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Christmas in Sardinia

Christmas in Sardinia

Christmas in Sardinia

The traditional Sardinian terms for Christmas are Pasca 'e Nadale and Paschixedda, short for Pasca (Easter). The use of the diminutive to designate Christmas in the south of the island stems from the implicit comparison with the Easter of Resurrection (Easter and Pasca manna) and suggests the recognition of the latter (see the adjective manna: 'great') as the most important festival in Christianity.

Although today the night of Christmas Eve represents a time of abundance of food, on the traditional horizon it was characterized by fasting, in accordance with what happened on the eve or the days before other important Christian holidays: Easter, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, etc. Gallura, the border area more open to contamination, seems to be the exception, as witnessed at the end of the 19th century by the folklorist Francesco De Rosa. At Aggius and Bortigiadas, for example, Christmas Eve dinner was a lavish meal and children were recommended to eat their fill, otherwise a witch, Palpaéccia, would have placed a stone in the empty space in their stomachs.

Instead, another folklorist, Giuseppe Calvia, documents at the beginning of the 20th century in the Logudoro the custom of fasting until the end of the midnight Mass, called Missa 'e Puddu because it was announced by the first crow of the rooster.

At night and dinner, that is, the night of Christmas Eve, in the other areas of the island it was characterized by a frugal meal. The shepherds returned to their countries, and in the fireplace burned a wooden log (called su truncu 'e cena), kept specifically for the occasion, which they tried to burn until Epiphany. That the fire stayed burning, in fact, was a sign and omen of health and prosperity.

Around the fireplace, the older ones told the children legends and fairy tales taken from the repertoire of traditional oral folk fiction, which the children listened to enchanted and which in the Nuoro area were called contos de fochile (lit. 'tales of the focolare'). A particularly effective example of the climate that was breathed in the houses of the Nuoro area on the night of Christmas Eve is offered to us by a novel by Grazia Deledda The Old Moses, belonging to the collection The Gift of Christmas. Moses was a filly who in winter kept herds of pigs and piglets that grazed and ate the acorns in the elk woods of Mount Orthobene. However, he did not fail to return to the village for the great solemnities and especially he wanted to spend Christmas at the owners' house. Moses was old, although still in strength, and was strongly rooted in the traditional context. In fact, the writer points out, she knew how to ward off the evil eye, against livestock diseases, against ants that stole wheat in farmyards, against caterpillars, grasshoppers and worms, and against eagles to prevent them from kidnapping pigs and lambs. But above all, Moses told the children “stories that went back to 'ancient times' when Jesus was not yet born and the world was populated by simple people, but also by fantastic beings, animals that spoke, devils, dwarves, birghines, who were good with good people and bad with bad people and spent their time weaving purple and gold.”

Sitting around the fireplace, “where whole oak trunks or entire mastic roots burned,” the master's children listened attentively on the night of Christmas Eve. “It was still early for the big dinner that took place after returning from midnight mass,” in which, however, old people and children did not participate because of the particularly harsh climate. For all those who wanted to eat “without profaning Christmas Eve”, a pasta dish was prepared seasoned with pounded walnut sauce.

 

The real day of food abundance was December 25, with the consumption of pork or lamb. There was no shortage of dried fruit and desserts from autumn and winter: sapato bread, papassini, etc. On the occasion of Christmas Eve, young people gave gifts to their girlfriends. Let us recall, for example, one more Deleddian work, Marianna Sirca, in which the bandit Simone Sole brings a wild boar driven out of the bush to his beloved Marianna on Christmas Eve.

 

Finally, the Christmas anniversary falls near the winter solstice (21 December), one of the moments of passage of the astronomical cycle when it was believed that nature was charged with exceptional powers. It was thought, for example, that those who attended Sa Missa de Puddu (see. above) would have enjoyed particular benefits: for example, the malformed creature of a pregnant woman would have recovered if the mother had attended the religious service. Again, Grazia Deledda, in her youth research on the popular traditions of Nuoro published in the “Journal of Italian Popular Traditions” (1893-1895), directed by Angelo De Gubernatis, documented for her native country the belief that those born on Christmas night will never have their bones cut and will find their skeleton intact on Judgment Day.

In the Campidano district of Cagliari, it was widely believed that those born on the night of December 24 would not have lost their teeth or hair and that their bodies would not decay once buried.

In Logudoro, on the other hand, it was believed that those who were born on the night of Christmas Eve could have preserved seven houses in the neighborhood from misfortune.

Update

17/12/2024 - 12:12

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