:: TRADIZIONI :: Il libro sulle farchie


Cap. XIV
LE FARCHIE - english text
by Benedetto Simone

Introduction
This work aims to go through the historical, legendary and social framework of the extraordinary devotion harboured inside the people of Fara Filiorum Petri for Sant' Antonio Abate.
This intense feeling is the very hearth of the Farchie Feast: devotion makes it a bustling celebration full of life, each year new and archaic at the same time. Devotion is the heart of the values nourishing the feast, with its ancient symbolism, rituals - the one way to make individuals grow organically into society.
Even the young people of Fara Filiorum Petri feed on this devotion, which is a reference point for them, as undoubtable as the sun raising every morning.
Through this spiritual dimension they scorn the selfness of nowadays life and discover the importance of community.
"What is Man, so that Thou willst remember?". (Psalms, 8.5).
Here, this is one great aspect of mankind: to be able of communicating to God through their fathers' very acts, works, prayers, even in the age of individualism.

Farchia (plural: farchie) is a heavy bundle of reeds, made up in every single estate of Fara Filiorum Petri and burned with the other ones, once carried and put up in front of s. Antonio's church, in order to venerate the patron of the village. Farchie can be up to 1 mt. thick (about 3 feet) and 10 mt. long (30 feet). The reeds are held together by flexible and resistent willow branches.

Fara Filiorum Petri is lies at the foot of Majella. Like the neighbouring villages the Farchie feast is linked up with ancient fertility and purification rituals. The big bonfires recall the emblematic meaning of fire among pre-christian civilties: death and rebirth in the nature cicle. All the same, these timeless feasts have the anthropological and social function of strengthening the identity between individuals and collectivity.

The diffusion of christianity in Fara is due to Benedictins, who ruled the religious community there, up to the 1870s. S. Antonio's veneration has been greatly supported by the Benedictins in the area: a big protec- tiveness towards animals and forests from the danger of fire and power over demons derive from benedictine traditions. However, the devotion to this saint started since an epidemy plagued the population of the area around the year 1000: Antonian monks used to look after the sick at the time.

pag. 75

Festivities calendar

January 12th: Preparation of farchie starts in every district of Fara Filiorum Petri

January 16th: At 1.30 p.m. farchie are brought to the square in front of s. Antonio's church. They are lighted at sunset.

January 17th: During the Holy Mass, fire, animals and bread are blessed.

Traditionally, the feast was born to remember a miracle of S. Antonio during the French invasion in 1799. At the time Fara was surrounded by a big oak forest: the French were stopped outside the wood by the apparition of the saint, who turned the trees into huge bonfires and dispersed the soldiers to protect the village.
This myth seems to have absorbed a pre-existing local devotion to arboreus pagan divinities.
In the area of S. Antonio's church there stilI are some of those oaks left, since most of them were cut down in the XIX century by the local nobleman, despite the general veneration for the holy wood Some aspects of the feast as it is nowadays seem to be connected with Longobard traditions (Longobards, a barbarian population mainly situated in Northern Italy, founded Fara as a military base in the IX century).
The council of Fara Filiorum Petri is involved in this secular celebration. The religious community takes part in it too, as far as the specifically catholic side of it is concerned. A particularly important rite is the blessing of the bread, of the animals and of the fire. The bread loaves are then distributed to every family as a symbol of peace, welfare, community.
The preparation of farchie is an excellent occasion to eat typical food and meet people.
On January the 16th, farchie are brought by tractors from the several districts to the church. Usually they are followed by a procession of singing people.
Once all the farchie are in the square in front of s. Antonio's church, they are erected in a very peculiar way, with ropes and long wooden sticks. Up to 50 years ago farchie were carried on people's back. Building and carrying farchie to the church was once a way to initiate the youth to manhood, as this work requires remarkable physical skills and experience.

Food has always had a main role in the celebration: once offered as a "present" to honour s. Antonio only, it is now consumed in big quantities.
Apart from the ritual bread, traditional sweets are zeppole (fried ringshaped sweets made of flour), serpentone (snake-shaped puff pastry, filled with jam, nuts or candied fruit), crispelle, cancellate, and more!
Wine is another protagonist of the feast, as well as fireworks, music and dance.

pag. 76

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