Yesterday we noticed strange goings on in the village. About a week ago I mentioned (in this blog) how sometimes we feel like we’re in the Village of the Damned, and everyone knows something we don’t. Yesterday that meter hit the high note. Before we left for the day, we noticed all businesses were closed and the streets were empty, about 9am the church bells started ringing to beat the band and people started swarming into the church. We couldn’t make heads or tails of the whole thing and went about our day. As we were leaving town for our outing we noted pairs and groups of people heading down to the cemetery with flowers, not unusual but more than normal. We headed out to the Waterfalls on the back roads, and noticed in every village we passed through the cemeteries (which are close to town and generally on the main road), were packed with people carrying flowers...strange, we also noticed almost every business was closed along the way and it wasn’t even siesta yet...very strange.
Enjoyed our day and made it back to Alviano right at dusk...as we rounded the rotunda we see, at the town meeting place, every living soul of Alviano, just hanging around? We thought maybe someone had died ,or there was maybe some kind of local celebration going on. We got in the house, grabbed the computer and settled into our favorite spot just below the walls of the castle...looked up Nov. 1 Italy for holidays, and there it was, All Saints Day...I’ve heard of this and knew it was right around Halloween, but I’ve never seen it celebrated. My handy computer explained the various ways in which the day was celebrated and it fit perfectly with what we’d seen. Just before we checked it out and got an answer, I’d told Nancy, “its a good thing were not virgins because I think they are looking for someone to sacrifice”. So, no Village of the Damned, no sacrifices, just an ancient religious holiday.
One more mystery of Alviano solved!
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| A fog shrouded Medieval Village...did you hear that wolf ? |
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