So, what do you get a young girl on her birthday? What do you get her if she's a saint in heaven and she saved your town from an outbreak of plague?
Something really, REALLY, good. And you get the handsomest and strongest young men in town to bring it to her.
Behold the uniquely Italian Catholic thing: the "macchina". Lots of towns have a macchina on their saint's festa. But Viterbo does it up prouder than most. It's 30 meters high, weighs 5 tonnes and they make her a new one every five years. It takes about a hundred guys to pick it up and carry it across town from the cathedral to her shrine.
Last night, I was there. It was... I don't even know. Amazing.
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2 comments:
"So, what do you get a young girl on her birthday?... Something really, REALLY, good. And you get the handsomest and strongest young men in town to bring it to her. "
Superb! I also love the unfeigned civil, national, (and even religious) pride expressed in the footage and interviews on the video.
It was totally the real thing, and obvious that they loved their saint. People were filing past her incorrupt remains all day, including self. And I think the idea that one ought to separate civil, national and religious pride would strike these people as incomprehensible.
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