Palio dei Natalecci; every year on the 24th December the night sky in certain parts of Garfagnana is lit up with large fires. These are the Natalecci. Huge circular towers, often 10 to 15 metres tall and sometimes even as high as 20 metres, made up of trees and covered with branches of juniper which are then set alight. Villages try to outdo each other by building the tallest Nataleccio or the one that burns the longest. The origins of this ceremony have long since been lost but probably dates back to a pagan rite to the god Mitra but which was then appropriated by the Christian faith and given meaning with the fires now warming up the newly born Jesus
As the church bells ring out across the valley to announce the birth of The Messiah, the people around the Nataleccio start to sing "Oh! Oh! Nataleccio! Oh! Oh! Nataleccio!" and the fires are lit. The air is then rent with the sound of fireworks, sirens, shouts and the unmistakable sound of gunshots.
This evening on the mountainside above Gorfigliano there was a heart stopping moment when as just as the bells where rung in the village below our feet signalling the lighting of the natalecci, the full moon rose up silently over the the other side of the mountain and bathed the whole valley in a cool white light just before the flames noisily rushed up in to the sky from the kerosene soaked juniper towers.
For more information about these traditional events in Gorfigliano there is no better place to stop that at the Bar Casotti run by the effusive and well informed Daniele Casotti. It is where you should go to for information, a loaf of bread, some pasta and of course a glass of his red wine.
Natalecci of Gorfigliano 2007
Natalecci of Gorfigliano 2006
Wonderful photos, Keane! I especially like the face in the lens flare in photo No. 27. That, too, may have connections with the ceremony’s pagan roots…. I meant to say O’Connor, of course. I believe Keane was elsewhere when these photos were taken