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 of Gorfigliano.
The Nataleccio is a cylindrical construction obtained by driving into the ground a wooden trunk which in the local dialect takes the name of “temple” and which can be made of chestnut, beech or Turkey oak, around which a large number of branches are “woven” Before starting the construction, however, a place is identified above the town to be clearly visible to all and after which the great work begins, where young and old will be busy assiduously for months, sweating and suffering. and built the cylinder which can usually exceed fifteen meters in height for a diameter of three to four meters.
The skill lies in making this structure as stable as possible so that it does not fall and the same skill lies in the “texture” of the juniper which guarantees a lasting flame as the flame must last over twenty minutes, high, clearly visible and without smoke.
Many were the divinatory signals that the pagan God offered to his faithful through the fire: from the intensity of the glow of the sparks, from the direction of the smoke, from the crackling of the juniper plant, omens were drawn about crops, epidemics and famines, while the embers collected the next day were kept as precious amulets. From a pagan rite to a Christian-like rite, the step was short. , but in all those places where this persisted custom and it was thus that Pope Leo I in the sermon given on Christmas 460 said:
“This religion of the sun and fire is so highly esteemed that some Christians before entering St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, after climbing the staircase, turn towards the sun and bow their heads in honour of the incandescent star. . We are anguished and we are saddened by this fact which is repeated for pagan mentality. Christians must refrain from any affiliation of respect to this cult of the gods “.
But we know how things are going and as an old and wise proverb says: “There is no enemy today, who cannot become a friend tomorrow” and so the Christian church began to associate the sun with the image of Jesus, the sentences were underlined of the gospel where Christ was compared to the sun, such as: “His face resembled the sun when it shines with all its strength” (Apocalypse of John), the monogram IHS incorporated in a blazing sun will be adopted, the monstrances will take the form of a solar disk and so many and many other examples could be given.
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
Mithra, also spelled Mithras, Sanskrit Mitra, in ancient Indo-Iranian mythology, the god of light, whose cult spread from India in the east to as far west as Spain, Great Britain, and Germany. The first written mention of the Vedic Mitra dates to 1400 bc. His worship spread to Persia and, after the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great, throughout the Hellenic world. In the 3rd and 4th centuries ad, the cult of Mithra, carried and supported by the soldiers of the Roman Empire, was the chief rival to the newly developing religion of Christianity.
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.
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