The\nfestival of wheat carriages is repeated every year in San Marco dei Cavoti on\nthe second Sunday of August, and it has a religious character since the\ncarriages are made by the various San Marco districts with the function of ex\nvoto in honor of the Madonna del Carmine. Just before noon, the pop of the\nfirecrackers begins the parade of floats in procession through the streets of\nthe town, preceded by the statue of the Madonna dressed in gold from the\nConfraternity of Maria SS. del Carmine and Monte dei Morti. The procession,\naccompanied by the musical band, crosses the main streets of the center and\nthen it reaches the belvedere in front of the church of San Marco Evangelista,\nwhere the Madonna stops before mass and devotees enjoy a fireworks display that\ndazzles the valley. Meanwhile, the floats remain stationary in Piazza\nRisorgimento and along Via Roma to be admired by bystanders. The celebrations\nbegin on Saturday evening and continue on the following evening when the feast\nresumes with a prize to the most beautiful float and then concludes with a\nmusical show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nConfraternity of Santa Maria del Carmine takes care of the religious\norganization of the festival while the artistic floats are made by the citizens\nof San Marco who in the previous months gather in groups for the artistic\nprocessing of straw and wheat. The meeting places become real workshops where\nmen and women, the elderly, youths and children work together, passing down\ntraditional techniques and experimenting with new ones. In the last few weeks\nbefore the party, work also happens at night. The carriages of wheat are\nconstructed with multiple techniques: weaves, ironing, mosaics, using entirely\nthe wheat plant, from the grain to the stem, up to the ear, as well as barley,\noats and rice grains. The theme of the float must remain secret for the\nopposing districts until the day of the feast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According\nto popular legend, the festival of wheat carriages originated in the early\n18th Century following a meteorological\nphenomenon called “small glaciation,” which caused continuous rains\nthroughout the month of July, preventing farmers from scognare<\/em> (threshing) wheat. The wheat had already been collected\nand deposited on the threshing floors but since the rain did not allow it to be\nprocessed, the farmers turned to the Madonna del Carmine asking her for the\nmiracle and carried her statue in procession to the bridge of San Rocco of\nPorta di Rose. The elderly say that when the Madonna arrived there the rain\nsuddenly stopped and the stream\u2019s waters visibly subsided. From then on, the\nfarmers began to organize the feast by donating part of their harvest to the\nMadonna as a sign of gratitude. So initially the carriages were mainly votive\nofferings and had a very simple structure consisting of sheaves of wheat lying\non traglie<\/em> (wooden carts without\nwheels) pulled by animals. After the parade, the threshing of the carts took\nplace in the farmyard, in the Ariella area, and the wheat obtained was sold to\npay for the festival. Although at the time the prevailing criterion was\nquantity, the farmers still tried to embellish their compositions with\nmulticolored ribbons and other ornaments, or by giving particular shapes to the\nsheaves placed on the carriages and pulled by oxen. Only in the 1980s did\nartistic carriages pulled by tractors take over, with ears, stalks and grains\nof wheat and other cereals to compose increasingly complex allegorical\npaintings. Today, the harvesting of wheat is no longer done by hand with a sickle\nbut it involves the use of combine harvesters that directly transform the ear\ninto a grain. The wheat from the carriages is no longer sold to pay for the\nfeast which is now supported by sponsors and above all the “questua,\u201d or\nthe donation that each family makes in honor of the Madonna. Although young\npeople are increasingly less present in San Marco, the tradition of artistic\nfloats is tenaciously carried on thanks to the dedication of elders in some\ndistricts such as the Franzese, the Zenna, the Fontecanale, and even some\nfellow townsperson who emigrated to Germany and returns every year to work on\ncarriages and explain traditional manufacturing techniques to new generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nrecent years, however, the sense of tradition is returning thanks to the\ncommitment of schools. The Istituto Comprensivo di San Marco dei Cavoti, thanks\nto PON funds, has started a training course and is interconnected with the\nterritory: the middle school kids interact with the elderly who teach them how\nto process wheat and, with them, make the artistic carriages curated by the\nschool.\n\nThe PON Project \u201cThe tradition of wheat: from the past\nto the future!\u201d consists of a creative and artisanal workshop for the\nenhancement of local vocations, aimed at students, which provides for the\nparticipation of parents and the collaboration of the local association: IRIS\nACLI LAND. The entire curriculum focuses on acquiring straw and wheat\nprocessing techniques for the production of carriages that are presented on the\noccasion of the traditional \u201cFesta dei Carri\u201d during the Summer. The idea of\n\u200b\u200bthis project originated from the desire to encourage the transmission of the\nart of processing straw from the elderly or adult people to new generations, so\nthat they can maintain and preserve this important tradition. Beyond the\nacquisition of wheat processing techniques, the project contributes to making\nchildren aware of their organizational, working and artistic skills so that\nthey enthusiastically engage in groups for the realization of the Artistic\nCarriage.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The festival of wheat carriages is repeated every year in San Marco dei Cavoti on the second Sunday of August,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1206,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/festedelgrano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/festedelgrano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/festedelgrano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/festedelgrano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/festedelgrano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/festedelgrano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1478,"href":"https:\/\/festedelgrano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28\/revisions\/1478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/festedelgrano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/festedelgrano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}