OUR BLOG

It seems like yesterday that we were talking about it, but a whole year has whizzed by in the meantime. For a while back there, we had returned to seeming a bunch of normal, everyday folk, but soon colourful, crazy carnival will possess us again, and normality will cease to exist for a week!

We're only kidding, because in actual fact there are quite a few cows around here, and plenty of chickens! But it's an Italian way of describing a small town, which could probably apply to Bedonia.

On the 13th of January, in some parts of this area, the mountain population still celebrates the Tresendì recurrence, a very antique custom which traces its origins back to 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII announced a change of calendar (the Gregorian reform).

So the day has come, there is excitement in the air, party dresses and high heels are out of the closet, fireworks are being set up all over the country - it's a matter of hours before we send 2018 on its way. Our American friends will catch up with us a little later, but we will all sail into 2019 very soon. 

We would, you might say - if we only knew what the dickens a yule is!  Undoubtedly, a few amongst you do actually know what we're talking about, but just as many don't, even though you have all sung "See the blazing yule before us" dozens of times at Christmas!

Every year, Mother Nature tricks us into thinking that summer has come back again, at least for a few days! This brief period is commonly called "L'estate di San Martino". San Martino is celebrated on the 11th of November - but who was he? Why is this date dedicated to him, and what does a change of climate have to do with him?