Federazione Italiana Tradizioni Popolari
Federazione Italiana Tradizioni Popolari has been working for more than fifty years with a single purpose: the preservation, promotion and heightening of Italian popular traditions and folklore, both nationally and internationally.
Italian traditions: La Cardoleda, a popular Calabrian dance
According to a consolidated oral tradition, the ballad "Cardoleda", a variant of the more famous "viddhaneddha" from Reggio Calabria, would testify derivations from the ancient culture of Magna Graecia quite present in the Greek area of the Aspromonte hinterland. Therefore, "a Cardoleda" could have origins to be found in the distant roots of the Gr...
Italian traditions: The ingenious madness of the Ovodda Carnival
In recent years we are seeing in Italy a continuous intensification of "ethnic tourism", folk festivals and historical re-enactments, religious rituals, patronal festivals, ethno-gastronomic events and carnivals have taken on great interest in the public, so as to spread the phenomenon of direct observation of travelers outside the manifestations o...
Italian traditions: A newfound nativity. The pastoral in the Agrigento province
Among the rituals of the Christmas cycle that characterize the festive landscape of the territory of Agrigento, along with fires and puppets lit ceremonial for the Immaculate (luminari in San Biagio Platani, vamparotti ri la Maculata in Ravanusa and Canicattì, U Diavulazzu in Caltabellotta) or on the occasion of travelling novenas at richly decorat...
Italian traditions: Wine...wine...life. Proverbs and Calabrian wine
The goodness of Calabrian wine has been known since ancient times. One of the testimonies of the distant past, in fact, is contained in a Greek text of the fourth century BC which, translated into Latin, reads: "Bruttia quae vestem et vinum multum et optimum mittit" (Bruzio exports clothing and wine abundant and of excellent quality). Other importa...
Italian traditions: Grape festivals and Autumn Madonnas
The celebration, initially proposed as "Grape Day", then as "National Grape Festival" by Mussolini himself, introduced in 1930, is fixed on September 28 of each year. In Riccia, in the province of Campobasso, Molise, the festival has been active since 1932. In 1938 the chosen day coincided with the celebration of the local religious feast of Our La...
Italian traditions: The feast of Our Lady of Carmine in Naples
The mythical etiology of the feast of Our Lady of Carmine is linked to the founding legends related to Our Lady of Carmine. According to tradition, on July 16th, 1251 the Virgin appeared to Simone Stock and gave him a scapular, saying: “Prendi, o figlio dilettissimo, questo Scapolare del tuo Ordine, segno distintivo della mia Confraternita. Ecco un...
Italian traditions: Italian traditions Quercigliole Race in Ripalimosani, Campobasso
Ripalimosani is a village located about 7 km. from Campobasso where, as in the whole area, already in very ancient times there were Samnite settlements. It was founded as a medieval urban agglomeration because of the migration of the inhabitants of Limosano, another nearby village, who took refuge in the area to defend themselves from the raids of...
Italian traditions: Fires, Angels and Archangels at the bottom of Vesuvio
In spring, between May 7th and May 10th, artistic illuminations, angels, archangels, games and spectacular fireworks are at the center of an intense ritual that the community of Ottaviano (Naples) dedicates to the patron saint, Michael, the archangel who led the angelic hosts in the fight against the rebel angels commanded by Lucifer, annihilating...
Italian traditions: Traditional Festivals in Abruzzo, precious land
Abruzzo is a precious land for its position in our peninsula, a region that collects ancient traditions that draw the sense of identity and pride of its people. Today, more than ever, a sense of belonging has been re-evaluated in the light of what has happened in the territory due to the earthquakes that, after the earthquake that struck L'Aquila i...
Italian traditions: The Holy week in Puglia and Basilicata
It is impossible, if not even pretentious, to accurately illustrate what is happening during the Holy Week in two regions rich in popular traditions such as Basilicata and Puglia. The religious practices of the Lenten and Easter cycle, present almost everywhere, are very varied and articulated, even though they present devotional and scenic-represe...
Italian traditions: Winter Lights. Water, Wine and Blood in the folkloristic cultures of Southern Italy
"In the name of the Assumption, / brothers, beat yourself": to this invitation, pronounced with a stony voice by the Capo dei battenti, hundreds and hundreds of devotees kneel down on the churchyard, the chest begins to be struck with blood, while the painting of the Madonna leaves the church of Guardia Sanframondi, Sannio, in the Province of Benev...
Italian traditions: Winter Lights. The fires of Sant'Anthony Abbott
The winter time of the holiday calendar has always been marked by the presence of fire. A flame that warms bodies and hearts, a fire that cooks food consumed together, light that illuminates ancient rituals. Among the celebrations still alive in Abruzzo, the feast of St. Anthony Abbott, on January 17, exalts its flamboyant presence and elects it as...