Tenuta Villa Oleandro
Holy Days
Most saints celebration, or festa, days feature a similar program of events and can include novena (a set of prayers repeated during the 9 days prior to the feast day), church services, processions (often accompanied by a brass band), street market, artisanal market, other events (eg art exhibition, cookery demos, wine tasting) and food fests (eg barbeque, orecchette, pettole).
Most processions terminate with fireworks displays just before the relevant saints statues are returned to their home churches. The larger, more popular events will also feature classical and/or pop concerts at the end of which a grand finale fireworks display is set off on the edges of the town.
Carnival - Feb 12-28 Street parade
San Valentino (St Valentine) - Feb 14 - Chiesa Madre
Easter - Mch/Apr - All churches
Easter is not considered a "festa" as such - it is a solemn occasion and perhaps the most important in the calendar of religious holy days in Vico. The most spectacular day is Good Friday when every church in the town carries their statue of Our Lady, dressed in black, around the town to visit every other church in a symbolic search for her son Jesus Christ. At the end of the day, when all the processing, chanting and singing in the streets is done and the statues and confraternities have returned to their bases, the Confraternita dei Cinturati di Sant'Agostino e S Monica (The Belted [brothers] of St Augustine & St Monica) sing the Miserere, from the gallery in the Chiesa di San Giuseppe. Complete with clattering handheld cog rattles and thunderous foot stomping, this makes for a terrific end to an awesome day. On Easter Monday another procession takes place at the end of which the populace goes home to enjoy, among other things, the tradional dish of the day, Frittata.
Madonna del Buon Consiglio (Madonna of Good Advice) - Apr 28 - Chiesa di San Nicola
San Giuseppe Artigiano (St Joseph the Artisan) - May 01 - Chiesa di San Giuseppe
Santa Maria Pura (St Mary the Pure) - May 09 - Chiesa di Santa Maria Pura
Santa Rita di Cascia (St Rita of Cascia) - May 22 - Chiesa di San Giuseppe
Corpus Domini - May-Jun
Corpus Domini is a movable feast day wholly dependant upon Easter. This solomn celebration of the Eucharist is usually held 40 days after Easter, or on the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost. It is marked by church services and processions that also include all the youngsters who recently made their first Holy Communion. Under a canopy and contained inside a sun-shaped monstrance (an open or transparent receptacle) a consecrated Host is carried for public display and veneration.
Sant'Antonio di Padova (St Anthony of Padova) - Jun 13 - Chiesa di San Francesco, San Menaio
Patron saint of San Menaio
Madonna del Rifugio (Madonna of Refuge) - Jun 27 - Chiesa Madre
Madonna del Carmine (Madonna of Mount Carmel) - Jul16 - Chiesa della Madonna del Carmine
Festa del Turista (Festa of the Tourist) - Aug 10 - Chiesa di San Francesco, San Menaio
Madonna di Canneto (Madonna of Canneto) - Aug 15 - Chiesa di Santa Maria di Canneto
San Rocco in Campagna (St Rocco) - Aug 16 - Chiesa di San Rocco del Vasto
San Rocco (St Rocco) - Aug 16 - Chiesa SS Apostoli S Pietro e S Paolo
Santa Maria delle Grazie (St Mary of the Graces) - Sep 09 - Chiesa di San Marco
Santa Maria delle Grazie (St Mary of the Graces) - Sep 09 - Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie
San Pio (St Pius) - Sep 23 - Chiesa di
San Michele (St Michael) - Sep 29 - Chiesa del Purgatorio
San Michele in Campagna (St Michael) - Sep 29 - Chiesa di San Michele
San Francesco (St Francis) - Oct 04 - Chiesa di San Pietro
Christmas Dec 26- Jan 6
In Vico, Christmas is not readitionally such an important event as Easter however, the streets are dressed up with festive twinkling lights, an elegant modern "tree" is erected in Piazza San Domenico, there is a small Christmas market of artisanal goods, usually held in Palazzo della Bella.
La Via dei Presepi (Nativity Trail) - Dec-Jan 6
A Nativity Scene Trail & Competition that draws visitors from far and wide. Nativity scenes can be visited in the caves, old stables and churches dotted around the historic center. Some are simple while others are elaborate and include twinkling starry night skies, moving parts and running water. A prize giving ceremony is held on 6th January, the day of the Epiphany.
Pan' e Pomodor
- My Passage to Puglia
by
Ian R McEwan
&
The Return of the Changelling
- from Puglia and back
by
Marghaux Maye
Tenuta Villa Oleandro
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