Although in the Italian and European subaltern cultures the beliefs around the survival of the dead cannot be reduced to a single model, it is however possible to trace constants of a morphological and narrative character that delimit the great space of the relationship between living and dead. Here we focus mainly on its cultural and folkloric manifestations in the Campania area, relating to the celebrations of late October / early November and closely connected with the so-called "agrarian mysticism" of which Mircea Eliade wrote.
di Maximilian Palmesano
Article originally published on "Microsphera", the author's blog
Cover: Photo taken from โPignataro as it wasโ, funeral procession year 1912
Il "Day of the Dead", in its various manifestations, has always been a crucial passage in human societies, the Christian worship of our day is deeply affected by much older beliefs and customs [1]. Particularly in rural societies, the desire for contact and connection with the world of the dead is a constantly present element in the horizon of the holidays connected to cosmic cycles. In the festive rituals and institutes that contemplate this interaction with death, constants can be observed which - although positioned in different calendar times - establish a single paradigm of reference. To this system belong some folkloric expressions related to the day of the dead collected in the Caserta area that find correspondences and parallels in other European traditions.
In rural culture, the Day of the Dead opens the doors to winter and with it to a cosmic phase closely linked to death and the expectation of rebirth. In agricultural societies, winter is supported by three hinges that are closely linked to death and the world of the dead: All Saints' Day opens (Sahmain / Halloween in the Celtic world), at the center is the period from the winter solstice to the Epiphany (which includes Christian Christmas, the period of "12 days" in northern Europe and the end of the year) and, to conclude, the celebrations related to Carnival. These three phases of the year not only enclose, through the ritual, the winter but are all deeply related to death and the dead: the Day of the Dead, the death of the sun and its rebirth at the Winter Solstice, the death and rebirth of the year, the death (of the king) of Carnival.
In agrarian mysticism winter is the realm of death (of nature) and of the soteriological expectation of the consequent and cyclical spring rebirth. This period of transition favored the opening of transdimensional doors that allowed supernatural forces, nature spirits and the dead to gather to flow into the dimension and time of human beings. In particular, the night and the Day of the Dead โrepresented a time when the boundaries between the human and supernatural worlds were broken. Otherworldly entities, such as the souls of the dead, were able to visit the inhabitants of the earth, and humans could have the opportunity to penetrate the domains of gods and supernatural creatures " [2].
Although in Italian and European subaltern cultures the beliefs around the survival of the dead cannot be reduced to a single model, it is however possible to trace constants of a morphological and narrative character that delimit the large space of the relationship between living and dead. The deceased can manifest themselves to the living in the form of soul, body, double or in any case with human traits, but they can also reveal themselves in non-humanized forms "ranging from noises, to moving and moving of objects and real animal incarnations" [3].
The folkloric institutes examined should therefore not be considered as specific and peculiar expressions of a specific geographical area, on the contrary the connections both on the trans-regional level (Campania, Molise, Lazio, Puglia, Calabria, Sicily) and on the continental one (Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain) are clear and varied as well as highlighted from time to time. Connected and speculating to this perspective there is the need to underline that the folkloric material collected represents in any case interpretations or historically connoted narratives: this can involve minimal or substantial variations from area to area in the plot and in the development of the traditions taken into consideration. .
The โpumpkinsย pantร seme "ย of Partignano
Almost to connote deep and archaic affinities of Indo-European matrix (or perhaps even more ancient) between the Italian popular cultures and the tradition of the countries of Celtic origin there was the characteristic custom of making lamps by carving pumpkins which were left on the night of the dead in dark and isolated places to symbolize the spirits of the dead. Probably their original function was to illuminate and to show the way to the souls of the dead who passed through the dimension of human beings during that night: to draw their attention in the hope of being able to see a dearly departed loved one again for a few moments. The pumpkin lamps embodied the souls of the dead "'the spirits"And those of ghosts,"'i pantร semi". Children enjoyed carving pumpkins and placing them in dark places in order to scare unsuspecting passersby.
An element that today, in light of the spread of Halloween, appears of little relevance as it belongs firmly to today's cultural horizon but which, contextualized in the rural Campania area of โโthe early 900s, that is long before the spread of the Celtic holiday in Italy, must make us reflect on the possible cultural contiguity and kinship that can be found between the two traditions. The specific custom of the lamps obtained from pumpkins was collected "in the field" thanks to oral testimonies in Partignano di Pignataro Maggiore (Caserta) [4] but the magical-symbolic power of the cucurbit also seems to be widespread in other southern centers, from Campania to Sicily [5].
The "Meal of the Dead"
The beliefs around the possibility of interacting with the souls of the dead in the days from 31 October to 2 November are expressed even more clearly in two other traditional institutes gathered in the Caleno-Aurunca area in the province of Caserta: the meal and the procession of the dead .
In many centers of the calena area, and until a few decades ago, the custom of leaving the table set on the night of the dead survived: it was the so-called "Meal of the Dead" (or Table of the Dead), prepared for the souls of the deceased relatives who would return to their earthly homes that night to visit the living. The tables were set with seasonal vegetables and fruit, bread and wine: many swore to hear the noises of crockery and cutlery during the night or told of foods that had completely disappeared the next morning. The "Meal of the Dead" is fully part of the series of institutions that can be found - in different traditions - even during the other two crucial periods of winter, namely the end of the year and Carnival.
The tables set for the spirits represent the clear desire to enter into a relationship with the dead "ambiguous givers of prosperity, in the crucial period in which the old year ends and the new one begins" [6]. Period of transition that in different eras and traditions is placed both between October and November (Samhain), as well as between December / January (the current end of the year) and February / March (the end of the year in the ancient world). The same type of ceremonial practice that involves leaving a banquet or food to the spirits is in fact attested in the rites of the "Twelve Nights" and in those of the calends of January. In the Celtic world the nights between December 24, calledย modranichtย or "mothers night", and January 6 they had a function comparable to that ofย Zwolftenย (Twelve nights) in the Germanic world: a time when the dead were believed to wander the land giving the living a chance to meet them.
These are very ancient traditions.ย Cesario of Arlesย in the sixth century it condemned the customs of the peasants who, during the night of the calends of January, set up tables full of food as an offering to the gods and spirits to propitiate the new year [7]. About five hundred years laterย Burhard of Wormsย noted pagan nocturnal divinities linked to the world of the dead, the Patch, to which people on certain nights left food on tables set with three knives [8].
The tradition of the "Meal of the Dead" found in the peasant culture of the Caserta area is probably placed in the same type of rural rituals reported by Cesario di Arles and Burcardo di Worms: the food offerings were used to propitiate the agricultural years thanks to the relationship with the dead and their world made of powerful and mysterious energies. The offering should therefore not be read exclusively as a material and symbolic tribute to the extinct relatives but as a real propitiatory rite thanks to which they tried to attract the benevolence and extraordinary powers of the souls of the dead. The degraded echo of these customs has often survived in popular culture through traditional dishes and especially sweets linked throughout the country to the "Day of the Dead".
The ranks of the dead and the "Cicci dead"
the symbolism of the seed
Closely connected to the beliefs that are the basis of the tradition of the "Meal of the Dead" are those relating to the so-called host or even procession of the dead: it is believed that in some particular nights, including clearly that of the Day of the Dead, the souls of the dead return to earth and it is possible to spot multitudes of spirits at the cemeteries, at the edge of the woods or near isolated and dark trivi and crossroads. Also in this case it is an extremely widespread belief in all European folklore and linked to the aforementioned cornerstones of the winter period: the Day of the Dead, Christmas / New Year and Carnival.
Once again the beliefs of Caserta seem to be the reflection and the transposition of a much more widespread theme that characterizes central and northern Europe going to thicken the network of connections and parallels between Celtic and Germanic culture and traditions of southern Italy. The mythical theme from which the beliefs relating to the return to earth of the souls of the dead on certain nights emanate can be traced in the so-called Wild Hunt. From the XNUMXth century onwards, texts in Latin and vernacular began to appear in various areas of Europe, referring to the apparitions of theFurious Army and of the Wild Hunt (also calledย Wilde Jagd, Chasse sauvage, Wild Hunt, Chasse Arthur), beliefs in which epiphanies of the ranks of the dead and more precisely of the ranks of the dead in battle and unbaptized children must be recognized.
These legends with an undeniable magical-religious matrix have also survived in the traditional culture of northern Campania both in the stories relating to the "Host of the Dead" that could be seen in the night between October 31 and November 1, and in the symmetrical ritualization - albeit in very degraded forms - of this mythology found in the boyish processions of the "Cicci dead". Once again we find ourselves in the presence of local elaborations of much more widespread themes and rituals, in particular the custom of the noisy and jubilant crowds of (often masked) begging boys who wandered around towns and countryside and in which "a representation has been recognized of the hosts of the dead " [9].
These ranks of children, apparently playful, who went from house to house asking for gifts undeniably recall the ranks of the dead, even in cases where this connection is not consciously assimilated by the participants in the flocks. Also in this case the theme of the cheering and begging group of children appears with different forms during the three key periods of winter: the Halloween / All Saints masquerades, the itinerant songs and the Christmas and New Year pantomimes, the processions and the carnival pantomimes. .
The tradition of Campania, and in particular of the Aurunca and Massico area, of the "Cicci dead"(Semi morti) is extraordinarily similar in time and ritual to what has been preserved in the Anglo-Saxon countries within the Halloween celebrations. On the evening of October 31, crowds of children went around the houses and, like the "trick or treat", they knocked on doors shouting "โฆ 'I cicci muorti,' i cicci muorti"("The dead seeds, the dead seeds"): at that point the master, or much more often the mistress, of the house bestowed small gifts such as chestnuts, walnuts or dried figs.
The reference to "dead seeds" has often been explained in relation to the custom of boiling wheat seeds in order to prepare a soup with honey or sugar, a poor dessert that was given to beggars. But the link between seeds and death can be deciphered in a deeper way if we take into account the specific seed symbolism within rural societies. In this regard, the reflections on the "agrarian mysticism" of the historian of religionsย Mircea eliadeย manage to provide the key to adequately decipher the rituality expressed by the hosts of "Cicci dead"In the Caserta area. In hisย Treatise on the history of religionsย writes:
โAgriculture, as a profane technique and as a form of worship, meets the world of the dead on two distinct levels. The first is solidarity with the land; the dead, like the seeds, are buried, they penetrate the chthonic dimension accessible only to them. On the other hand, agriculture is par excellence a technique of fertility, of life that reproduces by multiplying, and the dead are particularly attracted to this mystery of rebirth, palingenesis and endless fertility. Similar to the seeds buried in the telluric matrix, the dead are waiting to return to life in a new form. "
[10]
It is in this type of conception that the tradition of "Cicci deadโOf Caserta: the seed should not be read exclusively as the ingredient of the traditional dessert but represents the epiphany of the mystery of the regeneration of nature and the rebirth of the souls of the dead on the day dedicated to them. The children of the "Cicci deadโEmbody the souls of the dead who, like seeds, are waiting underground to be reborn to new life. And the offerings given to the ranks of children are symmetrical to those left on the tables set for the dead and the nocturnal divinities. The children - and in particular those belonging to the humblest social strata who animated the flocks - represented the souls of the dead, every offer given to them was an offer given directly to the souls of the dead to ingratiate them and propitiate the new cycle.
In this context, the role of these rituals appears clearer and the relations with the similar events held at the Winter Solstice and Carnival more evident. The sacred concept expressed in the tradition of "Cicci deadโCan be understood even better by examining further folkloric material from the Aurunco-Calena area pertaining to an institution not directly linked to theโ Day of the Dead โ, but characteristic of the other two cornerstones of the winter period. This is the "Cantata of the Months" (or also "Song of the Months") which was (and in some cases still is) performed during the Carnival period and, sometimes, during the New Year period. The cantata is a popular allegory in the form of a rural theater during which a representation of cosmic cycles takes place and in which the personifications of the months recite stanzas describing their main characteristics. The historianย Nicholas Borrelliย he described the "Cantata dei Mesi" on n. 1, year 1925, of the magazineย Italian folklore:
โAmong the popular representations, which in the last days of the Carnival sometimes cheer the populations of our rural villages, that of the Months constitutes [โฆ] the classic spectacle; classical is in fact the allegorical personification of the chronological periods corresponding to the months of the year, classical is the symbolic georgic content of the annual cycle, which, with this representation, we intend to celebrate. Great importance was once given to the spectacle [โฆ] by the public in the small towns, who followed the preparation of the masquerade with the greatest interest and who enjoyed the performance a lot; today, for obvious reasons, interest has waned, so much so that only rarely and only in some villages where ancient traditions are more tenaciously preserved, is it usual to celebrate with the cavalcade of the Months on the last day of Carnival. "ย
[11]
Borrelli reports that in the Aurunca area as early as 1925 the tradition had waned, but as regards the calena area the representation was alive in Calvi Risorta during the Carnival until the mid-80s of the twentieth century. The historianย Antonio Martoneย informs that:
โIn the mid-fifties of the last century, the representation of the Months still resisted in Pignataro Maggiore and its surroundings: in fact in the town square the 12 months on horseback lined up on display and each sang their own verse; the memory has faded, but it has remained etched in our memory and in that of other friends of the same age. We must specify that the group of the Months was made up of elements not from the place, but from the nearby Pantuliano and it seems that the same group also represented another drama: Gypsies and caurarari. "
[12]
These testimonies are useful to underline the diffusion of the song but, returning to the relationship between dead and seeds, a careful analysis of the verses recited from the month of November, precisely the month of the dead, can shed more light on the tradition of "Cicci dead". Who he impersonated November he wore black cloth, with gold bands and hems on his dress and hat; she had wheat and sugared almonds in her hand which she distributed throwing on the crowd (the first to the birds, the second to the beautiful women). In the verse he sang the symbolism of the seed was central:
I know 'Nuvembre c'a semmenatรบra, I semmenร ta justa la semmenta, I semmenร ta a la good season, pe' fa 'be' them merrily; now I need a cleaner, since I kept the jummรจnta. Chesto lu less to the dark ones and to the auciegli, chesto lu less to those beautiful women!
[Translation: I am November with the sowing, I sowed the right seed, I sowed it in good season, to keep the masters happy; now I need a worker, another to support my mare. This less to you and the birds, this less to these beautiful women.]
(transcription and translation by Antonio Martone) [13]
In the verse and in the scenic representation of the "Cantata of the months" relating to the sowing of November, the traces of the archaic rural rite can be clearly seen: 1) sowing in the right way and in the appropriate time, 2) making the owners feel good (probably a reference to supernatural entities, as for the Romansย manesย or "the good ones"), 3) govern the mare, symbol of the year, 4) make an offering of wheat and sugared almonds to those present (or perhaps to the "masters"), to the birds and to the women to propitiate their fertility. The residues of the ceremonial appear clearly and acquire greater power downstream of Eliade's reflection on the symbolism that links seeds (the sowing mentioned in the verse) and the dead (the verse refers to the month dedicated to them). The awareness of the rebirth of nature following the sowing and the symmetrical perspective of the resurrection of the dead at this point they seem to be elements deeply acquired from peasant culture. And the "Cicci deadโOf the Aurunca and Massico area an unavoidable epiphany of this magical-religious conception.
Conclusions
The analysis of these specific folkloric institutes of northern Campania has given the possibility of delineating affinities and parallels with similar expressions of European popular culture. Affinities and connections that can both suggest historical contacts and recall ancient common matrices.
It must be deduced that the study of the cultural specificities of a given area cannot be separated from a broader overall view in order to place each phenomenon in the right context. In this regard, it is useful to underline the undeniable relationships that link the pumpkin lanterns of Partignano with those of the Celtic tradition, the beliefs relating to the Host of the Dead with those relating to the Wild Hunt; the symmetries that connect the "Meal of the Dead" with the tables set for the nocturnal divinities at the calends of January, and those involving the crowds of children from the "Cicci deadโTo the Carnival masquerades passing through the Christmas / New Year's cantatas and pantomimes. The local expressions represent different stratifications / historicizations formed starting from an archaic magical-religious matrix placed out of time and for this reason sacred, or separated from the dimensions of everyday life.
The contexts examined must be framed in relation to the link between the three main cornerstones of winter: All Saints, Twelve Days and Carnival represent as many moments in which order and customs are broken, allowing powerful supernatural forces to penetrate the dimension of human beings. Forces with which man has always tried to relate, from which he has always tried to absorb energy and power in order to obtain better living conditions, better harvests and limitless fertility.
These are ancient beliefs and traditions that come from the deepest layers of our culture and which in the space of a few decades were in danger of disappearing almost entirely under the pressure of an obtuse modernization. Recovering these beliefs - or the remaining scraps of them - does not at all mean decontextualizing them because they are no longer functional to contemporary life, but rather it means recovering and preserving the true and original meaning of our existence here and now.
NOTE:
[1] See M. Palmesano,ย "The Day of the Dead: the pagan roots of the Christian cult", on Microsphera
[2] M. Eliade, J. Ries (edited by),ย Holiday Dictionary, Jaca Book, 2021, p. 148
[3] AM Di Nola,ย The Black Lady - Anthropology of death and mourning, Newton Compton, 1995, p. 289
[4] Testimonies collected in September / October 2021 during the interviews carried out for the works of the new catalog of the Pignataro Peasant and Artisan Civilization Museum edited by Fiorenzo Marino and Massimiliano Palmesano
[5] See M. Palmesano,ย โThe witches of Alicudi: flying women, storm cutters and psychedelic bread. Notes of Aeolian foklore ", on AxisMundi.blog
[6] C. Ginzburg,ย Nocturnal History - A deciphering of the Sabbath, Adelphi, 2017, p. 191
[7] ibid
[8] Ibid p 92
[9] Ibid 190
[10] M. Eliade,ย Treatise on the history of religions, Universal scientific Boringhieri, 1988 (1976), pp. 363-364
[11] N. Borrelli,ย Aurunche traditions: the song of the monthsย inย Italian folklore - Quarterly archive for the collection and study of Italian popular traditions, Year I, Issue I, March 1925
[12] A. Martone,ย Popular songs of Terra di Lavoro: the Monthsin ย The Sidicino, Year VII, n. 8, August 2011
[13] Transcription and translation by Antonio Martone,ย ibid
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Various authors,ย Italian folklore - Quarterly archive for the collection and study of Italian popular traditions, Year I, Issue I, March 1925
JJ Bachofen,ย The funerary symbolism of the ancients, Jouvence, 2020
E. De Martino,ย Death and ritual crying - From the ancient funeral lament to the cry of Mary, Einaudi, 2021
AM Di Nola,ย The Black Lady - Anthropology of Death and Mourning, Newton Compton, 1995
M. Eliade,ย Treatise on the history of religions, Boringhieri Scientific Universal, 1988 (1976)
M. Eliade, J. Ries (edited by),ย Dictionary of life, death and eternityJaca Book, 2021
M. Eliade, J. Ries (edited by),ย Holiday dictionaryJaca Book, 2021
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