The Epiphany of the Lord in the Catholic, Orthodox (Theophany) and Anglican Churches is one of the highest solemnities of the liturgical year. For Catholics it is a feast of precept. In the Sardinian tradition, this festival is called Sos tres res ('The Three Kings', scil. the Three Kings) and involves numerous ritual practices.

Also for the Epiphany, as for the last and the first of the year, these rituals are attested. For example, in Ittiri, in the province of Sassari, children get together with bags to go door to door to ask for SOS Tres Res and, in front of every house, they sing happy birthday songs, asking “A nonde dades? ” ('Will you give us'?). The gift given to the questioner (dried fruit and sometimes some dessert) always implies a return in terms of good luck and, especially, it will guarantee, although implicitly, the donor the right to ask for gràscias ('thank you'). While the children, around dinnertime, once the tour of the town has run out, return home, groups of adults are formed who, going from house to house, sing SOS Tres Res:

Novas Novas de Allegria, Novas de su Naschimentu,/Novas de grande conttentu chi bos dat su Messiah,/Su Messia est beru Deus naschid'in Notte 'e Nadale/Un'istella orientale chi at postu in caminu lughiat./ Tres shepherds chi b'aiat canto su Gesus naschesit/ ei sa musica s' intendesit chi sos Faghian cantamus sa melodia c'amus congluidu s' annu. /Bona Notte e Bonas Pascas a Cum/ E Deus bos diat vida e mezus a un'atter'annu. Where are you from? ('News that cheers up/news of the Lord's birth/news of great joy that the Messiah gives you/the Messiah is true God, born on Christmas night/an Eastern star shone that showed the way/to three shepherds who were there when Jesus was born/and you could hear the music that angels made/let's sing the melody, because we have finished the year/good night and happy holidays/and God give life and luck for the new year: Can you give us some? ').

Questionants are thus invited to their homes to taste su càbude, which in Ittiri is not a bread, but a sweet preparation. The food offer is followed by thank-you verses from the recipients of the gift:

At one hundred years old, your mistress,

La Godedas is a party,

Gesus Cristus a manu dresta

Who bos ponzat in ora ona,

A chent'annos, your mistress

('A hundred years old, mistress/May you enjoy this feast/Jesus on your right/May he give you good luck/At a hundred years old, maidres').

The children were recipients of gifts not only through the exercise of the questua, but in the Capital of the Island, in Cagliari, probably due to the influence of allogeneic customs, even directly from Sos tres res, as documented by the testimony of a Cagliari informant published in 1893 in the pages of the “Archive for the Study of Popular Traditions”:

“The Epiphany, and especially in the Campidanese area, on the evening of the eve of the Epiphany, at midnight sharp the Three Kings come, I don't know from which place, on horseback, loaded with toys, toys, trinkets and sweets for good children, reserving old and ugly stuff for the bad. Therefore, in the evening, before going to bed, they put out baskets and other containers outside to welcome you what will be left to leave the desired Three Kings”.

Like all the moments of transition from old to new, the day of the Epiphany, representing “a chapter of the year”, is conceived in the folkloric horizon as a prodigious time, in which the dead return to their homes and nature is charged with exceptional forces: animals speak and oil and wine flow from fountains and rivers instead of water. Like the days of Saint Lucy, Christmas, New Year, Saint John the Baptist, even that of the Epiphany was a favorable time to draw wishes and to predict the future, even through certain foods.

For example, on the day of Saint Lucy, the old winter solstice, in northern Sardinia, as the folklorist Giuseppe Ferraro reports, it was customary to cook a focaccia (còtzula) under the ashes with a penny in it. A piece was then distributed to each member of the family, and it was recommended that whoever found the penny, if unmarried, would be married within the year, but if already married, would die within the same period.

For the Epiphany there was the custom of making a dessert called “of the three kings”. It was a cake whose dough was mixed with a bean, a chickpea and a bean. Finding one in your slice was equivalent to a good omen for the production of wheat, olives and grapes. The fava bean heralded the greatest luck.

The custom described above brings to mind, despite the necessary differences, a tradition established in the South of France, where the Gâteau des Rois is prepared on the occasion of the Epiphany — in the North the corresponding dessert is called gallette des rois — a sort of brioche that hides a stone inside, which will reward the king or queen who will find it. A child is placed under the table and must decide who the piece of cake that has just been cut will go to. Whoever has the portion containing the bean will become king for the whole year and a crown will be placed on his head. The custom, also present in Portugal, where the dessert is called Bolo Rei, originates from the festivities of ancient Rome destined to celebrate Saturn and the Golden Age.

(Cover image Archaeological complex of S. Andrea Priu "Adoration of the Magi", Photography by Marcello Canu - 2017)