The CTT (Fontevecchia, The Ramajetto, Teatro del Sangro and Cata) prepares for:

 FEAST OF DOLLS FLYING

March 2, 2016

beginning at 16.30

Torrevecchia Teatina (Ch)

A tradition which was in danger of being forgotten, revitalized thanks to the studies of Prof. Francesco Stoppa and the memory of the elderly. The festival is hugely important and deserves an explanation of its ancient meanings and full of mysteries. This is demonstrated by the interest in various groups and individuals who have written to us from Molise and Calabria, to ask for information as even from them you are thinking of saving it. "The ethnographic characteristics of the festival - said prof. Stoppa - also called "the old saws lu half" breaks the Lent period in half and is an evocation of the Easter tradition, in the period from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, in the fourth week of Lent. For ten years the associations integrated with the Company Traditions Teatine, in collaboration with the Regional Centre for Anthropology UdA Tourism, proposing the "Procession of the pupae seven legs, the old and the flying dolls." The old are played by three to face covered males and represent the parche, which make and break human destiny with the distaff (fortress) inconocchiata, melted with Vertecchia and scissors and, approaching present and onlookers say "je file, turce je, je taje ". The procession begins with the Quarantana doll, old, ugly and lean: the widow of King Carnival and represents the continuity and the people, dressed in black in mourning because it must sacrifice himself for 40 days. This doll communicates sadness, prayer and meditation to the pain of Jesus Crucified ". Carnival and Lent, for popular culture, are brother and sister, but also husband and wife, and with the death of King Carnival begin, waiting for the Passover, the seven weeks of Lent. Hanging under the Quarantana doll, there are seven ingredients of low-fat or seven feathers of which six of one color and the seventh of another, indicating purification, abstinence and refraining from backbiting. Afterwards, the procession, carrying a pupa-made biscuit with seven legs, seven languages ​​and seven feathers on the head. The seven legs representing the transition and the transition from Easter Carnival, seven pens indicate the temporary withdrawal, the Quarantana doll, the conjugal duties and any fun, during the period of Lent. Sexual abstinence was not the only containment of this period. The seven languages ​​explain that you had to eat lean and you should not cook so too elaborate. During the seven weeks you could not eat sweets, no one had to comb your hair, do not you swept the floor, you should not rearrange the bed, you should not sew. The pupa that represents the "old" must be broken by an older man because wise and authoritative and now free from the temptations of the flesh. The flying dolls also are done flying, during the fourth Sunday of Lent, hanging from wires on poles, on the heads of participants and the places you want to protect. They are considered lucky charms to ward off evil spirits, receive auspices and curb diseases. The doll also represents a way of communication between life and death, a feature that is located in the Quarantana doll. It 'good to remember that the dolls are not just a game, always been an integral part of the human being but puppets: Dolls and Dolls are ritual objects and appear in spring propitiation cycle. The character of union that binds the various dolls comes from their position midway between earth and sky, between humanity and a superior spirit. The latter, finding in the doll house, it becomes a concrete and familiar element, a kind of protector, a guardian for those who possess it; up to create, between the owner and the doll, an unbreakable bond of mutual enrichment. They have the same meaning ritual masks that accompany the appearance of the dolls. They serve to realize their aspirations and dispel fears. Appear from Carnival, then half Lent and Easter to end the celebration of the Majo and reappear, made of dried figs, in December to Saint Lucia, also made of dried figs. No matter if they are of paper, rags or cookie or fig. To receive auspices you have to eat, burn or to fly. The purpose of the ritual tied to the doll depicting changes: an egg represents fertility, seven legs representing the transition and a transition, a phallic symbol dispels evil, seven ingredients of low-fat hanging under the doll show sacrifice and purification. The flying dolls are called Corajisime, Quarjisime, Quaremme or Quarantane to various countries of southern Italy including the nearby Molise and Calabria far. The famous pupa dancing among the fireworks is once phantasmagoric deities dancing with bare breasts made of papier mache and is the queen of all these dolls. What to eat: rintroscele with bastardone, bread crumbs, red pepper, garlic and oil; the anchovies' mpriadorie with garlic, chilli parsley; chicocce the potatoes with garlic, rosemary and red pepper; pizza with cheese randinije the hall; patane, pizzas and foije (foije de cole, cascigne and chard rinasciticcia) with fried sardines, bastard.