On the last Sunday of Carnevale and Sove Tuesday, the Sartglia is held in Oristano on the island of Sardinia. Though Sardinia is part of Italy, this festival has its roots in Spanish Catalan. The language of Sardinia (Sardu) though based mainly on Italian still has many Spanish overtones.
The two races held on Sunday and Tuesday are overseen by unions; Sunday being the Gremio dei Contadini (peasant’s guild) and Tuesday being the Gremio dei falegnami (carpenter’s guild). In this coming year, 2010, the Sartiglia, as an organized event will be 545 years old. It has many pagan rituals with little influence by the church and is very hard to explain why these rituals are done in a precise way. You almost would have to have grown up in the society to understand the importance of why and how they are performed. I will not try. Instead I’ll let you visually see them and give you a brief description of what is happening.
At ten in the morning each day of tournament, in the Piazza Eleonora, the su Bandu dell’Araldo is performed; a reading in Sardu of an evocation and opening of the festival.
In this tradition section I will show you the enrobing of the Master of Ceremony (the Componidori) of each guild by young maidens (massaieddas) overseen by an elderly lady (sa massaia manna) at the house of the guild’s President at noon. The Componidori climbs onto a large table and is dressed by the maidens. After the enrobing ceremony he mounts his beautifully harnessed horse. He will not touch the ground during the tournament until he is disrobed by the maidens at the end of the day. He is then joined by his two assistants su segundu and su terzu. he then blesses the crowd with a bunch of violets (sa piappia de Maiu – the little girl of May) while the massaieddas cast handfuls of corn and flowers. The massaia manna then gives the invocation for Sunday; ‘Santu Giuanni t’assistada’ and Tuesday; ‘Santu Giuseppi t’assistada’. May St John or St Joseph help you.
At the end of the tournament cay the Componidori is disrobed in reverse of the earlier enrobing by the massaieddas. He can then again touch the earth.
