The harvest

According to popular belief attested in various areas of the island, wheat would grow its seeds on the night of Saint John the Baptist (the night between 23 and 24 June), during which nature was thought to acquire extraordinary forces and powers.

To keep birds away from the fields, wormwood branches (sènciu and sim.) or anthropomorphic bogeymen (mamutzone and sim.) were used. In addition to birds, a serious danger from which to protect cultivated plants, not unlike people and animals, was the evil eye (ogu malu and sim.). To avert its effects, it was quite common practice to fix a pair of horns on a perch.

In June or July, depending on the area and custom, the harvest began.

The toothed sickle was an indispensable tool for harvesting by hand (sa mess Antiga). With it, the wheat was mowed shortly in the middle of the culm, that is, the stem) Only the marzuolo wheat, which does not grow very tall, was mowed close to the ground (see the proverb “Su trigu de martu, non lu messes artu”: 'The grain marzulo, do not mow it up'). In the Campidanese variant, in addition to 'messai', to harvest is also called 'crubai': lit. 'curve', in a certain sense 'fold' the ears, in order to mow them.

The scythe was held in one hand, while the other grabbed the group of stems to be cut (manadas). The combination of two or three manadas formed a half sheaf: 'perra'. The verb 'handle' and yes. Indicates the action of brooding. The bundles of sheaves were tied and piled up in the field in groups of nine.

The reapers (messadoris) to protect themselves from the edges of the wheat wore a canvas apron (deventale/pannu 'e ananti) and leather or cloth covers on their wrists and forearms.

The gleaners (spigadrixis) were the women who collected the ears fallen from the reapers and those not cut by the sickles. Is spigadrixis, who could be related to their messadors (wife, girlfriend or sisters), had tied a bag of jute or linen (sachita) to their waist, in which they inserted the ears without a culm (i.e. the stem).

In the middle of the morning, a break was taken to eat “su murtzu”, a sort of breakfast consisting of bread, cheese, eggs, tomatoes, olives, onions, wine, wine or water, depending on the possibilities.

The women also collected the wheat straw (fai su fenu) necessary to make the basketry items (su stexu 'e fenu).

In Campidano, the harvesting and threshing work was accompanied by the so-called “cantu a s'opu”, a traditional working song, consisting of mutetus accompanied by the “Oooopu” choir. They sang to make the effort of a work performed under the scorching sun and the now summer heat less burdensome. It should be added that often these songs were performed in order to create new unions: married men and women, in fact, tried to marry the unmarried gleaners with some young reaper looking for a wife.

Update

22/6/2024 - 15:49