Christmas in Molise

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Christmas in Molise
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Christmas remembers the birth of Jesus the
Italian word for Christmas, Natale, means
birthday.
Everyone waits for Christmas time. By the
beginning of December Christmas markets with home
hangings, gifts and gastronomic products are
prepared in the streets and squares. We decorate
our houses and schools with sprigs of mistletoe,
holly and butchers broom, coloured decorations,
the Christmas tree and the presepe or crib.
Saint Francis of Assisi introduced the Nativity
scene with live people in the little village
church of Greccio in 1223. Since then the
presepe has become the Italian symbol of the
Christmas season and a very popular form of
devotion. Every home and church has an inanimate
presepe, large or small, more or less elaborated
with clay or plastic figurines. The main
characters are the Infant Jesus, Mary and Joseph
in a stable with an ox and a donkey behind the
manger according to legend they warmed the Child
with their breath. You can also find the Three
Kings, shepherds, bagpipe players, craftsmen,
villagers, farmers and animals and sometimes
local heroes displayed all around. The setting
may include grottoes, small trees, lakes, rivers,
fires, angels hung from wires and lighting
changes from dawn to dusk with the appearance of
the guiding star in the evening.
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The presepe vivente or living Nativity is still
performed in the oldest part of many small towns
in Molise. On designated evenings visitors
wander through the narrow streets to watch
costumed people who perform ancient and
disappeared crafts. Music fills the air.
Particularly familiar in Molise are the
pastorales or tunes played by the zampognari
or pipers. A couple of players with zampogna and
ciaramella usually performs in streets and in
market squares or knocks at the doors blowing
into the instruments. In the past the zampognari
were shepherds who left their families for
months to gain their living as itinerant
musicians but today they are lovers of this music
genre. They wear traditional outfits of sheepskin
vests, leather breeches and a woollen cloak. They
descend from the Molisan villages of Scapoli,
CastelVolturno and San Polo Matese and move to
towns of Molise and Italy. Scapoli, in the
province of Isernia, is one of the few places in
Italy where the zampogna is still made.
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We celebrate Christmas Eve with a large meal
called Cenone della Vigilia di Natale that
includes seafood and vegetables but not meat
anguilla a big female eel, roasted, baked or
fried, cod with vegetables followed by special
cakes and sweets with nuts and almonds and
panettone, pandoro and torrone. At midnight most
people go to the midnight Mass to be present at
the deposition of the Baby Jesus into the manger
and after the service they wish each other Happy
Christmas. On Christmas Eve in many Molisan
villages there is also the tradition to light
fires and bonfires. This very old rite is tied
both to a religious tradition and to the pagan
European cult of fire in the winter solstice.
The most significant Christmas bonfires are The
Faglia of Oratino, in the province of Campobasso
and the Ndocciata of Agnone, in the province of
Isernia.
The Faglia is an enormous torch made of reeds. It
is 12 metres high and two metres wide. Hundreds
of people carry the torch along the roads of
Oratino up to the church square where it is
lifted by a crane and burnt.
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The Ndocciata takes place in Agnone as twilight
falls on 24th December. The origins of this rite
go back to around the year 1000. It consists of a
parade of numerous ndocce which are torches made
of white fir wood, dry brooms and string. They
use such wood because it is rich in resin that
crackles while burning and also because it is
easily found in the forests around Agnone. The
ndoccia is over four metres high and assumes a
fan shape through the combination of a balanced
number of torches so the weight can be
distributed properly on the man's shoulders. When
the hundreds bells of the town start tolling, the
fire holders light up the torches and start the
parade along the dark main street of the little
town illuminating it as a gigantic river of fire.
The holders are all men who wear a round black
cloth cloak to protect themselves from the fire.
The show ends up when the remaining parts of the
burning torches are heaped in an enormous
bonfire.
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On Christmas Day early in the morning only some
of the children unwrap the gifts Father Christmas
left them during the night because our tradition
is to wait for the Befana on 6th January.
Children usually write a letter to their parents
with wishes for the Christmas celebration and
promises to be good. They hide it under a plate
before the big Christmas dinner begins and then
they read it aloud when it is found.
After dinner relatives and friends pay visits and
play tombola or cards till late at night.
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New Years celebrations start with a great cenone
with friends at home or in a restaurant where
the meal is usually accompanied by live music. We
eat lentils and cotechino, a large spiced
sausage lentils symbolize money and good fortune
and the pork symbolizes the richness of life for
the coming year. At home the long dinner is
cheered by playing tombola or by watching TV
shows which punctually strike the time missing to
the new year. At the stroke of midnight everyone
proposes a toast to the New Year with spumante,
the Italian sparkling wine and then kisses
friends. Many people go outside their front
doors and set off their own fireworks at midnight
to welcome the New Year.
There is still someone who keeps the old
tradition of throwing old china out of the window
as a symbol of renewal hoping to forget the bad
things of the past months and to have luck and
fortune in the new year. After midnight most
young people go to discos or clubs or gather in
the town squares where numerous events are
organized.
The following day we get up late and then we have
the traditional exchange of wishes with relatives
and friends.
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In some villages of Molise people live New Years
Eve differently taking part in the Maitunate.
This dialectal word means morning so in a
broader sense it refers to the fact that people
merry all the night until sunrise. The maitunate
are popular songs made up of two parts the
first concerning the wishes for the new year and
the second concerning the begging. In wishing a
good year to everybody they make fun of the local
famous people with allusions and witty remarks.
Groups of people invade the village roads,
knocking at everybody's door to wish a happy new
year and begging tasty food and wine. At first
such begging is very polite and then it
degenerates into curses to force the people to be
more generous. Nobody has the right to get angry
at the jokes. Each group is accompanied by
different musical instruments the accordion, the
guitar, the drum, the tambourine and also
domestic objects as leads and saucepans.
A particular instrument is the bufù or
friction drum made of a wooden barrel covered
with goat or lamb skin. The player makes it
vibrate with a stick so that it gives a deep
sound.
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The Epiphany celebrates the Magis visit to the
Baby Jesus. In Italy this day is commonly called
Befana Day.
The name Befana is probably a popular corruption
of Epifania or Epiphany. The evening before
January 6th children hang stockings by the
fireplace or near the head of the bed. They wait
for a visit from La Befana, a kind ugly woman
who arrives flying on a broomstick or riding on a
donkey, goes down chimneys and fills stockings
with toys and sweets for the good and pieces of
coal (made of sugar nowadays), if children have
been bad.
A legend tells that the Three Wise Men stopped at
the Befanas hut to ask directions on their way
to Bethlehem and invited her to join them to see
the infant Jesus. She was too busy to clean her
house so she refused. Later when it was dark and
she saw a great light in the sky she decided to
follow the Magi but she could not find them nor
the stable. Then she stopped every child she met
to give him a present hoping he was the infant
Jesus. So, every year, she looks for the Christ
Child and arrives in the homes to leave a gift.