of the first part of the cycle. On the eve of five festivals, herdsmen. Though the 19th of March is in win there is a procession past these fires. They are ter, there were many aspects of spring in it. held for the Madonna del Monte Saraceno, the People wore their new clothes,4 and girls and Madonna della Pieta, 5 and Saint Anthony of young women wore white flowers in their hair, Padua. The festivals for the Madonna del during the procession. The Mass in the chapel Monte are in May and September. On the sec was an occasion for boys and girls to meet. ond Sunday in May her statue is carried in With the decline of the pastoral agrarian econ- procession to a sanctuary, on the border of the

37 b Fig. 5. Children drag broom branches to Calvello. Photo: Peer de Wit (1991).

village territory, about 10 kilometers from the lire . The auction continues to the chapel of nucleus . On the eighth of September she is Trinita , situated at one-third of the course . carried back . The other double festival is for The procession is crowded and untidy . Till the Pieta, the other village patron saint . On Trinita, little children walk with candles in the first Sunday in June, and the third Sunday front, accompanied by their parents. Then the in September her statue is carried through the image follows, surrounded by men who partici village. The same counts for Saint Anthony of pate in the auction under the direction of the Padua in June. festival committee. Behind them walks the Th e five broom fire processions are almost brass band. Calvello does not have its own identical. One walks past the fires , which are band, and one has to explain to the members lit in the village. Days before, groups of chil the procedure of the ritual. At the back follows dren collect broom branches in the surround the crowd . Not all do the whole route . People ings , and drag them in bundles, sometimes be come and go. hind a bike, to their neighbourhoods . There The procession goes clockwise through the they are put on piles, awaiting the eve of the village nucleus . The ritual performance is sim festival. ple. People take care that the broom fire blazes Between ten and eleven in the evening, the up when the image arrives. Collecting broom, procession starts from the parish church. In is a task for the youth, however adults, men contrast to day processions, the statue of the and women , set it alight at the right moment. saint is not taken, but a quadro . This is an The image halts at the fire, and the carrier image of the statue, placed in a heavy wooden places the stick of the image on the ground. frame, decorated with small bulbs , fed by a One waits, and the band plays a tune . After battery placed on the back. The image is on a that the fire is passed on the right side . Th e stick held by the carrier above his head. The ritual is repeated at about twenty-two fires . right to carry the image is sold by auction . During this, people offer hand to mouth kisses This means, that he who wants to carry, offers to the image .6 more than the one who is carrying. There are Around one o'clock, the procession is fin always groups of men who bid against each ished. The image is placed, without any cere other, sometimes very aggressively. The mony, back in the parish church. There, the amount may run to three hundred-thousand payment of the auction takes place. People who finish the procession (many have stopped in

38 Fig. 6. Pushing up a broom fire before the image of the Madonna ar rives . Photo: Peer de Wit (1991).

their own neighbourhood) go into the church to gangs were fighting each other, and there was the statue of the saint. After that, all go home. a selective endogamy. Migration caused village Next morning there is a procession with the exodus. Peasants became petit bourgeois . statue . Many moved to the new village center. It has a higher status, is flatter and can be reached by car. Neighbourhoods Notwithstanding, the broom fires still con There is rivalry between neighbourhoods, who tains a ritualized form of the envy between makes the biggest fire. This only counts when neighbourhoods, and can serve as an outlet for the image stops. Some experience is required frustrations. In May 1990, there was a little to make the broom fire flare at the right mo row during the fire procession for the Madonna ment. Boys look out for the procession, and del Monte, at Le Casette. A neighbourhood of shout when it is coming. Then the elders throw temporary houses, built a little outside the vil bundles of broom on to the fire and push them lage after the earthquake of 1980. The quarrel up, so that the flames can get through. Just flamed up, because the brass band did not play before the image arrives, the remaining bun and the image did not stop at the fire. Initially dles are thrown into the blaze. Flames can the festival committee did not want the pro reach a height of ten meters. cession to enter the neighbourhood. This In the narrow village alleys, it is a sport to caused a commotion, in which some town po hold up the procession. These delays happen, licemen had to keep hold of an aggressive man . above all, in parts of the village where nor An old woman cried for a hoe, with which she mally most of the villagers hardly ever come. If wanted to attack the members of the commit such a stop takes too long , it can cause irrita tee. One of the bystanders cynically replied :. tion among people in the procession, and set "Aha, they are still working here with hoes". the local residents off laughing. "And who will Behind this event was the frustration of the win?" people ask. The prize of winning is some residents, who had lived there for more than honour for the neighbourhood with the highest eight years, which they blamed on local poli fire. It is always the most isolated neighbour tics. Besides, they felt excluded from the vil hoods which build up the biggest fires. lage. They associated themselves with the Till the fifties, the envy between neighbour neighbouring neighbourhood the Piano, whose hoods was much stronger than today . Youth

39 h Fig. 7. The brass band plays a tune when the image stops at a broom fire. Photo: Peer de Wit (1991).

rival the Piazza organizes the Madonna del can renew their place in the village commu Monte festival. nity. The rivalry between neighbourhoods is am To carry the image gives some honour. It is a bivalent, it is not always dominant. Of rele men's affair. Only once did we see a woman vance is, that each time about twenty-two so carrying it. She was a student who lived in cial groups, which identify themselves as Rome, and did the auction together with her neighbourhoods, however tiny they may be, brother and some cousins. Her mother was ab feel the need to light a broom fire. Great value solutely against it, and did not even come out is attached to the stopping of the image at the side her house when she passed. "I could do fire, which implies a neighbourhood's blessing. this, because, I do not live here. Otherwise they would point after me for a long time". There have been some gradual changes in Auction the meaning of the ritual of carrying the im In the auction part of the procession (who car age. Social change played its part. Through the ries the image?), there are also neighbourhood decline of the pastoral economy, herdsmen dis aspects. It is always small groups of men who appeared as carriers. Migrants took over their compete in offering. They are burning to carry place, and even women's liberation has played the image in their own neighbourhood. Once, a role. 7 one of them rushed ahead to light up the fire of his neighbourhood, and returned to take over the image. Purification During the September festival of the Ma In contrast to processions with statues, the donna del Monte, many migrants return, and clergy are absent at the broom fire rituals. then they offer the highest. Migrants consider According to the village priest, who has been in it an honour to carry the image. Older Calvel Calvello since 1933, the clergy have never been lesi state that before, it was herdsmen who present at these night processions. In his view, took part in the auction. They stayed outside the fires are lit in honor of the Madonna. Be the village most of the year. For them it was sides, older people have another explanation. the opportunity to promote themselves and so The broom fires drive away evil spirits: "the is the case the migrants today. Through this light chases away the ghosts of the dark", and ritual of carrying the image, these outsiders "the fires drive off the evil spirits". This points to the purificatory aspect of these broom fires

40 (cf. Frazer 1922: 647-50), which can be shown seen as a blessing. It is, for example, the Ma more clearly through the relation with other donna del Monte who gives this blessing, she rituals in the festival cycle. has the magical power to do this, not the fires. According to popular belief, a procession of Her importance is expressed in the hand to the dead takes place at midnight on the eve of mouth kisses one offers to the image. festa dei morti (All Souls' Day). The dead go The ritual stop at the broom fires, has a through the village, and the last deceased double function. On one side, the presence of walks in front and rings a little bell. One can the image at the broom fires strengthens this only see this procession through the light of a purification ritual on the other hand, the im candle, made of ear wax, placed in the window . age tames the fire and legitimizes this non Besides the relation between ear wax, as hu clerical ritual. The broom fire is a purification man waste, and death, the light of the candle ritual, however, this meaning has become sub points to life, and the night to the dead and ordinate. The image has taken over the dom spirits. inant position of the fires in this ritual. The On Good Friday night, villagers go in pro fires chasten, but the image blesses. cession to the cemetery. Here too the clergy are absent . The only lights are torches to light the paper from which the two precentors can sing Wood and broom fires their text. The chorus, "perdono mio Dio" (for What are the differences and similarities be giveness my God), is sung by everybody in this tween these wood and broom fires? Wood fires large procession. Arriving at the walled ceme are in winter, broom fires in summer. A nat tery, they walk from the left side three times ural explanation, such as that broom burns around it. The procession is considered as hom better in summer, does not hold. But differ age to the dead , but there is also a sense of ences can be found in some features of the guilt among those who walk: "We are sinners". materials. From the cemetery the procession returns to Wood is an important economic good. In Cal the parish church , where people walk on their vello it is a necessity, for heating houses. To knees, clockwise, three times to the sepulchre day, in contrast to forty years ago, cooking is of Christ. 8 done with gas, delivered in gas cylinders. But This clockwise walking stands for purity: in winter, pans are still hung above the fire, "The worshippers make a ritual circuit round and potatoes, chestnuts and meat are roasted the divine center, their right shoulders turned on it. Wood served as fuel for the formal local towards it( ... ) The right is the inside, the finite, potteries. The gifts of wood to Saint Anthony of assured well-being, and certain peace" (Hertz Padua, were sold to these potters. Calvello also 1973: 13). The fact that one walks with the knew local woodcutters, producers of barrels image to the right (against the clock) around and spoons. All the antique and important im the broom fire, points to its danger, its "perpet ages of saints are of wood. 9 ual menace of evil" (ibid). In contrast to this, all The donations of wood at Saint Anthony the the fire processions, and nearly all the other Abbot, indicated the economic aspect of wood village processions, go clockwise. too. This saint was, besides being the protector Not only the comments of informants , but of fire, also the patron saint of fire , and because also the performances at the broom fires, show of that, of the essential material wood. The that we are dealing with purification. The ab importance of wood as an economic good, was sence of the clergy, points to the tension be also expressed in the custom, that a boy put a tween popular belief and the official one . How large half burned trunk or a bundle of wood, in ever, a compromise seems to have taken place, front of the parental door of the girl he wanted namely in the shape of the image. When this to become engaged to. Was added is unknown . Today's performances An important difference between wood and point to the importance of the image. The rit broom fires can be found in the nature of these ual with the image at the fire is central, and is two types of ritual fire. Broom fires are enor-

41 mous, but brief. They flame high and are was crowded with people. In winter it was quickly extinguished. The wood fires are do abandoned, and therefore more dangerous and mesticated. They burn for many hours, and uncivilized. It is winter that is associated with one has to take care. People stand around death and spirits, which can be found in other them to warm themselves. The broom fires rituals of this period. 10 The wood fires of Saint have the contrary effect, they blaze on and give Anthony and Joseph are related to it. They are such a blistering heat, that one has to wait till lit on the village border, on the border of the this has disappeared. Though, peasants used civilized and uncivilized. The long standing of broom to make baskets (cf. Molfese 1978), it these fires and the nature of their fuel, point to has, in contrast to wood, hardly any economic their civilized character. They were symbolic value. As elsewhere, broom is associated with marking points of a community surrounded by witches, who fly on it at night. an empty, but dangerous country. At first sight, it seems that broom fires are From this point of view, by relating them to more related to the "spirits of the dark", than the annual cycle, these wood fires can be seen the wood fires. However, the fire for Saint An as a form of ritual protection, reinforced by the thony the Abbot can be related to them, be symbols of two saints. Saint Anthony the Ab cause of his struggle with evil spirits. Al bot himself is related to fires and spirits. For though, one could connect Saint Joseph the Saint Joseph this seems obscure. However, his carpenter with wood, this sort of association procession from the parish church to the fire on seems to be absent. the village 's periphery and back, strengthens Finally, there are the differences in place this ritual fire. These two wood fires can be and number of the two types of fire. Five times related, to the wintry insecurity of the country in the summer period, there are more than and thus, as point of light to the local civi twenty broom fires lit in the village. In winter lization, against the "spirits of the dark". They there are only three wood fires . On the Easter were counterpoints to the broom fires. vigil, one burns in front of the church: The The place of these wood fires, as marking other two burn on the village's periphery. The points, in the annual cycle seems clear. The wood fire for Saint Anthony the Abbot, in Sant' decline of their meaning, and even the disap Antuono, on the other side of the river, and the pearance for some decades of one of them, was fire for Saint Joseph in front of his chapel , caused by the end of the local pastoral agrarian outside the neighbourhood of Trinita. There is society. Today, the continuity of these fires is in a relation between these two periphery or bor the hands of neighbourhoods, and their will to der places, the lightning of these fires in the revitalize them. Saint Joseph's procession is winter and the agrarian cycle. clergical and, leaning on local tradition, used Contrary to the practice in many Northern by the clergy for their aims. Less clear is the European countries, in many parts of Italy the place of the broom fires in the annual cycle. peasants do not live in the countryside. The The problem to be solved is: why are there so countryside is associated with notions of inse many festivals with broom fires? curity and danger, and is seen as uncivilized (cf. Davis 1969; Tak 1988; 1990). In Calvello the system that protects the village nucleus Broom fires in the festival cycle still exists. This is in the shape of chapels in the ''The seasons of the year when these bonfires country, which are connected to rituals. Ofim are most commonly lit are spring and mid portance here is, that there is a ritual with summer; but in some places they are kindled drawal from the country to the village nucleus also at the end of autumn or during the course at the end of summer. In September, for exam of winter, particulary on Hallow E'en (the ple, the Madonna del Monte is brought back thirty-first of October), Christmas Day, and from her sanctuary to the village. the Eve of the Twelfth Day" (Frazer 1922: 609). This ritual withdrawal corresponded to the Calvello's annual festival cycle has broom agrarian activity. During summer, the country fires at the eve of the Madonna del Monte,

42 Fig. 8. On the second Sunday in May the Madonna del Monte Saraceno is brought from the village to her sanctuary at the border of the village's territory. Photo: Herman Tak (1989).

(second Sunday in May); the Pieta (first Sun one. Her festivals have broom fires, but there day in June); Saint Anthony of Padua (13th of is no trace of a relation to the agrarian pastoral June); Madonna del Monte (8th of September); economy. the Pieta (third Sunday in September). Al Examination of the local records shows, that though, the timing of fires matches, a little, to these informants are right. That is to say, as the ones Frazer mentioned, and the place of far as they could know. The festivals for the the wood fires has been made clear, the Pieta were the most important, however, this amount of broom fires is striking. In explana only dates from the third decade of the last tion of this, and in order not to get lost in a century. Before that they most certainly were forest of opposition and meaning without much not. There have been all sorts ofritual changes soil, an historical perspective is needed. in Calvello. Changes which took place long be Today, the important festivals are those of fore the fracture with the local pastoral agrar the Madonna del Monte. From May till the ian society, halfway through the twentieth beginning of September her statue stays in the century. sanctuary. "The Madonna is on holiday", the Till 1820, the festivals for the Madonna del Cavellesi say. However, the concept of holiday Monte were the most important.11 The June is a recent phenomenon. Her stay was con festival for the Pieta was introduced around nected with the agrarian cycle. This Madonna 1820, and her festivals took over the first place protected the crop during the productive period from the ones for the Madonna del Monte, of the year. Because, till the fifties Calvello had which underwent a decline. In fact, her double an agrarian economy, this could explain why festival was not celebrated for eight years. In her festivals are the most important ones to 1857, the parish church collapsed during an day. However, all older informants state that earthquake, and the heavily damaged statue the double festival for the Pieta was the main of the Madonna was brought for restoration to

43 Naples. Another reason for not celebrating her the ritual protection system, but also to chang festivals was the Italian unification, which ing relations between the local society and the caused brigandage. In 1861 brigands even be Italian state. This is expressed in an important sieged Calvello (cf. Ferri 1886). Processions to new meaning which becam e attached to the and from the sanctuary were too dangerous. Madonna del Monte. After the Italian unifica In these years, however, Calvellesi went on tion an unprecedented migration started. In pilgrimage to the neighbouring village Vig Calvello, the departure and return of the Ma giano , which guaranteed police protection. Vig donna del Monte was related to the departure giano has the same festival model as Calvello. of migrants, in which the longing for a quick On the first Sunday in May , the Madonna of return, played its part. Her star slowly rose Viggiano is brought to a sanctuary, situated on again . Around the turn of the century, a pro a mountain, which borders the territory of Cal cession with her statue through the village was vello. On the first Sunday in September she is added to her September return. brought back. During the First and Second World Wars, In 1866, when the Calvellesi re-introduced the Madonna del Monte was also connected to the festivals of the Madonna del Monte, they the soldiers at the front. Thanks to post war changed dates. Before 1857, the festivals had migration (during fascism migration was for also taken place on the first Sunday in May bidden) , and clerical striving against commu and the first Sunday in September. The shift to nism (in 1947 the Madonna del Monte was the second Sunday in May and the eighth of officially crowned), her festivals took over the September , can be related to the piety for the first place from those for the Pieta. Madonna of Viggiano, who is called a sister of What do these changes in rituals and mean the Madonna del Monte. However, the eighth ing say about the broom fires? Firstly, that the of September is the Nativity of the Virgin , first festival for the Madonna del Monte was on which points also to the influence of the official the first Sunday in May, which corresponds to liturgy in this change. Frazer's notion , that the most important day After this revival in 1866, a shift in the for broom fires was on this day (1922: 609-10 ). meaning of the Madonna del Monte occurred. This, and the fact that the festivals for the The relation to the agrarian cycle still existed, Madonna del Monte were the important ones however, it declined in importance. Especially around 1800, shows that they were Lent en the ritual relation to the other festivals became fires. They marked the beginning of summer, blurred. The Madonna del Monte was ritually the productive part of the year. Th ey were not connected to two other double festivals. The only lit in the village to purify it from the first , whose remnants still exist , is that of "spirits of the dark", but also as a signal that Saint Nicholas, the other village patron saint. winter was over. With it, the country was On the first Thursday after the May procession made free for agrarian activity. It marked a of the Madonna del Monte , his statue is carried movement from Calvello to the uncivilized and in procession from his church to the parish dangerous country. The counter movement church, where he takes over her place. In the took place with the withdrawal in the autumn. autumn he is brought back .12 It explains why broom, as a symbol of the The other double festival was for Madonna countryside, is dragged into the nucleus, its Potentissima. Her chapel is situated halfway opposite, and burned in an undomesticated between the village and the sanctuary. She fire. The broom fires were the opposite of the was brought on the first Sunday in August to civilized wood fires, and the rituals connected the village and brought back on the first Sun with them. day in September, the same day as the Ma The end of the summer period of the festival donna del Monte came back to the village. Af cycle, is less marked by the fires for the Ma ter the 1866 revival, this double festival dis donna del Monte in September. These light the appeared.13 ritual and factual withdrawal from the country This change points to the gradual downfall of side. The ritual transition takes place half a

44 year after the first Sunday in May, namely at was an order of rank between them, expressed 'Festa dei Morti'. On the eve of All Souls' Day by the places they had during processions. This the dead enter the village, according to popular order was connected to local stratification . belief. After the ritual withdrawal in Septem More than today, the mountain community ber there is a ritual silence of about two was a stratified one. The village had an admin months . Then, All Souls' Day marks the begin istrative elite . But, in the course of the second ning of winter . The counterpoint to the pro part of the eighteenth century, a new elite cession of the dead through the village, is the emerged. A group not built up of large land night procession of villagers to the cemetery on owners, but of local families who had accumu Good Friday. With this , one leaves ritually the lated capital (cf. Davis 1973). This elite dis villag e nucleus. Now the living visit the dead . appeared in the fifties of our century. Their so The former place and meaning of the broom called palazzi (cf. Burke 1987), with decorat ed fires in the festival cycle, are made clear . They portals, are still stone witnesses. were part of a complex ritual protection system The confraternity of the Pieta was the most of the local community. One could hypothesize important one of Calvello, connected as it was that the fire ritual is older than the Madonna with local administration and the church. Al de! Monte, but, there is no proof. Frazer's notes ready in 1556, it had been founded, sanctioned could be helpful. He hardly mentions relations by Pope Gregory XIII. This points to the official between fires and Christian symbols. How character of the devotion of the Pieta, itself a ever , this can be due to his focus on "primary" product of the late 13th century . But the and "original", through which he left out such boundaries between popular and official reli complexities. Important is the symbolical iden gion are blurred, as shown in the miracle she tification of the Madonna del Monte with the performed. broom fires. This points to the gradual trans There was no fraternity for the Madonna de! formation, that have been taking place in the Monte. The rituals for this Madonna were con meaning of these broom fires, which led from nected to the agrarian annual cycle, and she purification fires to bonfires for the Madonna. was a patron saint of the peasantry. Through population pressures , a growing group of vil lage poor developed, which resulted in the mi Manipulation of rituals gration after the Italian unification. A devel The broom fires for the Madonna de! Monte are opment which added to her meaning. That the eldest of Calvello. Local developments not Christ stopped at Eboli long before Carlo Levi only point to shifts in the meaning, but also to did (1945), is clear. Calvello was not an isolated their spread. After 1822 the June festival for place . The developments in the wider Italian the Pieta was introduced. According to the leg society had their influence on the evolution end, the Pieta had protected Calvello, by blind and involution of local society and its rituals. ing a band of Bourbon soldiers, who were or The festivals for the Pieta, were more or less dered to plunder and burn the village, because connected to the local elite. An elite of small the Cavellesi did not want to pay tax. bourgeoisie, who were, as elsewhere in Europe, The festival in June, is still called la festa dei culture builders (cf. Frykman & Lofgren 1987), franc esi. It is a copy of the festival on the third who placed themselves above, and as counter Sunday in September, during which her statue part to the peasantry. An expression of that is carried through the village, and broom fires was, besides the ostentation of housing, their are lit on it's eve. The miracle has all the as membership of confraternities. This does not pects of state formation , but like the symbol of mean, that the Pieta did not have wider sup the Pieta, nothing to do with the "spirits of the port. The peasants also celebrated the Pieta .14 dark". The extension of the broom fires, shows The Pieta was a vehicle of more meanings. how this ritual was manipulated. There were This is a characteristic of such symbols, as well some reasons for this to happen. as for the rituals in which they are anchored: Calvello had religious fraternities. There "They do not so much express meaning, as give

45 b us the capacity to make meaning" (Cohen Christi. In this procession, secular and eccle 1985: 15). siastical authority are symbolically united. The Rituals are suited to the carrying of political ritual was used to establish the legitimacy of messages (cf. Kertzer 1988), and this is the the regime (cf. Kerzer 1988: 39). The church reason for the development of the festivals for was, of course, not at all an advocate of the the Pieta in the first part of the nineteenth Unification. New on the local pay roll was the century. Her June festival, festa dei Francesi, Pieta, especially her June festival, festa dei had a political side. The miracle which she per Francesi. formed was perhaps the product of a collective The Pieta was a symbol with several mean fantasy, its interpretation was levelled. For the ings, which developed in the course of time. For peasants the focus was on the external threat, the peasants she was a village patroness, a the capriciousness of influences above intervil Madonna who protected them against the ca lage relations (cf. Tak 1990). 15 But for the gov priciousness of external threat. 16 Besides this ernmental local elite it became anti-french. she was a vehicle of the official ecclesiastical That is to say, against the ideas which were religion, and for the village elite who placed introduced during the French occupation themselves above the peasantry . The catalyst (1806-1814), and which led to the Italian ri of her growing importance, however, was the sorgimento, the strife for unification, ideas political use of her symbol by the local govern which were received early in Calvello. In 1822, ment. Thus, religious rituals can serve political nine so called carbonari, among them Cavel aims, "by producing bonds of solida rity without lesi, were executed in Calvello, because of con requiring uniformity of belief' (Kerzer 1988: spiracy (cf. Racioppi 1902 II : 469- 477). 67). The use of festivals for political purposes was not something new . In 1810 the French in troduced two new festivals in Calvello. One on The spread of broom fires the 25th of August , birthday of the Emperor That the broom fires were also added to the Napoleon Bonaparte, partly celebrated in the September festival for the Pieta, around 1822, parish church. The other was for Joachim Mu is unlikely. But, that they have been put out of rat, King of Naples, on 25th of March. For the their context and were placed in the June fes last, the villagers were ordered to light enor tival, festa dei Francesi, is clear. The multipli mous fires, to show their commitment to their cation of the fire ritual, points to the decline of sovereigns, The French regime with its re the domination of the purification aspect of forms, like the abolition of feudalism, was very these fires. Already at the beginning of the popular (ibid.: 454) . Local government spent a eighteenth century, there had been a shift in lot of money on these festivals. their meaning, which has been partly changed In 1814, these festivals were, of course, tak or enlarged to that of bonfires for the Madon en off the pay roll. However, one started to give nas . As with the Madonnas themselves, other money to other ones. The two festivals for the meanings were added to them in the course of Madonna del Monte were subsidized, by a the last century. small amount . Much more money was spent on The last festival with broom fires is that of Corpus Christi. The local government had a Saint Anthony of Padua on the thirteenth of Janus face, without internal changes it fol June. It is a recent example of the spread of the lowed the new regime and its restoration . In broom fires. At the beginning of the sixties this 1815 it spent three times as much on the "fes festival was revitalized, and made into a copy tival of joy for the return of his Majesty Ferdi of the ones for the Pieta. The broom fires for nando 11", than on the two festivals for the Saint Anthony were introduced in this decade. Madonna del Monte. With this, the meaning of Saint Anthony of Of course, the local government was embar Padua has been rapidly transformed. The rit rassed, because of the local sympathy for the ual relations in the annual cycle to the festival risorgimento. It continued to subsidize Corpus of Saint Anthony the Abbot, have largely dis-

46 appeared. A new relation developed to the ones for the two madonnas. But this became one of Ritual change competition, and not a symbolic confusion and "It has always been like this", is a local notion ritual spread, as before with Saint Anthony about Calvello's rituals. This is an important the Abbot. Neighbourhood rivalry played its characteristic of rituals, they behave as if they part in the revitalization . The festival has its are everlasting. Above all, this is an ideological own committee, which identifies itself with the aspect. Their apparent unchangeability give neighbourhood, the Piano. The processions, them, through their reference to the past, with the saint's image and statue pass through more weight or importance, also the reason for the whole village. However, they start from being copied. Long term developments, how the Piano, and the feast is in this neighbour ever, show that they are indeed subject to hood. The committee of the Piano competes changes, which can be related to changing cir with the one of the Piazza, which today orga cumstances. Rituals are not only performed, nizes the festivals for the Madonna de! Monte but also modelled and manipulated by people. and the Pieta. 17 In Calvello new meanings have been added to Not only did the broom fires spread to other the fire rituals. The broom fire ritual has been festivals, they also spread over the village it transformed, the image seems to have been self. The relation between broom fires and the added, and the broom fires have spread to ritualized competition between neighbour other festivals. It is not the unchangeability or hoods, is probably old. This competition, which endlessness, but the adaptation of rituals that includes play, stimulates the height of the fires give them their continuity. If adaptation to and their number. In spite of the actual disap changing circumstances fails, they linger on, pearance of rivalry, expressed in selective en waiting for revitalization, or disappear. dogamy and fighting between neighbourhood The question as to why the broom fires are so youths, the aspect of neighbourhood identity popular and the wood fires not, can only be still plays its role. In 1989, for example, the answered from the perspective of long term procession along the broom fires was extended change. They have been developed from puri to a new housing estate. Also at the beginning fication rituals into bonfires, and spread to of this decade there was an expansion of the other festivals. They have plural meanings. To route to the estate of emergency houses. Thus, day, these are the ritualized envy between besides ritualized competition, there is also the neighbourhoods; the game of making the high need to be part of the village . The broom fires est fire; the honour of carrying the image; the contribute to community spirit, to the "we" character of the procession through which feeling of local society. The broom fire ritual community feeling is increased. Their impor has adapted itself even during the last decades. tance is stated by their expansion during the Besides shifts in meaning, ritual develop last decade. ments on the longer term have taken place. Broom fires are lit on the eve of the most The broom fires were, as purification rituals, important festivals, which are all celebrated in the core of the festival that introduced the the summer period, a period of holidays and summer part of the festival and agrarian cycle. the temporary return of many migrants. "The However, they altered into an introduction village is crowded in summer, but dead in win rite. Through this change or extensions of their ter", Calvellesi say. Although this is the exact meaning, their spread to other festivals be opposite of the former peasant movement to came possible. Today the procession along the the country in spring, and their withdrawal to broom fires is the introduction ritual to five the village in autumn, in both cases the first festivals, which are surrounded by music and broom fires mark a joyful period, and the ones fireworks. In fact, the scenario, about which in September mark its closing. anthropologists have written, seems less static In contrast the wood fires have adapted less than they have assumed. easily to changes in social economical circum stances . They were more strongly related to

47 brr Calvello's agrarian and pastoral economy. formation. The local government used broom That they are in winter, contributes to their fires for its own purposes. A change took place lingering on. However, there have been at in their symbolic content; another symbol, that tempts to revitalize them. This, involved a shift of the Pieta was added to them. At a lower in meaning. Instead of being wintry marking level of the social scale things changed too. In points, they have become vehicles of neigh the middle of that century, Calvello's peasan bourhood identity. try enlarged, through migration, its horizons These changes point, above all, to develop beyond the level of intervillage and regional ment in the meaning of the fire rituals. The relations. Parts of the overall protection ritual rituals themselves seem rather stable. It is disappeared. This included a shift in the mean true that the broom fire ritual shifted from the ing of one of the symbols of this ritual protec core to the inauguration of the festivals, which tion system. The Madonna del Monte devel meant an alteration from fire-festival into fes oped into a symbol of this migration move tivals with fires. But, one could state that the ment. However, this did not include a complete performance of the ritual continued over a long down fall of this overall ritual. Another mean period. Besides, there are still wood fires in ing was added to it, but the agrarian pastoral winter and broom fires in summer. Even parts society itself continued. of their old meanings continue. Right up till It was the end of the pastoral agrarian so today, old people note their purification signif ciety in the fifties, that, not only broke down icance. the meaning of the winter wood fires for Saint Looking at changes in rituals in the long Anthony the Abbot and Saint Joseph, but also term, one notices two levels (cf. Bloch 1986: broke down the relation with the first saint 157). The first is changes in the domain of and his symbolic twin brother Saint Anthony meaning. These can be related rather easily to of Padua. The last became a vehicle for a changes in the social economic environment in neighbourhood identity and its strife against which rituals are performed. The other level another neighbourhood. And Saint Anthony of seems harder to grasp, these are the changes Padua was added to the broom fires. in the ritual itself. They seem in the long term The rise of migration and holidays, after the to have continuous stability (ibid). The broom Second World War, brought a new and ex fire ritual was manipulated, and used for dif panded center of festivities in the summer part ferent sorts ofreasons. This explains its expan of the annual festival cycle. Through this, the sion. The ritual was copied, and placed out of relations with the agrarian pastoral cycle be its context, but there was no creation of new came more and more blurred. Long term devel rituals (ibid: 190). opments in Calvello show fluctuations in the Does this mean that rituals themselves are attention paid to festivals and their rituals and immune to history? This is a problem of per symbols, which can be attributed to changing spective. If we isolate them they do not seem to circumstances. But above all, they show ritual alter a lot. But placed in their context, there is change. much more change. As pointed out in this es say, rituals are related to each other. They form part of the annual cycle, which itself can Notes be seen as a big ritual, performed every year. It This article is based on field work and historical is in this overall ritual, that we can see ritual research, done in May and September 1989, and from February 1990 till March 1991. I would like to changes clearly. Changes which are responses thank Carla Bianco, Jeremy Boissevain, Hans to changing circumstances. Sprangers and Helene t.eehouder for their helpful The fire rituals were part of a complex pro suggestions. Peta Spi rings improved the English, tection system, whose decline started, at least, for which I thank her. at the beginning of the last century. This was 1. The Roman church and convent, now in restora due to the French occupation, the local reac tion, were built by the Benedictines of Pulsano tions to the risorgimento, and the Italian state (Foggia) 1120-40 (Masini 1990: 34). Local and

48 regional historians, parroting each other, as In neighbouring villages, but also elsewhere in sume that these Benedictines, who left Calvello Italy, there are similar processions which go to in 1379, have founded the village (cf. De Borris the Calvario (Calvary), a place situated on the 1982; Racioppi 1902). border or a little outside the village. 2. Saint Anthony the Abbot is also the start of 9. Statues made ofpapier-mache date from the be Carnival. "Sant'Antuono maschere e suono" ginning of the 19th century. The ones of plaster (Saint Anthony, masks and music), is a local are more recent. saying. Carnival does not amount to anything in 10. Winter festivals related to spirits are Epiphany Calvello. But, on the eve of Saint Anthony the (a witch called Befana brings gifts); "Festa dei Abbot, festa dei galli (chicken feast) is cele Galli" (cf. 3); and Carnival. Till forty years ago a brated. In this festival chickens, lambs and goats straw figure was burned at Carnival. Today are, as a form of amusement, game and gam some people appear on Carnival eve as ghosts, bling, beheaded with a not too sharp sickle. To dressed up in a white sheet. day, it is forbidden. But till the forties it was 11. The oldest record dates from 1748. performed at many village street corners. Today, 12. Two festivals for Saint Nicholas, one in spring it is done in some stables. The chicken is a sym and the other in autumn, were widespread (cf. bol of Carnival and can be recognized in Pulci Propp 1978: 31). Contrary to the Northern Eu nella, a traditional Carnival figure (cf. Lancelotti ropean countries, where he brings presents and 1950). is also transformed into Father Christmas, Saint 3. Wood fires, winter, and ritual food are related, as Nicholas is an agrarian saint in Calvello. Before, can be observed too, by close reading of Frazer's during his May procession, people wore crowns chapters on fire-festivals (1922: 609-58). of thorns, and the saint was asked for rain. Peo 4. As a counter point, new winter clothes were ple still sing the "Perdono mio Dio", as on Good shown on the eighth of December, the Immac Friday night. Which also indicates, that there ulate Conception. It was called il trionfo dei cap are mourning aspects to this Lenten procession. potti, the parade of the coats (cf. De Borris 1982: Today, this Saint Nicholas is hardly celebrated, 62). apart from this tiny procession which starts at 5. According to local notions "Madonna de! Monte dawn. His statue is brought back in the Septem Saraceno" is shortened into "Madonna de! ber procession of the Pieta. Monte", and "Madonna della Pieta", into "Pieta". 13. The chapel of the Madonna Potentissima is sit 6. Hand to mouth kisses are a way of bringing over uated halfway between the village and the sanc the magical power of the image to the believer, tuary. Calvello is situated too low, to see the who touches first this sacred object with his sanctuary. From the chapel one can see both. right hand, or points in its direction, and brings Potentissima functions as an intermediary. To the hand to his mouth. Often, this is done three day, one stops at the chapel during the pro times. cessions from and to the sanctuary, and the Ma 7. Auction itself has been restricted. Asta, auction, donna de! Monte is carried into the chapel. is a way of collecting money, and has an opposite 14. The participation of the elite, and even of the in the, so-called, questua, the request for money clergy in the two festivals of the Madonna de! by members of the festival committee. Asta and Monte was minimal. This was due to the fact questua are based on the economic behaviour of that it consisted of a procession along an un the formal peasant society, in which reciprocity paved, steep and 10 kilometer long road, to and played an important role (cf. Tedeschi 1981). Till from the sanctuary. It was a peasant devotional the end of the forties, all Calvello's processions ritual. Older Calvellesi complained that, before, included asta. This was abolished by the clergy, most of the priests preferred to stay at home. who did not think it proper that one should pay 15. This is expressed in some variations of the leg to carry sacred objects. The possibility of commo end, in which brigands and Germans play, ac tion during the auction also played its part. cording to the succession of external threat, the 8. This nocturnal procession to the cemetery can role of the Bourbons. not be very old. In Italy, cemeteries are situated 16. Like the Italian unification, the French occupa outside the nucleus, this according to a law of tion caused brigandage. The neighbouring vil 1817. In Calvello the cemetery was built in 1841 lage Abriola was sacked by brigands in 1809 (cf. (cf. Pedio 1962: 213). So, this procession without Racioppi 1902 II: 461-62). clergy is an invention, or a mutation of an older 17. The last confraternities disappeared before the ritual. Before, the dead were buried in the Second World War. Till the eighties of the last churches. The three rounds on the knees to the century Calvello had three festival committees. sepulchre of Christ, could have been for the dead One for the Pieta, one for Madonna del Monte too. Till recently, the dead played an important and one for Saint Nicholas. role in local perception. There are many stories in which they appear, and mourning rituals played an important role (cf. De Martino 1958).

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