FOLKLORE. — A region of marked agricultural character, with numerous and important urban centers and a highly developed civic life, Emilia draws from this condition its distinctive features of folklore.
While the most striking and picturesque expressions—such as traditional styles of dress—have long since disappeared, various popular customs and festivals of rural origin and significance have been preserved, often assuming a more elaborate and grandiose character in urban settings. Of particular note are the "feste di mezzanotte" (midnight festivals), centered around a large effigy of an old woman adorned with a sunburst of dried fruits. At the end of the celebration, the effigy is set ablaze, the fruits scatter and are eagerly seized by the children, and the people engage in carnivalesque revelry. Hence, the festival is called the *Segavecchia* (Old Woman Burning), and it is celebrated with particular splendor in Reggio Emilia, Grana (Ravenna), and Forlimpopoli (Forlì).
Other notable survivals of rural significance include the *fuochi di marzo* (March fires), lit on the eve of the new calendar year, around which children dance and leap over the flames. Even more significant are the *calendari* celebrations, preserved especially in various towns of the Emilian Apennines. Groups of young people go from house to house, carrying flowering branches adorned with ribbons and singing songs announcing that "May has arrived." In addition to lyrical *maggi* (May songs), composed primarily of octave stanzas, there are also dramatic *maggi*, which are actual performances of epic-cavalier or sacred-historical subjects, staged outdoors with the accompaniment of a barrel organ or violin. These dramatic *maggi* are sometimes repeated during the summer in wooded areas.
Linked to the cycle of agricultural labor are some famous traditional fairs, such as those of St. John (June 24) in Ravenna, St. Peter (June 29) in Faenza, and St. Lawrence (August 10) in Cervia, which give rise to distinctive popular festivities (lotteries, spinning tops, competitions, etc.). A festive character also attaches to certain principal agricultural tasks, such as the husking of corn and the heckling of hemp, which provide occasions for the announcement or initiation of betrothals among rural youth. Similarly, the feast of St. Martin (November 11), marking the time of wine-pressing, remains lively and rich in humorous elements.
Rural life is also abundantly reflected in monostrophic lyrical songs, which in Emilia often take the form of a quatrain (sometimes with the rhyme scheme ABCC). In some places, particularly in the lower Ferrarese area, these are called *romanelle*, a term dear to Giosuè Carducci. The region also boasts a rich traditional repertoire of proverbs concerning the weather and agricultural work, a body of lore nourished by popular almanacs printed for centuries in cities such as Reggio Emilia and Faenza (e.g., the *Lunari di S. Martino* of November 11). — See plates XXV–XXVI.
Among the manifestations of popular piety, special mention should be made of the cult of the Madonna di S. Luca (Bologna). Numerous legends have grown up around the image itself and the forms of devotion it has inspired over the centuries. Other much-venerated shrines in the same province of Bologna are those of the Madonna di Boccadirio and the Monte delle Formiche. Ancient and charming painted votive tablets are preserved in the church of the Madonna del Monte (Cesena). Particular forms of veneration have also flourished around the Madonna del Fuoco in Forlì, whose image is often reproduced alongside those of St. Gregory and St. Anthony the Abbot on the sides of brightly colored farm carts, still in use across the Emilian-Romagnol plains.
Characteristic expressions of folk art include the rustic blankets printed with iron oxide designs, used to cover cattle in winter; rustic ceramics; and heckling reels for hemp, painted with the same floral motifs as the farm carts and the *castelle* (oblong barrels used to transport must to the city after the grape harvest).
Relatively well preserved, especially in the provinces of Bologna and Reggio, are ancient folk dances such as the *ballo del ferì*, the *galletta*, the *ruggiero*, and above all the *rossone*, a typical courtship dance.