01
Cosmo
COSMO is a visual representation of the practices and knowledges constituitive of the discourse of a peasant cosmology.
You can click on the blue design to enlarge the image and get a better sense of the following explanation.
Beginning with the outer circle, at the height of the ears of wheat, we see listed the month of the year: September, October, November, December, and so on.
In the following circle, instead are the processes of wheat harvest that correspond to these months, for a detailed translation see: GRANO.
After the cycle of wheat, the diagram becomes narrower and turns towards the harvest of grapes for wine making see: UVA.
The last crop represented in this diagram, before the central figure of the Rosone di Santa Maria di Collemaggio (Aquila, IT) are olive trees. For a detailed breakdown of olive oil’s production throughout the year see: OLIVO.
The branches you see in correspondance of the months of November and December are symbols of Abruzzo’s fire rituals, proper of the winter months. Particularly important here are the fires lit on St Anthony the Abbot’s day (January 17th), among which the spectacular show held every year in Fara Filorum Petri (Chieti, IT) is worth a watch. Here a video combining recent footage with archival material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4yQoQKoDYY&ab_channel=radarmanv60
The summer and spring instead revolve around rituals dedicated to water. The traditional image of a ‘conca’ placed here in correspondence of the month of June points to the day of St John (24 June). Celebrated all over Italy, in Abruzzo this festivity is accompanied by a ritual, which you are welcome to honour if you like:
On the night of June 23rd go otuside, forage for herbs. You may want to find: sage, small flowers, rosemary, all aromatic plants growing near you, like elder, or st john’s wort.
Place these in a bowl on your windowsill and let the magic of San Giovanni’s protection seep into it. On the morning of the 24th, strain the flowers and purify yourself with the water. You may want to wash your face with it and offer some to a loved one.
Footage of the ritual as discussed, in Pescara (IT), by anthropologist Adriana Gandolfi and the A.S.T.R.A association:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLm9q5HcIqQ&ab_channel=TVSEI
You can click on the blue design to enlarge the image and get a better sense of the following explanation.
Beginning with the outer circle, at the height of the ears of wheat, we see listed the month of the year: September, October, November, December, and so on.
In the following circle, instead are the processes of wheat harvest that correspond to these months, for a detailed translation see: GRANO.
After the cycle of wheat, the diagram becomes narrower and turns towards the harvest of grapes for wine making see: UVA.
The last crop represented in this diagram, before the central figure of the Rosone di Santa Maria di Collemaggio (Aquila, IT) are olive trees. For a detailed breakdown of olive oil’s production throughout the year see: OLIVO.
The branches you see in correspondance of the months of November and December are symbols of Abruzzo’s fire rituals, proper of the winter months. Particularly important here are the fires lit on St Anthony the Abbot’s day (January 17th), among which the spectacular show held every year in Fara Filorum Petri (Chieti, IT) is worth a watch. Here a video combining recent footage with archival material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4yQoQKoDYY&ab_channel=radarmanv60
The summer and spring instead revolve around rituals dedicated to water. The traditional image of a ‘conca’ placed here in correspondence of the month of June points to the day of St John (24 June). Celebrated all over Italy, in Abruzzo this festivity is accompanied by a ritual, which you are welcome to honour if you like:
On the night of June 23rd go otuside, forage for herbs. You may want to find: sage, small flowers, rosemary, all aromatic plants growing near you, like elder, or st john’s wort.
Place these in a bowl on your windowsill and let the magic of San Giovanni’s protection seep into it. On the morning of the 24th, strain the flowers and purify yourself with the water. You may want to wash your face with it and offer some to a loved one.
Footage of the ritual as discussed, in Pescara (IT), by anthropologist Adriana Gandolfi and the A.S.T.R.A association:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLm9q5HcIqQ&ab_channel=TVSEI
“‘For twenty years I knew the monotony of the earth, the rain, the wind, the snow, the saints’ days, the food, the worries, the troubles and the poverty; the everlasting poverty, handed down by fathers who inherited it from grandfathers, in the face of which honest toil had never been of any use. The harshest injustices were of such long standing that they had acquired the naturalness of the rain, the wind and the snow. The life of men, of the beasts of the field and of the earth itself seemed enclosed in an immovable ring, held in the vice-like grip of the mountains and the changes of the season, welded into an unchanging natural cycle as in a kind of everlasting prison. First came the sowing, the the spraying, then the reaping, the the gathering of the grapes. And then? The same thing over again. Sowing, hoeing, pruning, spraying, reaping, the gathering of the grapes. It was always the same song, always the same refrain. Years passed, years mounted up, the young grew old, the old died, and sowing, hoeing, spraing, reaping and gathering the grapes went on.’
From Ignazio Silone, Fontamara, (1933).
Silone has been one of Abruzzo’s most important and controversial writers. His descriptions of peasant life, and the miserable conditions of Abruzzese peasants during the 20th century, represent today vital sources. Born in a marginal village of the Fucino region in Abruzzo, Silone lived as a peasant for most of his youth, an experience to which his writing is inspired. Later in his life, he betrayed his origins, and brother, by collaborating with the Fascist regime and providing information on the resistance movements to which his brother belonged in an attempt to save his life. Haunted by this regret, he will produce several written works aimed at restoring the memory of peasant resistance against fascisms which he had contributed to erase.
From Ignazio Silone, Fontamara, (1933).
Silone has been one of Abruzzo’s most important and controversial writers. His descriptions of peasant life, and the miserable conditions of Abruzzese peasants during the 20th century, represent today vital sources. Born in a marginal village of the Fucino region in Abruzzo, Silone lived as a peasant for most of his youth, an experience to which his writing is inspired. Later in his life, he betrayed his origins, and brother, by collaborating with the Fascist regime and providing information on the resistance movements to which his brother belonged in an attempt to save his life. Haunted by this regret, he will produce several written works aimed at restoring the memory of peasant resistance against fascisms which he had contributed to erase.