Easter in Gambatesa, Italy

Gambatesa is a village in central southern Italy
between Naples and Rome.

Although the adults could find a palm in the church -- brought by the priest before the Mass and put with many others in front of the altar --, the children had to bring their own palms made at home. The older children used to make their palms by themselves, but the younger children needed to be helped by their parents.

Olive tree branches were and are still used in Gambatesa to replace the palms.

The children used to prepare at home a nice "palm" with a olive tree branch possibly shaped like a "Y". The two branches at the top of the "Y" were drawn together to form a circle. The palm used to be decorated with flowers (violette e primavere, "violets and primroses", the flowers of earliest spring) and small colored ribbons. Sewing thread was used to make it.

As soon as the bells had started ringing all the children would converge on the church. [Street map showing the Church of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle (San Bartolomeo Apostolo)]. There were many kinds of palms: the shape, the size, the decoration was different from one child to the other.

"Era un bel spettacolo per le vie e nella chiesa" -- It was a beautiful scene on the streets and in the church.

Men engaged to women used to offer a palm of silver-colored metal on which the leaves were replaced by confetti -- that is, by sugared almonds (of the kind used for Italian weddings).

My grandmother told me that for fun some people used to bring big olive branches to the church. This was done by people who were known for joking, and the priest was not angry about it.

But my grandmother also told me that these big branches were the branches growing up near the soil (new branches from an old olive tree). And according to my father these branches are used to create new olive trees, because olive trees are not created from seeds but from these branches. Maybe some people used to bring them to the church to be blessed before putting them in the ground to create new olive trees.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey "... some people began to cut branches from the trees and lay them along his path". (Matthew 21.8)

Holy Week (La settimana santa)

The Holy Week in Gambatesa used to start just after Palm Sunday with the preparation of the "Holy sepulcher" in the Church of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle.

From the word "sepulcher" you could imagine a kind of real sepulcher, but it wasn't. What was called the "sepulcher" (u sepuleche) was actually a decoration made by plants placed on wooden stairs at the top of which the Blessed Sacrament was placed on Good Friday. The sepulcher was built near the pulpit, which in Saint Bartholomew used to be a marble balcony (See the photograph below).

Sometime before Holy Week many families in Gambatesa began preparing a flowerpot in which they sowed some grains of wheat. You should not imagine that it was one of the nice flowerpots that are found nowadays in garden shops; most of the time the pot was purcarie ("rubbish really") -- a tin or wood container wrapped with paper to make it look pretty. The grain was sown, but the pot wasn't put outdoors under the sun. It was kept in a dark place (under the bed for example) in order to have pale yellow wheat.

Once the stairs were put in place, people could bring their flowerpot to the church for the decoration of the stairs. That was called the "sepulcher".

Flowers and other kind of plants (all pale yellow except the flowers) were brought to the church for the sepulcher.

Placing the Blessed Sacrament in the sepulcher of plants symbolized placing the body of Jesus Christ in the tomb after his crucifixion on Good Friday.
Wheat is an annual, and the wheat plants are already dead when their grain is harvested or scattered by the wind. Yellow wheat may be used to symbolize death, awaiting resurrection, because mature wheat is yellow. ("... unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit" (John 12.24-25).) But this color is also of course appropriate to the time of year, late winter, early spring.

Holy Thursday (Giovedì Santo)

Holy Thursday was dedicated to the Via Crucis ("the Way, or, Stations of the Cross") procession inside the church of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle. The preparation of the sepulcher would go on if it was not yet finished.

The ceremony of washing feet, as Christ washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, took place on this day. People were chosen among the Gambatesans to get their feet washed. Luca Valente, according to my mother, was one of them at least once. He was probably chosen because he was a member of a religious confraternity, which, like those still found in Spain, dressed in the robes and hoods of penitents (penitenti) during processions (This is no longer done in Gambatesa).

Good Friday (Venerdì Santo)

On Good Friday takes place what seems to be still today the most important and popular procession in Gambatesa (together with La Sagra della Madonna delle Traglie, a procession on the last Sunday in July when wheat is offered to Our Lady of Victory by the people of Gambatesa). Even the civil authorities must go in a body to the church and to the procession.

After the reading of the Lord's Passion from the Gospel according to John in the afternoon and the distribution of Holy Communion in the church, because Mass is not said on Good Friday, the procession begins. And the procession lasts until night time and returns late to the church (I heard at 11 o'clock, but I'm not sure).

At the head of the procession is the statue of Jesus, dead and lying down on the ground, which for the rest of the year is displayed in the church. The statue is carried by men, and the other men of the village follow the statue, walking in two ranks. One hundred yards behind -- more or less, depending on the length of the men's ranks -- comes the statue of Our Lady of Victory carried by women. The statue of Our Lady is followed by women but not in ranks; they are more like a crowd. The woman who takes the role of the Virgin Mary is dressed in brown (She used to be dressed in black years ago; I don't know why she now is dressed in brown). According to my mother and grandmother, she represents Mary looking for her son.

The followers carry candles, which has created more than one accident, burned hair for example, especially among the women! According to my mother and my grandmother it is the most moving procession in Gambatesa. People are praying, singing sad songs and the band plays sad music. It seems that the people would not miss this procession for the world. The whole village comes.

The church, too, used to be full of people. It took ages for everyone to kiss the cross on Good Friday.

Just after the procession of Good Friday begins the Easter Vigil, or waiting at the tomb, which is not compulsory of course. My great-grandfather Luca and my great-grandmother used to spend even the whole night "guarding the sepulcher" in the church.

Holy Saturday (Sabato Santo)

On Holy Saturday people go the church for one or two hours to visit the sepulcher and to pray. There is no Mass, and Holy Communion is given only to those who are in danger of death.

Regarding the sepulcher, it was set up on straight stairs made of wood. Like normal stairs. There was one man, a carpenter in Gambatesa, who made the stairs each year.

Violets and Primroses, the wildflowers of spring

Easter Sunday (Domenica di Pasqua)

Mass in the morning, followed by a family gathering for the rest of the day! Easter Sunday is what my grandmother would call una feste di chiesa e di famiglia ("a church holiday with also a celebration at home"). Usually that kind of day means a big family gathering and a meal. Lamb ("baby sheep") was and still is the traditional meal at Easter. After the sadness (penitenza) of Good Friday and Lent, the Easter meal was like a liberation.

The lamb is now cooked in the oven, but it used to be cooked over red wood -- i.e. after one hour, the wood turns red, and then the meat is put on a fence [grill] and it cooks like that.

After Easter people used to take some of the pale yellow wheat of the sepulcher (the wheat was blessed by the priest) to bring home or, most of the time, to put near their own wheat field in the countryside. But not the whole flowerpot was brought home, because many people were asking for a handful of yellow blessed wheat.

My grandmother said that the wheat was "quite big". I asked, how big? "Yes, quite big," she said. Old people.

Easter Monday (Lunedì di Pasqua)

If Easter is a family day, Easter Monday is a day for friends.

Easter Monday is called Pasquetta, and the picnic with friends -- less formal than the family gathering -- was and still is a well-established tradition.

If the weather is good, people go to the countryside (My grandmother told me that the Fortore area is a good place because of the nearby Fortore River). The place each group of friends chooses changes from one year to another, depending on their mood of the moment.

One thing is essential for Pasquetta: the wine. Some people get drunk because they drink the whole day. There is not a strong alcohol tradition in Gambatesa, but for Pasquetta (as for New Year's Eve) everyone has to have a drink or two.

Pasquetta ends at the end of the day and people used to go back to the village singing and making big chains with their arms.

Così vi do gli auguri di Buona Pasqua!
("With these stories I wish you a Happy Easter!")

• St. Joseph's Day (La festa di San Giuseppe), March 19th, in Gambatesa, Italy, in Camden, New Jersey, and in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

• The Christmas Zampognaro ("bagpipe-player"), and the visits of the mountain shepherds to Gambatesa. Also Christmas Eve in Camden, New Jersey, as it used to be celebrated by immigrants from Gambatesa and their children.

• Notes about Gambatesa's other traditions and special days: La Madonna delle Traglie (Wheat Festival); La Madonna del Rosario (Grape Festival); the legends about the Medieval Castle; the legend of "The Old Man and the Stone"; Saint Lucy's Fair; and more.

• Notes about the way people used to live everyday in Gambatesa in the last century: When wheat was like gold; daily food and clothing for farmers (with recipes for "Milk soup" and Mastecotte); the tufo ("sandstone") on which the village stands; and more.

• Gambatesa - its History and Art, an academic Italian account translated into English.

The URL of this Web page: https://www.roangelo.net/valente/pasqua.html
Last revised: 17 April 2006 : 2006-04-17 by Robert [Wesley] Angelo.

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