Palm Sunday

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Category: offertes

Last Updated on Friday, 01 March 2024 22:04

Published on Monday, 10 June 2013 12:04

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On Palm Sunday, during the procession, you may encounter 'sculptures' of woven olive leaves adorned with flowers and first fruits, carried by adults and children, and wonder what they are and who made them.

This is because in Bova every year on Palm Sunday (March or April, depending on when Holy Easter falls) an ancient rite is celebrated in a procession of large and small puppets made of olive leaves woven on reeds. The preparation of the rite takes place in the weeks beforehand by the inhabitants who join together in spontaneous workshops to build these particular 'sculptures,' which depict women (mothers and daughters) and are adorned with wild flowers and first fruits. The 'Pupazze' or 'Palme di Bova' are made from olive leaves that the entire community (men, women and children) gathers, divides two by two and then weaves with great skill and patience around a reed board. Once the structures, which resemble a female body, are finished, the evening before Palm Sunday, they are adorned with flowers, fruit, ribbons and lace.

On the day of the feast, after the blessing, the blessed palms are carried in procession through the streets of the village and after the mass, some are disassembled, to give the blessed steddhi to those present; the 'steddhi' (i.e. the parts that make them up) are distributed among the people who keep them up in the fields and in their homes, as is common for people to keep the blessed olive branch.  Opinions on the origins of this ritual differ. There are those who claim that the origin is rooted as far back as prehistoric times, when populations used propitiatory rites to evoke the Mana (Greek name for mother earth) for their crops and the fertility of the land. There are also those who claim that the ritual derives from the myth of Persephone, traces of which are often found in local history and archaeology (the young girl Persephone abducted by Zeus is said to have spent six months in the Underworld and in the following six months returned to Earth to her mother Demeter, and that her return to Earth coincided with the beginning of spring. This is why the Palms of Bova are said to be adorned with flowers and first fruits to commemorate Persephone's ascent from the underworld and the beginning of Spring. In this meaning, the large palms would symbolise Demeter and the small ones Persephone), and those who trace it back to Lent in the Byzantine tradition. The fact is that it is an ancestral tradition, a cultural syncretism that the faithful renew every year, carrying "pupazze", human-sized anthropomorphic statues with the features of a woman, in procession to the sanctuary of San Leo.

Kalos Experience helps you understand this ancient tradition, which has nothing to do with the festivities of post-modern Calabria, and which instead keeps the devotion of the faithful alive, praising rurality and relying on the most beautiful ornaments in nature: flowers and fruit.

The guest will discover an enchanted village, where the sweet melodies of the municipal band drift through the little stone houses, and the Palms of Bova, wending their way through the narrow streets in the village give new colour to streets somewhat faded by time.

PRICE

NOTE:
The organisation of the experience with personalised information / suggestions on how to spend the stay makes use of B&Bs, restaurants and local guides who will invoice or issue receipts directly to tourists for the services provided.

The indicative cost calculated for 2 people with independent travel and full board including the organisation of the experience is made up of :

Double/twin room with en-suite bathroom (air conditioning/heating) with room availability from 13.00 on the day of arrival to 11.00 on the day of departure
Overnight stays (1 -2 or 3 nights depending on length of stay) with breakfast -self service
Dinner (1 -2 or 3 depending on the length of stay) c/o typical restaurants in Bova (drinks and service included)
Lunches (1 -2 or 3 depending on length of stay) in typical restaurants in Bova (drinks and service included)
Guided tour with a connoisseur of the history and culture of the Greeks of Calabria who will accompany guests to discover the village of Bova
Aperitifs (1 -2 or 3 depending on length of stay) with wine and local snacks
Steddhi
Cultural/excursion guide of the Grecanica Area (1 per room)

REDUCTIONS AND EXTRAS

Children up to 5 years of age bed and breakfast FREE (lunches and dinners on consumption)
Family friendly services GRATIS.

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