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Ceremonial Festivals and Processions |
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written
by liu9700 / 10.03.2005 |
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Personal Observations |
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When I first chose this as my topic I don’t think I was prepared for the overwhelming amount of information I would find. I didn’t know where to start. I had piles of papers, journals, websites and books describing everything from funerary processions to the annual blessing of scooters. There are just so many of these festivities that are unique to Rome, it seemed impossible to choose just a few to focus on. Even after I had picked out my events and began researching them back in Seattle the project didn’t seem to click. Without a good description of Trastevere and its people it is really difficult to get a sense of what meaning the Festa de’ Noantri might hold for a Trasteveren. I remember touring the district in the first week of class with Paolo from ItaliaIdea and thinking, “Now I understand”. Seeing the narrow winding streets of Trastevere, crossing Ponte Sisto on foot from the Campo district, hearing people chatter in the local dialect while hanging their laundry up on lines strewn across the street – this is the experience I needed to really get a handle on the festival. It wasn’t until after that tour that I saw that Madonna del Carmine wasn’t so much a religious figure as an object that represented the history and culture of this district of Rome.
Santo Bambino was the same way. Pictures do not convey how odd this figure is. This is how my first experience with the Bambino went. The day began by wandering around the forum, then Piazza Venezia searching desperately for Piazza del Campodoglio where my guidebook said S. Maria in Aracoeli was located. FINALLY we located the piazza, walked it steps and stood triumphantly at its top, taking in our well deserved view and searching the buildings that lined the piazza for the church. Then we noticed it. S. Maria in Aracoeli, with its own separate 124 step stair case starting on the street below. Descending and ascending we end up in the church. We wandered around, letting our eyes adjust to the light, when we saw it: the Bambino. You must realize that at this point we were not yet so desensitized by skeleton monuments or the iconic carvings so common in this city and the sight of the gold bedecked Bambino really gave the both of us the chills. But it was not until I had seen it with my own eyes, found the church and walked its steps that I could really begin to put the entire Bambino culture into context.
The most interesting thing to research by far was the Festa de’Noantri. I love Trastevere, the district, the people and its history. Touring the district knowing that this festival occurs here every summer I got a sense of how important movement through the space is in terms of the culture. I felt like knowing about the festival made me a little bit Trasteveren on the inside.
I have decided that to even have a basic comprehension of this topic one must spend some significant time in Rome, get to know the people and their peculiarities. My subject is all about community and the space it occupies. More than that it is about how the space is utilized by the community in celebration and in perpetuating identity. I had to climb the stairs of Aracoeli, place myself in front of the churches of Trastevere, stand before the Palatine, and see the grandeur of the Vatican before I could grasp the full spirit of the occasions. There is a movement to life in Rome; it doesn’t translate to life in the States very well at all. Rome was my best and most interesting resource for this project.
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