Feast of Saint Andrew

November 30 is the feast day of Saint Andrew for the Churches of the East and the West.

Originally from Bethsaida in Galilee, he worked as a fisherman together with his brother Simon Peter, when the two were first called by Jesus to be his disciples and, therefore, fishers of men. Having also been John the Baptist's first disciple, he is called Protócletos (the first).

The iconographic representation of Saint Andrew is often associated with fish; visual testimony of his origins as a fisherman.

Furthermore, since the early Christian era, the acronym of the Greek word for fish: the Greek word for fish: the Greek word for fish: the Greek word for fish: the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, was a real emblem of the Christian faith.

In Bono, a town located in the historic Goeceano region, the custom on the part of children to question, door to door, shouting “to Sant'Andria, to Sant'Andria” with an empty pumpkin, carved as a skeletal face and illuminated from the inside with a burning candle, is well attested.

The use of pumpkins (curcuvicias) was attested and persists in the autumn children's polls also dedicated to Orani, in the province of Nuoro, on the evening of the first and second days of November after sunset. The pumpkins illuminated internally by a burning candle were called animeddas (small souls) and represented, as it is not difficult to guess, the spirit of the dead.

In Bono, the question that the children carry out on the 30th of November is called Sant'Andria. The little questioners carried a handkerchief (on pannitzu) tied like a bag in which to store the gifts received: sweets, nut, chestnuts, etc.

In recent years, since the custom seemed to weaken due to the change in cultural models, Proloco has intervened, setting up banquets in the town squares with the first tapping of local wine, when the year allows it.

In Cossoine, on November 30, it was customary to eat boiled wheat (trigu uddidu) sweetened with sapa. This food preparation had an omen value.

In the evening, after the Hail Mary, it was said that Sant'Andrea would come out. In reality, they were some old women who disguised themselves wearing a hooded orbace coat and wearing particularly ugly masks on their faces. The landlady left the door ajar, so that Sant'Andrea could enter. The kids were terrified. Saint Andrew asked the girls: “Do you sing azzolas as filadu? Battoro e otto, manos and pes don't touch you, clap and chimbe manos and pes segare you naked” ('How many skeins have you spun? Four and eight, hands and feet I don't touch them, four and five hands and feet I must cut you ') and in the meantime he was waving a knife and a spit. At this point, the girl's parents intervened, who exclaimed 'already l'as filadas' ('yes he spun them') and showed a minimum of eight skeins spun. Then Sant'Andria answered: “Good, good, continue gai fintzas a s'annu chi enit! ” ('Good, good, keep it up until next year! ').

Numerous analogies can be drawn between the rituals just described for Bono and those documented for Martis (SS) by the folklorist Giuseppe Ferraro, who at the end of the 19th century reported that Saint Andrew rewarded willing girls who spun with diligence, while threatening lazy people to cut their hands off.

In various towns in the Sassari area, including Cossoine, there is a proverbial saying for the month of November: Sant'Andria, moltoridade 'e polcos, or 'November, death of pigs'. The slaughter of the pig for fattening was equivalent to a moment of sociality and sharing, which set in motion the institution of reciprocity: the family whose pig was slaughtered gave parts of meat to relatives and friends, who would return the courtesy at the right time. This was an expedient that in the past, in the absence of refrigerators and freezers, overcame the problem of preserving meat, guaranteeing a circuit of meat that was always fresh.

Update

15/11/2024 - 23:23