A cold and grey start to the day in Barga this morning but strangely enough there was a good deal of movement on the streets with dogs barking and people hanging around expectantly – so just what was going on ? … and then it became a little clearer as 20 horses and riders swept into the Piazza with a police car escort. They rode up to the Pasticceria Lucchesi and dismounted as the riders were offered a glass or wine or non alcoholic drinks for some of the younger riders, while the horses were offered a sugar cube to keep them sweet. After a brief 15 minute stop they were off again down to San Pietro in Campo and then on round to the Club Ippico – the horse riding stables in Loc. Nebbiana. It was the time of year for the annual blessing of the animals.
The blessing marks the saint’s day of St Anthony Abbot, patron saint of domestic animals and the countryside, which is officially on 17th January, but has now been moved to the nearest convenient Sunday. Historically, the blessing of animals dates back to the ancient Roman celebration of the Ferie Sementine, a pre-spring fertility festival to honour the gods Cerere Terra, during which a pregnant animal was sacrificed and garlanded oxen were paraded about. By the 8th century, this Roman festival had evolved to the point where work animals – donkeys, horses, and oxen – were given a symbolic “day off” while their owners sought the Church’s divine protection for the creatures upon whose hooves their very livelihood depended.
The blessing was presided over for the first time in Barga by the new Proposto Don Stefano who sprinkled holy water over the assembled horse, dogs and even a domestic tame rabbit – all to the background music supplied by the hens and cockerels of the riding club determined to get in on the act
Don Stefano arrived in Barga just 6 months ago (article here) to replace the Late Don Piero.
A step back in time to 2005 which was the last occasion that Don Piero blessed the animals on the Piazzale del Fosso – that article is here
A quando la benedizione degli uccelli?