Seasonal European Dishes by Elisabeth Luard

Author:Elisabeth Luard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: COOKING / General
ISBN: 9781909808690
Publisher: Grub Street Cookery
Published: 2013-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

The Etruscan village of Marta, on the third Sunday in May, reported Thomas Ashby in Some Italian Scenes and Festivals (1929), has a festival on the third Sunday in May where the May Queen is the local Madonna herself.

It is indeed a festival unique, so far as I know, in the whole of Italy. Everything points to its being the representative of an ancient pagan spring festival.

At last the Mass was over and the ‘passate’ began. The representatives of the various industries passed into the church, out by a side door into the monastery, through the cloister, and back into the church again. The round was made thrice, and each time they called out loudly the name of their trade, as they made offering of its emblems or tools to the virgin. Pride of place was by common consent given to the contadini, the bifolchi (ploughmen), coming first with ox harness of various descriptions; the goatherd carried a live black kid decked with red and yellow ribbons; the haymaker, a net used for collecting hay; the shepherd, a small net with ropes and pickets for sheep pens; the vine-grower, a tiny ladder; the house servant, a tray with loaves of bread and two bottles of wine. In the third came the fishermen with nets and fish on a tray, including several squids and a large live eel in a net. We noticed especially two women with baskets of large ring loaves on their heads, covered with a white cloth, and a girl with a flat wooden tray of cakes, similarly covered.

When all was over, the horsemen assembled and gave their shout once more, and led the way down the straight steep road to the village. At intervals they halted and called out once more their salute to the Madonna. We noticed that on the return all carried rings of bread upon their arm. As the procession passed through its narrow streets, every window was thronged with girls who leant out and threw handfuls of petals of yellow broom and white acacia upon the heads of those below, until the street was carpeted with gold and silver. The effect of the rain of blossom against the houses was extremely beautiful…

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