The places of the festivities
The dimension of the festivity is constant in the life of the Amalfi Coast inhabitants they have managed to link sacred events and profane at the moment of the memory. So, of the collective celebration…
First of all the festival is religious, it marks the time of rituals linked to the faith populations: the patron saints festivals, to which from the ancient it is entrusted to escape the dangers: the rituals linked to various moments of the liturgical year that explain a secular faith that placed the roots in everybody daily life. Then there are festivals linked to moments of the social life and economy: those that celebrate local products, those linked to the annual work cycle.
There is no Coast town that does not have at least two festivals for its own Saint patron: one is the day which the saint is remembered in the church liturgical calendar and the other linked to a particular event of protection. Usually, these two moments have two different season of the year: a festival in winter with processional marches that take place before the lunch and the other in summer that has more days of festivities. The double recurrence has logistical solid foundations: if the summer date is not linked to another particular event of or miracle either liturgical calendar, the duplication is explained with a great devotion for their patron that the inhabitants of a place have but unfortunately, they had to migrate from the country where they come back in the summer only.
Other moments linked to religion are those of Christmas and easter. At Christmas there is no Coast town that does not have its own crib, its decoration on the ways and some typical events such as the living representation of the Jesus birth’s events or concerts with Christmas music. All of this accompanied with tasting typical sweets or moments of convivial meetings.
During easter, that begins on Palm Sunday, it loads with austerity every single day: the secular ancient rituals every year attract a lot of tourists, fascinated by the authenticity of these places.
It goes from the pain of the events that brings Jesus’ crucifixion they reread with scenic representation that take place in a lot of towns among the streets illuminated by the torches only, to the commotion of the good Friday procession, with…of Dead Jesus and Our Lady of Sorrow, to the happiness of Palm Sunday, in which the bells sound of the churches remembers the resurrection.
The festival time, however, is not finished because the next day, Monday, every town celebrates their Saint patrons showing the statues in the churches.
To the faith, they reconnect even moments of festivity that join other purpose. Pilgrimage to shrine based on the top of the mountains they associate the faith to the need to verify the proper functioning of the structures that allow the work of terraces. The festival on Falerzio Mountain (in Maiori commune) in honor, at the beginning of the summer, this allows, for example, in addition to the celebrating the Madonna Avvocata, also to verify the sealing of water supply channels.
The not religious festivity moments enhance what the locals made they live forever. The anchovies in the Coast towns, chestnuts and vine in the hilly towns become the protagonists of the festivals they enrich of cultural moments and occasions which tell the local tradition