| Abstrakt: |
The article describes Festa dei Gigli – an event that belongs to an extremely wide and diverse set of folk festivals of the Italian South. Gigli di Nola is dedicated to Saint Paolino, patron of Nola, a small town near Naples. In this text I argue that Italian festas are a key to understanding the respective local community. A moment of opening, a manifestation of identity, often based on oppositions: the sacred – the profane, the ordinary – the extraordinary, ours – alien. An attempt to delineate the boundaries of these categories and their significance for a given community may lead to a more profound experience of otherness. The text, part of the author’s master’s thesis, presents the founding myth, history, and course of the Gigli festival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
