Il Faone e Una Tradizione che Rivive Ogni Anno ed Ha Origini e Natura Antichissime

If on one night in winter a traveller finds himself crossing the plain of Norcia, lit up by bright fires, then he knows it is the night of 9th December. Every year on this night the town of Norcia shines with splendid bonfires, which the locals call “FAONI”. According to the tradition the “faoni” recall the fires that the shepherds lit on the evening of 9th December 1291 to illuminate the passage of the House of the Madonna that the angels were carrying from Palestine to Loreto; to celebrate this translation at midnight all the churches resound with the tolling of bells. The bonfires are the symbol of domestic unity, of knowledge and divine justice. Bonfires are lit for the May Day Festivities, for St Antonio, St Giuseppe, New Year’s Eve, the Feast of the Immaculate Madonna and Epiphany. As every year the festival involves the seven districts of the town of Norcia. In the days preceding the event the residents of the town are all in the woods gathering broom and juniper to build the bonfires. Everybody assists in the lighting of the “faoni”, accompanying the crackling of the fires with music, song and dance. The heat given off by the fires, the effect of the light and shadows reignite ancient fervour and the propitiatory, dances of the fauns, a rural deity of Roman mythology, consisting of a male torso with horns and the legs and tail of a goat. The faun was the protective deity of the harvest and the herd and the tradition goes back to the propitiatory rites exercised to invoke help at the onset of winter darkness and coldness, when the earth appeared hard and sterile. Consequently the festival was of heathen origin and only later Christianised and transformed into a celebration dedicated to the Madonna. Around the bonfires the celebrators sing refrains and dance to the music of the barrel organ, getting hot and savouring delicious mulled wine, which is accompanied by food from the barbecue and sweetmeats prepared according to age-old recipes.The festival is therefore an important occasion in the winter programme of events in Umbria. INFO: Comune di Norcia, Piazza San Benedetto, 1 - 06046 Norcia (PG) Tel: +39 0743.824911