The Festa De’ Noantri is celebrated in the rione of Trastevere, Noantri translated in the dialect of the people means, “we” “others” or The Festival of Ourselves. It is celebrated yearly, beginning every 3rd Sunday in July and lasts for eight days. The focus is to revamp Roman traditions and bring people together. It has been apart of Trastevere’s traditions since the early 16th century.
In 1535 local fisherman were working along the Tiber, and pulled out a wooden statue of the Madonna. They took her as a sign and assumed her to be the new protector of the rione. Now she is known as the Madonna del Carmine, or the Joyful Virgin of the Carmelitans. Her name comes from the Carmelitan friars of San Crisogono, who took responsibility for the Madonna and officially named her the patron of Trastevere. Three hundred and fifty years later they moved her from her home of San Crisogono, to the Church of Santa Agata.
To begin The Festa De’ Noantri a procession of the Madonna takes place. Opened by a large cross, various religious persons, and people dressed in historical costumes. The Madonna travels from her new home of Santa Agata, back to her original home San Crisogono. In actuality the distance is only about 50 meters, but they wind her through the neighborhood past all of the major churches (stopping in front of each to give a blessing). She is carried on a decorated wooden platform, by 16 men, which volunteer of this great honor. The procession usually last a couple of hours, and by the time it is completed the people are ready for a long week of celebration.
During the 8 days of the festival there are Markets, dancing, singing, eating (most popular spicy watermelons and porchetta) and many theatrical displays. Everything is meant to build up a sense of pride for the community. They lay laurel wreaths on monuments of two famous poets who wrote in the dialect of Trastevere, then proceed to read some of their poems aloud. The Corso de Noantri marathon, which lasts for a distance of 7 km, is also a popular community event. Overall the festival is about spending time together, and celebrating their identity.
When it comes time to bring the Festival to an end, the Madonna del Carmine does one more procession. To give some acknowledgement to her origins, she is taken by boat down the Tiber accompanied by members of the Church. People line the Tiber and wait on the Ponte Sisto and throw confetti down at the procession. She travels all the way up to the Ponte Sant’Angelo, and then slowly turns around. There are some people who think this is done as a statement to the Vatican, to show them that community festivals are still alive and important.
The Festa de’ Noantri is a prime example of creating the feeling of community identity and pride. The ways this is accomplished are fairly simple, putting emphasis on things that are unique to their community, such as the icon, poets, dialects, and theatrical displays about the Rione. The Festa di San Giovanni accomplishes this feeling by doing things slightly different.
In the Rione of Monti only a few weeks before Trastevere holds their festival, the Festa di San Giovanni take place. On June 23rd the birthday of St. John and also the beginning of the Summer Solstice there is a grand celebration of art, music and food, unlike Noantri it will last only for one night. To help open the summer they hold the first fires of the year, meant to be purifiers and show that they want to see change in their lives. Snails seasoned with garlic, tomato, and chilis are used to represent disagreements and concerns. They are eaten this night to be another way of purifying your life.
But on this night there is also evil lurking around, it is said that witches and evil spirits fly to the Great Walnut tree to meet the devil. On their way the tree they took pleasure in causing mischief. But as a part of the celebration there were many things you could do to keep your self-protected from the witches and other evil spirits. People of Monti would place brooms, screws, and piles of salt outside of their doors. It is well known that witches are curious creatures and they wouldn’t be able to stop them selves from counting the bristles on the broom, turns on the screws, or the number of grains of salt. This would keep them too busy to enter your house, and if they ever finished they most likely would forget what they were there to do in the first place.
The Herb of St. John was also another important tool in your protection. It is usually made up of Ipet, Garlic, Artemisia, Verbena, and Rue, but sometimes-additional things are added to increase its shield power. The herbs needed to be collected by women; ideally they would still be covered in due, because it would allude to St. John and his baptism. One would then place the herb under your pillow while sleeping; sometimes the herb would even give people precognitive dreams.
There was also the very popular St. Johns Wort Oil used for protection. This was a combination of walnuts and cinnamon, which would be soaked in alcohol for days before the start of the Festival. When the night came, people would drink as much as possible to expel the devil and repel the evil eye. This would lead to many intoxicated locals. So when all of the Wort Oil was consumed, men would climb to the roofs of buildings and wait for the witches to come, balancing their chins on canes and looking up at the cross. This practice is often referred to as “Hail Mary”. Thanks to the drink, witches were always spotted, most of the time as ghosts of notorious women of the time.
Young women also have their own tradition, of climbing to the roofs. They would watch for the sun to rise, and wait to see the bouncing head of the decapitated St. John. If they were lucky enough to spot it, it would mean marriage in the coming year. Supposedly the head only bounces three times, so they only have a short minute to catch a glimpse.
Festa di San Giovanni hit a great stride of popularity in the 19th century, not only as the local festival, but also as an important music festival. With the coming of World War I, Fascism tried to influence many of the musical selections for the celebration. Changing many of the playful love songs into dramatic fascist themed pieces. This definitely took a toll on the festival. Years later when World War II ended and the fascist party was disbanded, the Festa di San Giovanni took a hard fall. But recently they have been seeing a revival, and people are gaining speed in order to keep the traditions alive.
Even though both festivals are very different, they way they bring people together is obvious. Festa de’ Noantri stays more along the lines of glorifying themselves and their past. While the Festa di San Giovanni relies on their traditions and rituals to bring each other together. Both have great success in creating the strong community identity. This is why these Festivals are still around today. Noantri has stayed active since the 16th century. San Giovanni is picking up popularity and speed even after being brought down by the Facist regime. People need this feeling of togetherness and community. What do we do today that creates this feeling?
Bibliography
http://www.fantasymagazine.it/rubriche/5959/
http://www.romeartlover.it/Noantri.html
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/rome/ey_trastevere.htm
http://www.archivioimmaginicinema.com/lestreghedisangiovanni.htm
http://www.planetariodanti.pg.it/starlab/fascicoli/solstizio.html
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