Salento preparing to welcome Night of Taranta

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On August 26, Salento, on the Apulia peninsula also known as “the hill of the Italian boot,” will celebrate La Notte della Taranta, which in 2017 celebrates the 20th edition of this event. Over the past 20 years, around 600 guests made up of local and international artists as well as musicians have alternated performances and been applauded by an audience of over 2.9 million spectators.

The historic center of Melpignano, one of the 9 towns of Grecia Salentina and one of the 7 cities of ancient Greek settlers, will host this mega event at the end of its road show that from August 3 will carry 18 stages including Galatina, a small Salentino town and commune in the Province of Lecce in Apulia, southern Italy, the “homeland” of tarantism.

Maestro conductor of the 2017 edition is Raphael Gualazzi, and Luciano Cannito is the new director and choreographer. Among the international guests already announced are American songwriter Suzanne Vega, Gerry Leonard, the Rolling Stones, saxophonist Tim Ries, percussionist Pedrito Martinez, and Yael Deckelbaum. Some of the artists will interpret the original folk music of the Salento tradition. There will be 42 participating groups for over 60 hours of live music. Yael Deckelbaum who is known to have composed the mothers’ prayer for the March of Hope of Jewish and Arab women in October 2016 will also perform.

Rapahel Gualazzi is scheduled to sing at the concert of Melpignano. “I strongly want to sing some passages of the Salento tradition,” said the master conductor, and I did not have any hesitation in accepting the assignment, because I perceived this formative and stimulating experience from an artistic and human point of view,” he said.

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It will be an eclectic footprint that will range from jazz to African-American, with the color of gospel and blues, and some New Orleans sound, explained Gualazzi. “It all depends on the nature of the song; there is great proximity between pinch and blues, repeating the second part of the verse, the famous third neutrals that is blues in blues, the magic of passing the oral tradition of father to son, the themes of songs from work chants to protest songs,” he explained.

The 20-year-old Taranta Night is the recognition of the story of a remarkable success – and a further contribution to sustaining the economy.

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The event has an economic impact not insignificant for Salento: in the last 10 years for every euro spent, the relapse was €4.3 (a figure that cannot boast any other festival) with an impact of tourists arriving for the festival alone reaching over 25 million.

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THE TRADITION

In Salento, it is said that once when women were reaping the corn, they were bitten by a tarantula and were possessed by a hysterical convulsive state that was exorcised with unbridled music and dancing. In different areas of the heel of Italy, the old belief is still praised with incredibly engrossing folk events during which the tantalizing dances and the tinkering of the traditional tambourines sound in a truly unique atmosphere.

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On June 29, Galatina remembers the ancient custom with the Tarantula Dance. The earliest written sources about ritual dances to cure the effects of venom date back to the early 19th century, but in Galatina, oral evidence passed down from generation to generation is lost in the night of the times. According to tradition, in St. Peter and Paul’s day, the women bitten by the tarantula reached the church of the small city from the wheat fields on rural carts accompanied by the rhythm of the folkloric music to exorcise the possession of the tarantula. It is said, in fact, that the unrestrained dance ball would end up with women and music players worn out by fatigue.

The dance of Pizzica (a couple’s dance) is related to Tarantism – a real piece of culture in different areas of the Salento, the only region in which it is still particularly felt and celebrated by local folklore.

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FEATURES

During the day of the Tarantula, on June 29, the whole city of Galatina dresses up and leaves space for the tarantas and pinch dancers performing as in an evocative ritual made of rhythms and frantic movements, performing traditional figures who see them, at times rotate, and sometimes take hands or brace themselves, with tambourines accompanying the dances. The celebration begins on June 28, with the arrival in St. Peter’s Square of the tarantas passing through the gates of the city on a cart accompanied by the music, ending up at the chapel of St. Paul facing the St. Paul Cathedral commonly called “Chiesa Madre” (mather church). Starting at midnight, players and drummers gather spontaneously to celebrate the night in San Paolo at the rhythm of the music. On the morning of the 29th, however, the typical therapeutic ritual of Tarantism takes place.

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THE TERRITORY

The city of Galatina is full of testimonies telling the long history of the resort, including a specific museum – Museo Civico Pietro Cavuto – with the history of Tarantism dating from the 1500s to the 1900s. The Chapel of St. Paul is particularly linked to the beliefs associated with the phenomenon of tarantism. Inside, in fact, is placed a well that is today walled with its water blessed by Sant Paul on the occasion of his gospel days in Galatina. It was believed to have the power to heal those who were bitten by the Tarantula. For this reason, the chapel is a pilgrimage destination by the parade of the tarantulas that recalls the ancient rituals.

About the author

Avatar of Mario Masciullo - eTN Italy

Mario Masciullo - eTN Italy

Mario is a veteran in the travel industry.
His experience extends worldwide since 1960 when at the age of 21 he started exploring Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
Mario has seen the World Tourism develop up to date and witnessed the
destruction of the root/testimony of the past of a good number of countries in favor of modernity/progress.
During the last 20 years Mario's travel experience has concentrated in South East Asia and of late included the Indian Sub Continent.

Part of Mario's work experience includes multi activities in the Civil Aviation
field concluded after organizing the kik off of for Malaysia Singapore Airlines in Italy as an Institutor and continued for 16 years in the role of Sales /Marketing Manager Italy for Singapore Airlines after the split of the two governments in October 1972.

Mario's official Journalist license is by the "National Order of Journalists Rome, Italy in 1977.

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