THE ARRIVAL OF SPRING
 The
great historian, Ernest Renan described Assisi, Italy in eloquent words,
“The profusion of art overcomes any imagination. Exteriors,
interiors, doors windows, house-chimneys, everything is painted
and sculptured”. Italy’s repertoire of festivals takes
you to Assisi to enjoy the festival of the Calendimaggio or the
Celebration of the Holy Week. Held in celebration of the life of
St. Francis, this festival as part of its festivities takes you
through a painted city right up to the door of its patron saint,
Saint Francis at the Centro di Assisi, Italy. Donning the robe of the ‘Poverello
di Dio’, to look after the beggars and the lepers, young Francis
risked his life to preach the Word of God renouncing his inheritance
in a public display in front of the Bishop Guido and his fellow
citizens.
 Assisi, Italy
takes you on a solemn journey to admire its religious yet beatific
Franciscan symbols, statues, altars and its white and pink stone
edifices. Offering the gamut of festivals both great and small,
Assisi guides through a kaleidoscope of folk lore and primitive
traditions transformed over the ages to its present celebrated status.
The Roman goddesses, Maia and Flora were revered as the return of
the season of spring. This joyous celebration was turned into the
Kalende di Maggio of the Middle Ages with young girls singing and
dancing through the streets and the square. Celebrated by the Celts
originally, the Calendimaggio festival started in the beginning
of summer when they took their sheep for grazing for a period of
six months. This was celebrated by banquets, bonfires, songs and
dances at the top of the hill. This primitive custom was believed
to bring prosperity and protection. They even had a symbol of the
maypole. Evolving over civilizations and culture, this pagan festival
of the Calendimaggio is re-enacted in Assisi, Italy on the eve of May Day.
Celebrated with a medieval procession and a torch-lit parade with
the entire town decorated with banners of silk, the citizens of
Assisi, Italy enjoy their traditional cuisine with ‘porchetta’
or the roast suckling pig.
 Dedicated
to Saint Francis, the Calendimaggio festival is celebrated on the
first Thursday, Friday and Saturday of May every year. The flower
patterned streets are open to the public and the tourists with the
citizens dressed in a colorful range of period costumes. The celebrations
include competitions with love songs, games and events. The festival
leads to the prestigious Palio which is contested by two groups
for a valuable prize. They are the ‘Magnifica Parte de Sotto
and the ‘Nobilissima Parte de Sopra’, the two districts
which form the city. This event mirrors the rivalry of the 1300s
between the Fiumi and the Nepis families for supremacy which ranged
over a period of enmity for two centuries. A jury of historians,
directors and musicologists make up the board of judges and award
the prize of the Calendimaggio festival to the district which displays
and interprets the essence of the return of spring with the best
love songs, costumes, races and games.
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