**FEAST OF THE DEAD (ALL SOULS' DAY).** — The Feast of the Dead (2 November; for the liturgy, V. DEFUNTI, IV. Commemorazione di tutti i fedeli d.) gives rise to a series of manifestations that attest to the profound cult that the people maintain toward their deceased relatives, as well as the numerous, sometimes strange beliefs about the condition of the dead in the afterlife and their relations with the world of the living.
A widely held belief is that on that night the dead return to revisit the places where they lived and to visit their own homes. The popular imagination envisions endless processions of the souls of the deceased, reciting rosaries and litanies as they enter the city and attend the "Messa dei morti" [Mass for the Dead]. There are numerous legends of cases in which people found themselves attending such processions or Masses. In Friuli, farmers leave a lit lamp on the table, buckets of water, and a little bread on the table; in Lombardy, the table is set, the fire is lit, and chairs are placed around the hearth, because on that night the dead are thought to feel the need to eat, drink, and warm themselves. Also widespread is the custom that on those nights everyone should rise very early from bed, to leave room for the dead.
A ritual food for this occasion was the broad bean: "According to the ancients, broad beans contained the souls of their departed: they were sacred to the dead. Among the Romans, they held first place in funeral banquets" (Pitrè). Under the influence of Christianity, the offering of broad beans to the dead was transformed into a charitable distribution to the poor; in connection with this, it was customary in Romagna and elsewhere to place at street corners barrels or other containers filled with boiled chickpeas or lupins, from which anyone could take some. Nowadays, the "broad beans of the dead" are, as a rule, replaced by sweets of the same name and of more or less similar shape. In addition to broad beans, it is customary in Lombardy to eat "chickpeas with pork" and the "pan dei morti" [bread of the dead], which is also given in charity; in Abruzzo, the ritual food was pizza with sardines, and girls would give it as a gift to their fiancés. In Apulia, as in Abruzzo, groups of young people go about begging "for the souls of the dead," singing an appropriate song. In Sicily, the tradition of giving gifts to children, as on Epiphany, was widespread; these gifts were called "cosi di morti" [things of the dead] because it was imagined that they were left by the dead on the windowsill and at the door of good children.
In Abruzzo, it is believed that the dead can remain in their own homes from 2 November until Epiphany; during this period, care is taken not to swing the chimney chain so as not to wake the dead who are sleeping in the house. In Rome, during the Octave of the Dead, sacred representations took place in some cemeteries (such as della Consolazione and di S. Spirito in Sassia), which, through wax statues or painted backdrops, evoked scenes from the Old and New Testaments or were inspired by timely themes. The subjects varied each year and were reproduced in engravings, accompanied by explanatory flyers distributed to visitors. This custom, which began in 1769 under the Archconfraternity of Prayer and Death, lasted until 1849, and in the surrounding areas until the last decades of the 19th century. One of the most moving lyrics by Pascoli, *La tovaglia* in *Canti di Castelvecchio*, is inspired by the popular beliefs mentioned above.
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