Val di Lima’s village of San Cassiano’s triennial ‘Festa Del Crocifisso’ had to be missed out in 2020 because of the wretched covid pandemic. The village’s inhabitants spared nothing, therefore, to make the festival a truly great event this year. And, after a regrettable absence of six years it certainly was!
We’ve attended the Festa on its previous manifestations as my following posts illustrate:
Before 2014
In 2014
In 2017
We attended morning Mass at this year’s return of one of the great religious celebrations in our part of the world. The beautiful floral decoration of the High Altar, the solemn atmosphere of the rite, the musical contributions from choir and organ all heightened the significance of the occasion.
We didn’t take part this time in the procession, a sort of spiritual ‘beating the bounds’ of the village, but returned for the evening’s concert given by the Corsagna band. It’s aptly named after Verdi who, in common with other notable Italian composers like Donizetti and Puccini, first learnt his trade playing in and conducting these bands which, unlike traditional English brass bands, also includes woodwind.
I though it excellent that, in spite of temptations to seek fame and fortune as pop singers, musically minded young people and particularly girls remain happy to join this musical camaraderie. The programme included marches, a Neapolitan rhapsody and some more contemporary offerings all played shiningly.
The finale of San Cassiano’s festival came with one of the most spectacular fireworks displays I have witnessed in a long time. To a very loud background of whizzes and bangs every variety of starry descents, silver showers, riverine sprays, golden deflagrations and multicolour flames graced the night sky against the background of the valley’s hills and the ancient church’s campanile decorated by rows of lights.
My thoughts were both exhilarated by the celebratory display and saddened to think that in another part of our continent such lighting of darkness accompanied by thunderous noises are a source of terror and death for its inhabitants now in the second year of an utterly senseless bombardment of their homeland.
Such is the paradox of human existence. I just hope in another three years’ time the martyred nation will be able to rejoice anew and that, of course, I will still be here to join in another ‘Festa Triennale’. It is, indeed, a very moving occasion celebrating the religious and community spirit of the area, bringing together not only the inhabitants of the surrounding villages but also relatives who have emigrated to the Americas and northern Europe. For an anthropologist the Festa is a complete vindication of Durkheim’s concept of “collective effervescence” and the identification of God with Society.