Stories

STORIES
(Pg. 10)

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Email Bonnie & Sara

1/2/05
Santino Ferrante
ferrante_03@yahoo.fr
Poem To My Native Land

Santino Ferrante is a Lettese far from home - he has lived in Belgium for a few years now, having gone there to work. He is the son of Nicola Ferrante and Adelia Giusti of Lettomanoppello, and he returns to his hometown two or three times a year for visits. A writer of poetry, Santino sent us the following poem which he dedicates to his native land:

Il suono dolce dei miei pensieri,
sentire l'eco ardente della mia voce
ti risvegli semplicemente.

Questa e la melodia del mio
paese natio.

The sweet sound of my thoughts,
to hear the ardent echo of my voice
waken you quietly.

This is the melody of my
native land.

Thank you Santino, and we look forward to hearing more from you!

10/30/04
Gina Di Pietrantonio Ferrante
girolulett@msn.com
lu mmalocchi

I have a little dialect verse from Lettomanoppello, a cure for malocchio (evil eye). This used to be recited 9 times making the sign of the cross on the forehead (la fronte) of the person afflicted by the "malocchio," especially small children. You take a bowl of water and let drop 3 drops of oil onto the water. If the drops spread, it means the person was touched by malocchio, and you recite the verse below. All the older people in Lettomanoppello recite the Malocchio. My mother still uses it, as I do to every time I have a headache or someone in the family does. When you buy something that you think might make someone envious of you, you "do" "lu mmalocchi". And who says that Italian are superstitious? Ciao a tutti!

"mmidia e malocchio
curnucille all`occhio
crepa l`ammidia e scoppia lu malocchio
n' nome di Di e d' Santa Mari
lu malocchio se n' pozza ye."

Envy and evil eye
Little horns in the eye,
Crack the evil one and burst the evil eye
In the name of God and Santa Maria
May the evil eye go away.

2/15/03
Sara Addario
Concezio Di Matteo
roccalett@hotmail.com
The Tradition of Belief in Witchcraft

Widespread belief in witchcraft existed throughout the world until the 18th century, but in the mountain villages of Abruzzo this tradition lasted well into the 20th century, due to the isolation of these tiny centers, which were cut off from each other and from the rest of the world by mountainous terrain and by lack of roads and transportation. Interestingly, the belief in witchcraft served a useful function in these villages (according to Vincenzo Battista in his book Abruzzo: Tradizioni e Genti da Scopire):

Concezio Di Matteo of Lettomanoppello and Roccamorice

"The belief in witches and in ritual activities for neutralizing their evil influence were an effective system for resolving social problems and tensions which would otherwise have caused these small communities to explode in a destructive manner."   The people in these villages lived in extremely close proximity to one another and had continuous close relationships with each other - they intermarried, they exchanged work, services and goods - in other words, cut off from the world, they depended on each other for survival. Conflicts between villagers resulting from jealousy, envy and disputes over money and property could be destructive of the solidarity on which their survival depended. If the blame for such problems could be laid to the evil arts of witches, holding them responsible for whatever thefts, damages, illnesses or other negative events took place in the community, then conflicts among the people could be kept to a minimum and solidarity preserved.

The belief in witchcraft required a remedy for it, a means to control the evil. This remedy was the "magaro," a wizard/healer who was always to be found in the mountain villages. The megaro was the collective repository of the good, positve arts for the control of evil. With his or her "magic formulae," which exorcised evil, the magaro removed the influence of the witch and at the same time re-established the bonds of solidarity in the village.

Concezio Di Matteo was born in Lettomanoppello in 1928; he lived there until he was about 12 years old, when his family moved to Roccamorice; he now lives in the US, in Connecticut. He recalls that in his childhood the practice of rituals to ward off evil, particularly rituals designed to ward off malocchio - the evil eye - still took place.   He tells that as a child he was intensely curious about witches because the adults blamed everything that went wrong on witches, and he therefore always hoped to see one. For that reason he once went to observe, about 1940 when he was age 10 or 12, the ritual performed to protect a newborn from illness that might otherwise be brought on by a witch casting the malocchio on the infant.

The ritual was performed in the main square in Lettomanoppello, Piazza Umberto I. He recounts that an old woman who was 'special' i.e. she was believed to have the ability to ward off the spells of witches, took the baby and held it while stepping back and forth over water running from the fountain, reciting a spell while doing so.   The spell required running water, but it didn't have to be special water, any running water would do, and in this case it was the overflow from the fountain in the square.

Concezio does not know what spell the woman recited because, he said, he was too nervous to get close enough to hear what the words were!

Other Towns Pg. 1

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