Tuesday,
October 31, 2006
"Li Morti":
The Sicilian Halloween!!! On November, 2
The ANNOTICO
Report
There are Some
Similarities, BUT there is QUITE a difference between "Halloween" and
the Sicilian "Night of the Dead".
In the former
case, gifts are a "bribe" to keep the Scary Dead Away. In the
latter, Dead Relatives are Benevolently giving
gifts.
Interestingly, it
is actually, the Night of the Dead MEN. Also the dead MEN leave the
cemeteries in a precise order: first come those who died a natural death,
then those who where executed, then those dead from misfortune, and finally
those dead in a sudden way.
Thanks to Tony Accurso
On November, 2,
the Catholic Church celebrates the commemoration of the deceased. This day in
It's a typical
Sicilian tradition to give on such occaissons,
sweets and toys to the children, saying they
are gifts of the deceased relatives.
Thus, by the goodness
of the Sicilians, the souls of the deceased are for the children just
benevolent spirits. In the night of November, 1 the dead men therefore exit from cemeteries and enter the cities.
It's curious to
notice that, according to the Pitre, the dead men leaves the cemeteries in a precise order: first come
those who died of natural death, then those who where executed, then those dead
for misfortune, and finally those dead in a sudden way.
The Pitre also narrates that the Sicilian children of many years
ago recited:
"Armi santi, armi santi, Io sugnu unu e vuatri
slti tanti: Mentri sugnu 'ntra stu
munnu di guai Cosi di morti mittitimlnni
assai."
"Saint Souls, Saint
Souls, I am just one and you are many: While I live in this world of troubles Give me a lot of Gifts of the Dead Men"
and the kids runned along the city ways screaming "Li morti vennu e ti
grattanu li pedi!" ("The Died Men are coming to grate your
feet!")
We already
mentioned here that the gifts consist of toys or sweets.
The most famous
sweets are the Pupi ri
zuccaru, (Sugar puppets) that are cave puppets
made of hardened sugar, painted by hand with delicate colors and representing
traditional figures, like the French Paladins or personages of the boys world
and, recently, also personages coming from the world of the television, up to
reaching the reproduction of Japanese Manga!
Nor less famous
is the Frutta martorana,
made with paste of almonds and painted by hand with such a precision and an
accuracy to be often exchanged with the true objects taken as subjects, like
chestnuts, peaches, figs, oranges, but also fishes or even sandwiches!
If the gift is a
toy, it is tradition that it has to be accurately hidden in odds places, adding
therefore to the expectation of the gift also the emotion of a
hunting for the treasure, with the children raising themselves
from their beds in order to search everywhere the expected gift.
It's almost
impossible today to speak about the festivity of li
morti without speaking about Halloween.
Of Celtic origin,
diffused in
However, there
are some relevant differences. In the night of Halloween, the spirits abandon
the tombs and try to return to their own houses.
In order to scare
such spirits it is necessary therefore to wear scary masks and to leave food
and gifts on the door of the house thus inviting the spirits to continue their
way.
The pumpkins
carved in shape of human faces and illuminated by candles are the
representation of damned spirits, placed close to the house entrance in order
to scare the ghosts.
Therefore it's
the fear the basis of the festivity of Halloween. "Li morti",
on the contrary, is based on the good intentions attributed to the spirits of
the Sicilian dead that leave their tombs not for making fear but for
bringing still joy and happiness to their beloved even for a single time per
year.
Anyway, Halloween
and li morti, are
both great festivity for children of any age and this it what really counts.
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