Tenute Rubino > Articles > The territory > Salento: a land of great traditions

The religious rites and the 'Taranta'

Salento is a land of authentic religiousness, as well as of gaiety. Sacred and profane coexist and merge, giving rise to events (most of which occur in Summer) that have become, through years, reference point for a large number of tourists. An example of such coexistence is doubtless the 'Feast of the Taranta' (Festa della Taranta). According to the legend, the tarantula (a kind of spider) would cause a hysterical crisis with its bite, and the recovery would be only possible by means of a sort of purifying dance called 'Taranta'. The tradition tells that the spider hit with its venom mainly the peasant-women during the harvest of wheat, causing shooting pains that can be treated only with a very rhythmic music; the 'tarantate' (as these women were named) could relieve the terrible sufferings only after breaking out into a restless and exhausting dance, through which the evil was eradicated and the venom expelled. In other term, it was a sort of exorcism.

According to a number of scholars of anthropology, the tarantula’s bite, the venom, the disease and the exorcism are symbolic elements linked to St Paul’s cult. This saint would have survived a snakebite and, for this reason, he is still worshipped as the protector of the 'tarantate'; furthermore, in the past, the women hit by the venom gathered in the SS. Peter and Paul Church, in Galatina, a town in province of Lecce. However, in the course of  time, religion and superstition gave way to the music, giving origin to the famous 'pizzica', the traditional dance of Salento. Today, this original musical form is not only appreciated by the Italian artists, but it has started to become popular also abroad.

The 'Taranta'

In the last years, the most followed event has been the so-called 'Night of the Taranta' (Notte della Taranta), which occurs in August in Melpignano, in Salentinian Greece. Today, the festival of the 'Night of the Taranta' is recognized and appreciated by both the public and experts of dance and music; its originality lies in the creation of an event devoted to the popular music, as well as to the retrieval of the 'pizzica', blending it with further musical genres and languages, such as the world music, rock, jazz and the symphonic music. Born in 1998 on an initiative of the Union of the Municipalities of Salentinian Greece and of the 'Istituto Diego Carpitella', in these last years this festival has developed its cultural prestige thanks to the support of the Province of Lecce and of the Apulian region. A great number of musicians have appeared on the stage of the 'Night of the Taranta': Teresa De Sio, Franco Battiato, Gianna Nannini, Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, Francesco De Gregori, Piero Pelù, Sud Sound System, Buena Vista Social Club, Lucio Dalla, Carmen Consoli, Massimo Ranieri, Morgan, Vinicio Capossela, Caparezza e Mauro Pagani. Among the other events, there is also the Feast of SS. Paul and Peter in Galatina (28, 29, 30 June).

The religious rites and the Country fairs

The feasts in honour of the Patron Saint, the church services for the Holy Week, the Carnival, the country fairs, the festivals and the fairs are other aspects of this deep and lively cultural heritage in which sacred and profane merge, giving to the tourists a holiday in the pursuit of the curiosity and of the emotions. The so-called 'Focare' (the name derives from Italian 'falò', meaning 'bonfire') usually take place on March 19, in honour of the Feast of St Joseph and have a high symbolic value. They are linked to ancient propitiatory rites of purification through fire; at the beginning they were pagan ceremonies that the Church has christianized and connected to St Joseph’s cult. According to the tradition, the 'focare' were lighted from the people to warm the limbs of St Joseph, who did not possess enough clothes to repair himself from the cold; and, in this occasion, food and drinks were also offered. The most suggestive and best known 'Focara' in Salento is that celebrated in Novoli (on 17 January) in honour of St Anthony, to whose realization the whole community of the town is involved.

The 'Quaremma'

The 'Quaremma' or 'Caremma' (derived from the French 'Careme', meaning 'Lent') is symbolized by a straw puppet with the features of an old and ugly woman, dressed in mourning, that – in the popular tradition – portrays Carnival’s wife; the puppet is hung out on terraces and balconies immediately after the feasts and, in the collective imagery, is the symbol of the mourning for the end of the feasts. The Quaremma holds in its hands the spindle and the distaff, symbols of laboriousness and of the time and, at its feet, it has an orange in which seven pens are inserted, one for each week of abstinence and sacrifice. The Quaremme stays hung out on the terraces from the beginning of the Lent until Holy Saturday; then it is removed and burnt. Once again the fire is an emblem of purification and regeneration.

The Quaremma is also linked to a gastronomic speciality, the 'cuddhrura', a sort of sweet bread that is prepared during the Holy Week to be consumed on Easter Day or on Angel’s Monday. The cake is garnished with hard-boiled eggs and can be given various forms: a small basket, a puppet, a doll, or a heart, because it was traditionally given as a love token by the young women to their future husbands.

Among the religious events of particular relevance, we have to remember: the procession of the Holy Friday in Gallipoli; the Fayre of the 'municeddha' (Sagra della 'municeddha', meaning 'snail'), from 11 to 13 August in Cannole; the Night of St Rocco, between 15 and 16 August, with  tambourines, 'pizzica' and ballads in Torre Paduli (an administrative division of Ruffano); the Feast of 'mieru' (Festa dellu mieru, meaning 'wine') from 1 to 3 September in Carpignano Salentino; the Fayre of the 'volìa cazzata' (Fayre of the pressed olive) in the first and third decade of October in Martano; and finally – not to miss – the monumental Living Nativity of Tricase sul Monte Orco.