Halloween in Abruzzo, fashion or tradition?

It is now labeled as un'americanata, But are we sure that this is so? Or are we that we have lost the connection with our roots and our traditions? In its modern version, so shameless and perhaps a little 'too, the feast of Halloween in Abruzzo, and not only, It is frowned by traditionalists, They see only an uncritical alignment to a tradition imported from overseas. Yet there is nothing more deeply of our party where, by virtue of the change from beautiful to ugly season, It thins the boundary between the size of the living and that of the dead. In the Anglo-Saxon world "All Hallows’ Eve”, hence Halloween, is, literally, “the eve of All Saints”, the moment when, in the Celtic tradition, the boundary between the end and the beginning was melted in a sort of osmosis. And so it was fulfilled the transition from the world of the dead than of the living. It was the time when the dead returned to earth.

The cult of All Saints and the procession of the dead

In Abruzzo Cult of Saints It has always been more alive than ever. In the night between 31 October and 1 November found an opening between the two worlds, finding the peak in the next night, when in every village it takes place the procession of the dead: parade through first the souls of stillborn children, Then the little dead immediately after baptism, then come the boys, women and middle-aged men and, finally, seniors. In some areas, to see the macabre parade, just obtain a sieve. Attention, But, why not bring good to see the procession of the dead. At stake, indeed, there is the contagion of death itself. In the houses are lit candles and, Upper Vastese, It prepares a basin of water with a towel near: the dead will return to their homes and will need to cool off.

Pumpkins Serramonacesca and "The Aneme of the Death"

Also to Serramonacesca, Pescara, souls of the dead roam the streets of the village in the evening of All Saints and All Souls. It, the night of 31 October, the little knock at the door holding a lantern made from a gourd, inside which there is a candle. The souls of the departed, indeed, in those areas are always represented with the machined pumpkins as if they were the heads. Long before the American version of Halloween haunt the shop and the streets of the city. And when the landlord asks the young visitors "Who is?”, they answer "The Aneme of the Death". A Cappadocia, instead, in the province, children are roaming the streets with the "scampanaccio San Martino", waiting for the procession in mask. Even in Abruzzo, then, the party now known as Halloween is something deeply rooted in the peasant villages of consciences and souls. It has to do with the most intimate and profound human relationships, that go beyond time and beyond worlds.