Sacred and profane events, celebrations and performances

Sacred celebrations and profane festivals, ancient traditions and present-day events: what with solemn processions and ancient rituals, music and fireworks, historical commemorations and pleasurable festivals, a festive atmosphere comes and goes back and forth along the Coast throughout the year, today in one town, tomorrow in another village. They are occurrences that involve the community and are marked by the desire to relax and forget one's troubles, the occasion to gather and get together, celebrate or reminisce, ask for help or, simply, to feast. Fantastic illuminations and cheerful festoons, torches and the statues of saints carried in procession down to the sea, miracles and period costumes, altars decorated with wheat and choruses of "battentes" flogging themselves in ritual acts of penitence, nativity cribs and the launching of comets, popular performances, historical regattas and naval battles, games, flambeaus and bonfires, banquets and food and wine tasting, flowers and the ringing of bells, sumptuous drapes and plain paper altars: all of them are explosions of joy or moving episodes of contrition, signs of an ancient sentiment that accompanies the hours of the community, and at the same time keeps tradition alive and underscores the importance of values to this day. Whatever is the subject of the celebration, whether the patron saint or one of the feasts listed in the church calendar, the products of work and toil or the specialties of the gastronomic tradition, the comforting cycle of time seems to give stability and concreteness to the infinite heritage of customs and significance of life, whether individual or even more so community life.