The great festivals

The period between May and September included the great festivals, which are still taking place in Sardinia, also known elsewhere both for the attention they received from local and foreign scholars, and for the strong process of institutionalization and touristicization in which they were absorbed a few decades ago.

These are events organized by municipalities or by special Committees, almost all with regional and provincial funding, which are mainly aimed at attracting tourists: the customs and traditions of the festival are suitably prepared by Committees and by the Pro Loco for the spectacularization of tourism and then disseminated widely in Sardinia by the major local television stations. Very little remains of the connotations of the party, but above all, the possibility of the community to represent itself and to observe itself and therefore to feel the protagonist of the identity lived rather than proclaimed by foreign eyes, has perhaps been irretrievably broken.

The calendar cycle closes with the commemoration of the dead (“sos Mortos”). The anniversary is marked continuously, day and night, by the sound of dead bells (“dubbing”) and characterized by the custom of packaging food and leaving the table filled for the banquet of deceased relatives, who are believed on this occasion to return to their usual living places. Even the question of children at the end of the year, according to some, must be brought back to the memory of the dead. The innocence, personality and still shapeless body of children make them not yet fully integrated with the world of the living and particularly adequate to be able to interact with the world of the dead. The calendar commemoration of the dead almost suggests an extreme attempt to make the impossible probable: to continue to tangibly love and nourish

loved ones who are no longer there.

Update

26/9/2023 - 00:29