December fires and machines that walk

The festivals of Molise were not built for tourists, and it shows: they fall when they fall, often in winter, and the village holds them for itself. Anyone who turns up at the right moment finds things that no longer exist elsewhere.

The Ndocciata of Agnone

On the eighth and the twenty-fourth of December Agnone parades with the ndocce, fans of fir wood several metres tall, lit and carried on the shoulder along the main street. There are hundreds of them, and the town is lit by nothing else. It is a fire festival of ancient origin, and the one time Molise makes the news beyond its own borders.

The Misteri of Campobasso

On Corpus Christi the Misteri come out in Campobasso: thirteen iron and wood machines built in the eighteenth century by Paolo Saverio Di Zinno, on which children and adults dressed as saints and angels stand balanced in mid-air. They are carried on shoulders through the streets of the old town. The structures are the same ones they have been for two and a half centuries.

The carresi

In lower Molise they run the carresi: races of ox-drawn carts held at San Martino in Pensilis on the thirtieth of April, at Ururi on the third of May and at Portocannone on Easter Monday. They are the most deeply felt festival of those villages and also the most argued over, because animals are involved; the rules have changed a good deal in recent years.

The summer

In summer every village has its food fair, and on the coast Termoli holds the feast of San Basso on the third of August, with a procession out at sea. At Capracotta in August there is the Pezzata, which is a food fair and a shepherds' gathering at once. The campsite noticeboards list them all.