St. John's Night

  • 27/05/2024
  • 366

St. John's Night
Beliefs, myths and rituals of Abruzzo
of Christmas in summer

byi Luciano Troiano

SUNDAY 23 JUNE 2024
H. 17.30

Borgo case Troiano (motorization area – PE)

Information: 331/6796820 – www.fontevecchia.org




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Foto 1: La danza attorno al fuoco prima del salto assieme alla persona scelta come “compare”

It is It is Gabriele D'Annunzio, in La figlia di Jorio (1904), who reports the exclamation of Ornella, the young peasant woman: "And tomorrow is St. John, dear brother; it's St. John's. On the Plaia I want to turn, to see the severed head inside the sun at the appearance, to see all the blood boiling in the golden plate", the sun, in fact, reaching its maximum positive declination on the celestial equator, gives us the miracle of the longest day and the shortest night.

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Foto 2: L’altare dedicato a San Giovanni Battista nella chiesa della SS. Trinità a Case Troiano

The night of St. John, as we know it today, handed down to us by our grandparents, revived in recent years especially for commercial purposes and theatricalized for the use of the public who have moved away from the mystique of the sacred, originates from ancient rites: in the "youth of humanity" that had "intuition of the divine" as described  by Gennaro Finamore, the father of Abruzzo cultural anthropology according to whom the night of St. John It is a "monument of an earlier age in history, which time has undermined, but not destroyed".

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Foto 3: L’altare devozionale, a Case Troiano, con San Giovannino, ramajetti e conca dell’acqua

The summer solstice, for the Babylonians, represented the marriage of the Sun with the Moon. The Moon, goddess of waters, and ruler of the sign of Cancer that begins with the solstice, are fertilized by the Sun.

A festival of pagan origin, which has always coincided with the summer solstice. During the  ritual large fires were lit, in Trojan houses, the task of organizing the bonfire with the scraps of tree pruning was the task of the male children and the eldest among them, with the characteristic three-pointed pitchfork, lit and controlled the pyre making sure that any fireflies did not spread through the fields,  Once the flames subside, the cronies jump together over the still living embers while the remains of these fires spread through the gardens and brought home as a sign of devotion.

Christianity has incorporated previous myths and rites, assimilating them and giving them new functions. In addition to the fire, the feast of St. John presents another vital element: water, which refers to baptism: Jesus Christ, in fact, was baptized by John the Baptist in the waters of the Jordan.

Also in Case Troiano, on the occasion of the festival, a hole was flooded which, in the garden, was used for the collection of rainwater and, on that night, was crossed by couples of people who wanted to tighten the relationship of the comparative.

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Foto 4: Processione con coperta in seta azzurra a simboleggiare l’acqua del Giordano

The ritual is that of the "Ramajetto" which is rooted and alive on the hills of Spoltore, in the Pescara area. Couples of women or men, "commari and cronies" symbolically exchange a bunch of nine herbs tied with a red bow, a reference to the blood of St. John Beheaded, "bathing them in the water of the fountain that is located in front of the church of the saint. With this rite, a relationship of friendship and mutual solidarity is renewed, in which one commits oneself to respect each other and help each other for life, becoming "flower companions" (cumpar a fiùre): a relationship even stronger than that between relatives.

During the solstice night, there are numerous rituals related to the magical-curative and beneficial properties of water and dew – the uàzza – which falls during the night of St. John, considered portentous and very effective to cure any type of physical pain (such as rheumatism) or to strengthen women's hair and to ward off migraines in them.

For this purpose, it was customary to go to the thick of a reed bed to comb one's hair with the dew deposited on the long and sharp leaves.

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Foto 5: La conca con l’acqua di San Giovanni che contiene fiori di lavanda e che sarà bevuta dopo la benedizione, da parte del prete, dai novelli compari che si sono scambiati il ramajetto

Danilo Borri points out that "On the night before St. John's Day  , many herbs also became magical, acquiring medicinal qualities. For example, the old man's beard was used to weave crowns that were put on the head to treat migraines, or to create belts that, tied around the hips, would fight rheumatic, muscular and abdominal pains (in the latter case in Sulmona). The fern flowers were collected in a handkerchief placed under a plant, which was then sewn to make a talisman with apotropaic but also coercive properties: the owners of this talisman could bend people's will and thus obtain all sorts of favors. Other herbs were used to prepare decoctions: elderberry, mallow, wormwood, mint... all rigorously harvested before dawn. An  oil used as a hair conditioner was obtained from the elm branches. People also went to the countryside or to the woods to "frighten" the fruit trees and tell them to guarantee a good harvest, saying: "O me djìe o te djìenghe!" striking the trunk with the head of the hatchet and circling the tree three times repeating the threat."

"On that evening, snails were eaten with the belief that eating the horns of the gastropod, a symbol of discord, would promote reconciliation between family and friends," explains Paolo Portone. And again: "Night was the most propitious time to gather certain medicinal herbs, when wise women, sorcerers, healers and herbarias (or herbs) went to the fields and gardens to stock up on St. John's wort, rue and mugwort, as evidenced by the documents of the courts that brought them to trial on charges of being in the service of the Devil. The domine herbarum were well aware that herbs such as St. John's wort, sage, rue, parsley, reached their balsamic time, i.e. the moment of greatest concentration of their active ingredient, at specific times of the year, such as the night between 23 and 24 June, ideal for harvesting the most common and used plants of the popular pharmacopoeia. In San Giovanni it was also traditional to buy or procure garlic, to propitiate a year of health and prosperity. To promote wealth, it was also recommended to pluck a fern branch at midnight and keep it indoors. Another widespread tradition was the collection of the green drupe of walnuts to prepare nocino, but great care had to be taken not to use metal tools in its processing. It was widespread among girls to place the so-called "herbs of St. John" under the pillow, tied in bunches in number of nine, among these indispensable was St. John's wort, which was said to be able to make "the face of the future groom" dream. And again, that the waters were transformed into precious substances and that the animals talked, while it was possible to see in the sky the passage of the witches on their way to the walnut tree of Benevento for the most celebrated".

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Foto 6: Particolare di un Ramajetto

Among the most famous rites, and still present, splendidly documented by the anthropologist Emiliano Giancristofaro in a memorable episode of Stories of Silence, we find the ablution in the Liri of the inhabitants of Civitella Roveto (AQ). At four o'clock in the morning, the explosion of three fires in the sky wakes up the faithful who go en masse to the bank of the river that crosses the village, dipping their legs, marking their foreheads and collecting water to take home. At the end of the ritual and the solemn mass on the shore, the people of Civitello reach the square of the historic center of the town at the first light of dawn, where an auction will be held (then in lire) to decree the lucky quadrille that will have the honor of carrying the statue of the saint.

The highlight of St. John's night  was the sunrise on the seashore at dawn on June 24th. People watched this spectacle with the conviction of seeing the head of St. John appear in the solar disk. In particular, it was said that the saint's head, still soaked in blood after the beheading, was washed by being reflected in the sea water.

Sources:

Gotico abruzzese.it by Danilo Borri

Art a Part of Culture by Paolo Portone

Stories of Silence: The Night of St. John by Emiliano Giancristofaro

Beliefs, customs and traditions of Abruzzo by Gennaro Finamore

Customs and traditions of Abruzzo described by Antonio De Nino

History and cult of St. John the Baptist in Marsica Expression24 by Americo Tancredi

Photographs: Fontevecchia Association of Spoltore (Pe)



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The committee for the establishment of the Fontevecchia Association was formed in 2010 and is an active part of civil society with interventions relating to the environment, mobility, knowledge and integration. The purpose of the association, in addition to the protection of traditions, the territory and the aesthetic redevelopment of the village born in 1600, is articulated on a wide range of interventions.