FIR – TREE FESTIVAL


About the legend

Spring comes, and the fir - tree is felled for use in a regional pagan
festival, “ The Pita”, celebreted in the Calabrian town of Alessandria del
Carretto.

The history of this festival date back to the first half of 17th century
when a woodman found the image of Pope Martyr Saint Alexander, died
by decapitation, inside the trunk of a silver fir-tree.

Since then , every year, in the last Sunday of April and on May 3rd,
intense community activities articulated by preparations, colletive rites
and spectacular time take place in Alessandria.
The entire community participates. 
The inhabitans dedicate a silver fir-tree trunk and a
treetop to their Saint: they are carried manually down to the village
centre, where they are raised, climbed, and felt down again.
Under the tree, people renew identity connections, social relationship and
respect for sorraunding environment.

Our experience

We went last april in Alessandria, to visit this delightful place. We saw
people making preparations for their festival, and talked with some of
them.
They were very kind and quiet talking about their traditions, especially on
this festival.
I felt that time was going by as slowly as we used to live here in our
“modern” town several years ago, when our grandparents were our age.