SARNANO CARNIVAL

The holiday of Carnival is very famous in Sarnano for its history, and the program of events in Sarnano is very rich. Exhibitions. events, concerts and local enliven the evenings and days of February, until Shrove Tuesday, making the pleasant Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays in Sarnano.

The carnival start with a parade of floats ending Sarnano's Sport's Palace.

This festivity is very nice and colored!

A special night!

The White Night

In my town, Tolentino , each year on 21st June is celebrated “ La Notte Bianca”, “The White Night” that represents  the longest night in summer.  All the squares are crowded with young boys and girls, elders and many families. All the shops remain open for this event and streets  are filled with stall of candies, valuables and musical bands. In the center of the square, every year some girls usually make a comedy show about  fantasy or horror stories. The last summer they made a comedy about a really strange family and about their daily life. Everything goes on until 3 am.

Ruslana Markiv II F

St John's day or Midsummer festival in Lithuania

The day of St John or midsummer is one of the oldest and most joyful festivals, which is celebrated in many European countries, including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Scandinavian countries and Finland, Russia and other Slavic countries and many other. The holiday, in fact, is not the Midsummer Day, June 24, but the evening and night from 23^rd to 24^th of June, which in fact corresponds to summer solstice. From pagan times it is known as the festival of Dew, but Christianity named it the festival of John the Baptist

Athough St. John the Baptist occupies a very important place among the saints, the Church does not attach any great importance to the celebration of his nativity. It is a festival of simple people, who believe, that this shortest night of the year is very special, as the four elements – the water, the fire, the earth and air as well as all the vegetation have magic powers. Young girls make wreaths of wild flowers and put on their heads. A tall pole with a wooden wheel soaked in tar is put up at the top of the highest hill. Men whose names are Jonas (John) set the wheels on fire and make bonfires around it. Young people dance round the fire, sing songs about rye, play games, men try to jump over the fire. The burning wheels on the poles are rolled down the hill into a river or a lake at its foot, men jumping over it all along. On Midsummer Day dew and herbs have special healing powers. Medicinal herbs collected from June 1 to the Midsummer Day can cure 12 (some say 99) diseases. Young girls wash their faces in the dew to make themselves beautiful, and walk barefoot on the grass. Special importance is given to the Midsummer Day's fire. People jump over it or even walk barefoot on the spread ashes.

The peak of the night is the midnight, when according to common belief the fern blossoms and those, who find the blossom will become extremely wise, rich and happy. But it is very difficult to find it as witches protect it and scare everyone away.

Young people don’t go to sleep and sing, dance and play games all through Midsummer Night until sunrise. Girls float wreaths on rivers to find out how soon they will get married.

Special attention is given to people whose names are Jonas, Jonė or Janina; they are given a lot of flowers, special songs are devoted to them.

1ST MAY

  Hi everybody,

I’m Paolo,

Just want to tell you how I celebrated 1^st May.  But before that I’ll tell you what I’ve found out about this festivity. I won’t bore you , I promise. Just a little information.

I searched the net and read an interesting chapter from the book “Calendario “ by A. Cattabiani  (a good book if you want to know everything about festivals).

May 1^st  is  the International Workers’ Day   that commemorates the struggle of working people in the world.  It dates back to the 1880s in the USA with the fight for an eight-hour work day. The heart of the movement was in Chicago where during a labour rally organized to protest against the brutality of the police,  a bomb was thrown to the police and the police responded by firing into the crowd killing one person and injuring many others.

The Church has accepted this festivity and consecrated it to the first saint “worker”, St Joseph. So in 1956 Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of St Joseph the Worker.

It is just a coincidence  but May Day used to celebrate the coming of summer, it marked the triumph of light over darkness.  The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the  Germanic countries. It is also associated with the festival of Beltaine, of Celtic origin.  Still nowadays in some regions of Italy, like Tuscany, Umbria, Liguria, there are traditional festivals called “Calendimaggio” . During the festival the “maggerini” go from door to door to sing songs about nature, spring, seasons, love. They are joyful songs celebrating  rebirth and new life.

 The following photos were taken in Macerata  and give you an idea about how people celebrated 1^st May : near the public gardens  there were stalls  and also a band giving a concert. Pity the weather in the afternoon was not very good and the rain interrupted the concert a lot of times !

Anyway the really great  concert is in Rome , it is organized  by  the Labour Unions every year  and it is  broadcast live by the third channel of the state TV (Rai 3).  A lot of famous bands and singers are involved and a lot of young people go to Rome to enjoy music and have fun. I wish I had gone.

This is my miserable 1^st May.

It was a day when everything went wrong. I went to Mogliano to have a picnic as many people do on this day. They fill their picnic basket with a lot of good things ,the typical food is cheese (pecorino) and broad beans and off they go, ready to enjoy themselves. I too wanted to have fun but:    
I got up late, I was in a hurry and  so forgot to take my bagpipe.   
I also forgot to take   chips  for my friend. My task was to buy chips for everybody.   
I got to Mogliano at 1pm, very late,  and while we were having lunch it started to rain. So we decided to go home.   
While we were going home my friend  realized he had lost his  i-Phone.
Just the icing on the cake!

Hina-Matsuri

Hi, I'm Laura, I'm fond of Japanese culture and  I'd like to talk about a feast I saw in Tokyo.

The festival of 3 March known as Hina-Matsuri, is a celebration for all little girls.

The origin of this festival goes back to the Heian period (794-1185) and comes from an ancient custom according to which  the" hitogana" , paper dolls, the first month of year, are let to float on the rivers to remove dangerous events.

In all houses, where there is a female child, on a staircase with 7 shelves  "hina ningyo" are exposed. They are two beautiful dolls in costumes from ancient ceremonies that represent the emperor and the empress.

Behind the imperial couple two gold screens with two lamps are put.

On the lower steps there are other dolls that represent the lady of the empress and the courtiers.

On the same altar there are offerings for the divinities.

The dolls exposed are the first gift that any girl receives at birth.

A superstition is linked to the dolls: if the dolls are not put away immediately after the party, the girl will not find a husband. Here are some pictures.

St. Valentine's day

Saint Valentine's day is an annual commemoration celebrated on 14 th February by italian lovers. They usually give to their lover some presents like flower, chocolate, greetings card, also called " valentines", to show their love for each other.
The noun of the feast comes from the name of one of the earliest Christian martyr: Saint Valentine.
Before is execution, he had performed a miracle by saving his jailer's daughter.
Roman Emperor Claudius II thought taht the man who was married, couldn't be good soldiers, but Valentine, however performed marriage cerimonies for young man.
The heart-shoped outline, the winged Cupid is the most popular symbol of modern Valentine's day.

We have chosen the Brazilian poet's Vinicius De Moraes work, written in portuguese

"Chega de saudade

a realidade è quek sem ela

nao hà paz, nao hà beleza

È so tristeza e a melanconia

Ma se ela voltar, que coisa linda,

que coisa lo’ uca."

translation:

" Reality is that without her

there isn't place, and there isn't beauty

it's only sadness, and melancholy

But if she comes, what a beautiful thing

what a crazy thing."

Here, there is a nice legend abuot S. Valentine

-legend of the sublime love

This legend tells about a young Roman centurion, called Sabino who fell in love with Serapia. They couldn't get married because Sabino wasn't christian so, the couple went to bishop Valentine to beptize Sabino. Unluckly few days before the marriage, Serapia became very ill. Sabino asked Valentine not to be separated from his lover; his life would be only a pain. Valentine celebrated the marriage and while he was blessing them, a blissful sleep enveloped the two heart for ever.