Religious folk festivals. — Not outside the Church, but alongside it and together with it, the people have created and preserved interesting manifestations that accompany the official worship and supplement it with touches of color, with testimonies of fervent faith, with humble and meaningful offerings, with songs and other expressions of strong religious feeling. And while in certain forms of folk festivals one may discern traces of pre-Christian ceremonies and customs, it is also true that the Church has always watched over these popular manifestations, seeking to regulate them so that they do not conflict with liturgical norms.
Various classifications of these religious folk festivals have been proposed: some scholars (e.g., Canon F. Polese) have taken as their basis the motives that determine them (festivals with a liturgical or legendary theme, with a miraculous background, seasonal festivals, extra-liturgical festivals, processional festivals, expiatory festivals, etc.); others (A. Van Gennep) have linked and interpreted them as periodic cyclical ceremonies connected with agricultural work and formed in the geographical sphere since antiquity (the cycle of the twelve days including the festivals from Christmas to Epiphany, Carnival-Lent, Easter, May, St. John and St. Peter, etc.). But such classifications are more or less artificial: however, a practical division can be made into two broad categories: 1) calendar festivals, which accompany the most solemn forms of worship throughout the year; 2) patronal festivals that satisfy particular local needs.
In the great variety of expressions of popular religion during festivals, it is nevertheless possible to highlight the most important common forms and expressions, some of the most typical aspects.
The participation of the common people is already evident in the preparation of the festival, in the competition with which families, confraternities, and neighborhoods prepare the various forms of decoration and festive expression. Often the organization of the festival is entrusted to qualified and responsible persons, the "festatori," who provide for this, with competitions for the right to carry the statue of the saint or other sacred images during the procession. Sometimes this right is hereditary in certain families. Typical of the preparatory phase is also the custom of the novenas, played and sung by pipers or "ciche cantatorie" at street corners or in front of the houses of devotees who take the novena or offer an alms.
The popular element accounts for the lively displays of joy that take place on the feast day, with shouts, songs, dances, games, races, and competitions that create an atmosphere of joyful fervor. Also characteristic are intense expressions of religious and mystical feeling, with invocations for grace, prayers, weeping, and moved voices, especially when the sacred image passes by or when the miracle occurs, as in the feast of St. Januarius in Naples or that of St. Nicholas in Bari, and so on. In some places, such as Matera (Lucania), at the end of the feast the triumphal machine of the Madonna della Bruna is attacked and broken into pieces, which the crowd contends for and then keeps as amulets. In processions to pray for rain in some southern Italian towns, the statue of the saint is immersed in a stream or a fountain while violent invocations are made for grace. In many regions of central-southern Italy and in Sicily, the sacred effigy or the principal saint is followed in procession by statues of lesser saints (called “santoni”).
Of particular interest for their grandeur are the specialized sacred carts, processional machines, and processions of giant statues. The sacred carts can be divided (according to R. Corso) into two groups: votive and scenic, for graces or favors received; the others recall sacred representations that evoke memories of miraculous or legendary events. Among the former are to be counted the candles of Gubbio, the candelabras of Sassari and Nulvi, and the “figli” of Nola; among the latter are the machine of St. Rose in Viterbo and of St. Rosalia in Palermo, the twelve mysteries of Campobasso for the feast of Corpus Christi, the bier of the Madonna della Lettera in Messina, and the processional machines in the shape of boats or ships, recalling the landing or miraculous appearance of a saint, as at Nola for St. Paulinus, at Mazara (Sicily) for St. Vitus, at Potenza for St. Gerard, and so on.
Famous are the “géants de cortège” of Belgium, large processional statues representing Samson, the shepherd David, the Giant Magnone, the Wild Man, etc., accompanied by rare or fantastic animals; in the procession of Nivelles appear a fish, a unicorn, a dromedary, a dragon, as well as the “cheval Bavard” (the talking horse of the Four Sons of Aymon), the “cheval-godet,” and so on. Processional giants are also known in Italy: suffice it to recall the two Giants of Mistretta that go out for the feast of the Madonna (September 8), and those of Messina, carried in procession for Corpus Christi (q.v.).
But the broadest popular participation in religious festivals is found in the actual sacred plays that continue to survive in various forms in different places, ranging from simple dramatic processions carrying statues, or animated by sacred or symbolic figures, to dramas and tragedies inspired by the life of Christ: the Passion Play of Oberammergau is famous, but similar manifestations are numerous and interesting in many places, even in Italy, from the Passion Play of Sordevolo (Piedmont) to that of Sezze (Lazio), to the Struggle between the Angel and the Devil in many towns of Irpinia, to the Pighia (i.e., the Capture of Christ) of Gagliano and other local versions in Calabria, to the "Journey of the Magi," which is performed in the countryside around Taranto for Epiphany. In all these forms of sacred theater, the characters are, as a rule, represented by common folk.
As an adjunct to many religious festivals, the offerings of flowers and foliage should be considered, which sometimes give rise to manifestations of high artistic value, such as the *inforata* of Gennaro (Rome) for the feast of Corpus Christi. It is very common to strew flowers along the streets where the procession passes, or to throw flowers from windows onto the statue of the saint and the procession itself. A picturesque element of considerable value is also provided by the custom of adorning balconies and window sills with carpets, blankets, draperies, and damasks. Famous are the *adobbi* in Bologna for the *nonne di nichi* following Corpus Christi: garlands of herbs and flowers and multicolored *zendali* link the houses facing each other in every district, while windows and doors are adorned with carpets, draperies, and precious brocades.
Another popular initiative is the illuminations, the use of torches in night processions, and the great bonfires and *falli* that are lit for certain feasts, such as those of St. Anthony Abbot, Ascension, and especially St. John the Baptist. This last custom harks back to very ancient agrarian rites that survive, in a Christian context, especially in solemnities connected with major fieldwork.
For particular details regarding the principal feasts, such as Christmas and Easter, see the relevant entries.
D. Provenzal, *Usanze e feste del popolo italiano*, Bologna 1912; A. A. Bernardy, *I nostri regants de cortège*, in *Pallante*, 6 (1921), pp. 49-54; V. Troiani di Nerfa, *Sagra festa e riti*, Roma 1932; R. Corso, *I carri sacri in Italia*, in *Folklore italiano*, 10 (1933), pp. 129-47; P. Geiger, *Deutschs Folkstum in Sitte und Branche*, Berlino-Lipsia 1936; A. W. Wright and T. E. 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