Sant’Antonio in Valnerina
The feast of Saint Anthony
It is said that “When comes Epiphany’s Day, all the feasts go away“, but in reality, in the days of our grandparents, the most eagerly awaited feast of the year was the one that falls on 17 January: the feast day of St Anthony Abbot.
The feast of Saint Anthony, on whom the health of the cattle and its reproduction depend, is still celebrated with religious and convivial ceremonies.
In Valnerina, this festivity is deeply felt and is not limited to the day of celebration. Preparations begin about a week before 17 January, when the two “santesi” (devotees), who change every year, start the so-called “giri di questua” (alms-collecting rounds), going from house to house to collect donations for the festivities.
In the past, these donations consisted of what each family could provide. Meat, wine, sausages and other foodstuffs. Today, however, the tendencyis to offer money.
Each village in the Valnerina has developed different ways of celebrating over the years, whilthey all have a common beginning.
On the morning dedicated to the saint with the Pig, people first attend a mass dedicated to him. After the celebration, the squares around the churches fill up with people accompanied by their animals: not only pets, but also livestock and working animals such as cows, oxen, horses and sheep. Today, one even sees modern farming equipment, symbolising the change that has taken place in the fields and the transition from livestock to the use of technology.
At the end of the celebration, witch depending on the different local traditions, the participants received as a gift a loaf of hard bread – a custom widespread in the Ferentillo and Poggiodomo area – a necklace of “ciambellette di S. Antonio“, typical in Norcia. In Gavelli, a small village in Sant’Anatolia di Narco, ham bones were instead distributed, used to flavor a soup consumed by the local community.
All strictly blessed, as was the custom.
Today, on the other hand, it is traditional to offer the participants of the blessing a doughnut with grape must and aniseed together with an object for animal care – such as a bowl or a leash – and only after the mass dedicated to St Anthony and the handing over of the gifts, do the actual celebrations begin.
At one time, the banquet set up for the entire community was made from what the two saints had managed to obtain during the quest. If the proceeds were not enough to organize the refreshment, the santesi were obliged to add money from their own pockets; if there was any money left over, it was given as an offering to the local church.
The festivities were, and still are, accompanied by music and popular songs, featuring fragments of the Saint’s life freely reworked by the popular imagination.
Even today, after the blessing, community refreshments are prepared and the same songs are sung in honour of the Saint. In addition, everyone brings something to eat for the banquet, and the celebrations continue with a lunch, organised by the people of Sant’Anatolia, in a local restaurant.
In Sant’Anatolia di Narco, as we are told by the people of the village, this occasion is much loved, especially by the men, who are the only participants admitted to the customary lunch, which, once consumed, ends with a visit to every wine cellar in the village where the owners feel obliged to offer wine, on pain of goliardic jokes.
While the men go from cellar to cellar, the women prepare refreshments for the whole village – this time open to everyone, women and children included – so that the feast continues into the evening.
At this point, all that remains is to wish everyone a Sant’Antonio in good company.
…and St Anthony’s pig?
The Saint Anthony pig is related to the formerly bred breed called the Cinturino, which was considered extinct for years but has now been reconstituted.
This prized breed is now reared on a farm in Norcia, a symbol of tradition and recovered biodiversity.
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Bibliography:
– Il Ciclo dei Mesi, Mario Polia, 2009, pp. 35-55
– Cibi dell’ordinario e dello straordinario: alimentazione quotidiana ed alimentazione rituale e festiva, Giancarlo Baronti, 1999
– Dalla coltura alla cultura alimentare. Ricerche dall’Umbria ( a cura di F. Fatichenti), Culture Territori Linguaggi, pp. 27-47