From January to December
Traditions of Romagna, month by month
Sayings, songs and customs of our grandparents, gathered before they are lost for good. Every entry tells where it comes from: a book, a magazine, or the oral tradition that is still waiting to be written down.
The dialect is given as it was written down by whoever collected it: it changes from town to town and from one century to the next. Next to it you find the translation.
January
The new year, the Pasquella and the blackbird
Sayings
Songs and rhymes
La Pasquella
to sing you the pasquella,
with the zither and the lutes
to earn ourselves the mortadella:
long live Easter, Epiphany
and the good company.
La fôla dla merla, the tale of the blackbird (beginning and end)
…
i mìral, da alora, j è sèmpar nìgar!
…
and blackbirds, ever since, have always been black!
Customs
New Year's Day
People watched who they met first: a well-off man brought a good year, a poor or an old one did not. And you had to do a little of every job, so that all of them would go well the whole year.
Source: Michele Placucci5 January, Nott de Bisò in Faenza
In the square they burn the Niballo, the puppet of Hannibal that brings bad luck, lit by the district that won the June Palio. People drink bisò, mulled wine, from cups of Faenza ceramics, and read the forecasts for the year in the sparks.
Source: Ministero della CulturaThe night of Epiphany
Young and old went from house to house with violins and guitars singing the Pasquella, and were given eggs, bread, cheese and sausage. That night the animals were fed without sparing: it was said that they could talk, and they must not speak badly of their master.
Source: Michele PlacucciLa ventura, the lucky draw
On the evening of Epiphany, among relatives and friends, chestnuts or grains of maize were handed out, only one of them marked: whoever found it won the prize.
Source: Michele PlacucciThe days of the blackbird
29, 30 and 31 January are the coldest days of the year. The blackbird used to be white: to escape the January blizzard she sheltered for three days in a chimney and came out black with soot.
Source: Radames Garoia17 January, St Anthony the Abbot
The saint of livestock: the animals of the stable are blessed.
Source: Oral traditionFebruary
Candlemas and Carnival
Sayings
Songs and rhymes
The masks of the old woman
Ca bona per la povra veccia, jò jò!
Ca bruzeda, jò jò!
This house is good to the poor old woman, oh oh!
A ruined house, oh oh! (to those who gave nothing)
Il bagaglione, the end of Carnival
Customs
Carnival in the houses
People danced now in one house, now in another, around the flasks of wine the men had bought. The richest and the heaviest man of the village was carried in triumph to his cellar, and there everyone drank.
Source: Michele PlacucciThe last day of Carnival
Everyone had to eat seven times, and in the evening the oldest hen of the coop was eaten: otherwise, it was said, all the others would be found dead the next morning. Women did not spin that day, or the broad beans and the flax would not ripen.
Source: Michele PlacucciLa fagiolara, the bean mockery
On the first Sunday of Lent, beans, chickpeas, broad beans, salt and dried figs were scattered in mockery on the doorstep of the girls who had not found a husband at Carnival.
Source: Michele PlacucciThe “fuora verde”, the green leaf
During Lent young people and engaged couples always had to carry a green leaf: whoever was caught without one paid a fine in eggs, to be handed over at Easter.
Source: Michele PlacucciMarch
The March lights and the bonfires
Sayings
Songs and rhymes
Lòm a Mêrz, the bonfire song
una spiga faza un berch;
un berch, un barcarol,
una spiga un quartarol;
un berch una barchetta,
una spiga una maletta.
let one ear of wheat, in great splendour,
make a stack, a little stack,
one ear a full measure;
and a stack a little boat,
one ear, a little sack.
(the stack is the heap of sheaves)
Customs
Lòm a Mêrz
On the last three days of February and the first three of March, at dusk, the boys burnt heaps of straw in the fields near home singing the song above, to bring a good harvest. The drinkers grumbled: the light, they said, should be made for the vines in September. Since 2000 the association Il lavoro dei contadini has lit the bonfires again all over Romagna.
Source: Michele PlacucciNo pruning
On those six days nobody pruned the vines or cut wood: there was one evil hour, and since nobody knew which one, everybody stood still.
Source: Michele PlacucciThe days of the old woman
Rain on the last three days of March and the first days of April was the sign of a fertile year: on those days legumes were planted.
Source: Michele Placucci18 March, the Fogheracce of St Joseph
On the evening of the eve, big bonfires are lit and the old is burnt, furniture and scrap wood, to make room for the new.
Source: Il Resto del CarlinoSegavecchia, sawing the old woman
At mid-Lent, in Forlimpopoli, the puppet of the old woman is sawn in two: the winter going away.
Source: Oral traditionApril
The cuckoo, the rain and Easter
Sayings
Customs
Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday
When the church bells were tied, the trees were tied too, so that they would bear fruit. When the bells were set free, on Holy Saturday, people washed their faces without drying them to keep their sight, and made the children who could not yet walk take their first steps.
Source: Michele PlacucciThe keys of the alleluia
On Holy Saturday the most naive man of the village was loaded with a crate full of stones: “these are the keys of the alleluia”, to be taken to the parish church. Until he got the joke.
Source: Michele PlacucciEaster
A new shirt to keep illness away. Every family baked the Easter biscuit and boiled the eggs to be blessed, together with the lamb. In the afternoon the pigs were let into the wheat field: “they have their snack too”.
Source: Michele PlacucciEaster breakfast
The Easter loaf, one for each member of the family, with the blessed eggs, the first salami of the year and a glass of Sangiovese.
Source: e-borghiThe Egg Palio in Tredozio
Games with hard-boiled and raw eggs, born in the nearby parish of Ottignana on Easter Day itself.
Source: e-borghiMay
The song of May
Sayings
Songs and rhymes
Ben vegna Maz, welcome May
che l'ha purtea i bei fiur:
vegna la stezza a tott i muradur.
Cla purtea la bella spiga,
vo Crest de zil mandela ben garnida.
Ben vega, e vegna Maz,
che Maz i le arrivèa;
e se pu an cardì, che sia arrivèa,
fasiv qua fura, cuj è la majèa.
happy bringer of grass and flowers;
let every bricklayer be cross
that in such a fine season he is not called:
the golden, welcome ear has sprouted,
Christ, make it ripen well at every hour:
farewell, and come again, sweet May,
bringer of the sunny season;
and whoever does not believe this happy news,
let him look outside: here is the may branch.
Customs
Singing the May
On the night of the first of May the young men sang the May under the girls' windows, and the girls put flowering branches on the doors: “we have planted the May”.
Source: Michele PlacucciAscension Day
In the procession people carried a mulberry branch to bless the silkworms. Nobody slept that day, or they would sleep the whole year; they ate cheese, herb soup and chard pie, and nobody worked. An egg laid that day protected against storms.
Source: Michele PlacucciAgainst moles
Near haymaking time a roof tile was hung on an elm with a stone tied to a string: in the wind the stone knocked against it, and the noise kept the moles away from the meadows.
Source: Michele PlacucciJune
Haymaking and the Niballo
Sayings
Customs
Seven meals for haymaking
On the day of the seganda, the hay mowing, the farmhands had to eat seven times, and woe to the landlord who did not allow it: a bread roll with coppa at dawn, breakfast with meat and fried eggs, lasagne at lunch, fritters in the afternoon, fried food before evening, supper and, after the dance, roast chicken. The women brought every man a carnation.
Source: Michele PlacucciReaping
Girls and boys together in the fields, and the joy of finally seeing the harvest.
Source: Michele PlacucciThe Palio del Niballo in Faenza
On the last Sunday of June the five districts challenge each other on horseback against the Niballo.
Source: Ministero della CulturaSt John's Night
On the night between the 23rd and the 24th the green walnuts for nocino and the herbs are picked; the dew of that night was believed to work miracles.
Source: Oral traditionJuly
Wheat on the threshing floor
Sayings
Customs
The sheaves and the snakes
When the sheaves were carried to the threshing floor, a sheet was spread on the cart and the sheaves were beaten several times, to drive out the grass snakes believed to hide in them.
Source: Michele PlacucciLa batdura, the threshing
The threshing: neighbours helped each other in turn from one farm to the next, and at the end there was a great lunch on the threshing floor for everybody.
Source: Oral traditionAugust
Hemp and the floods
Sayings
Songs and rhymes
The flax song
venum ajdèa di caver e len:
ven e mi ben, venum un poc ajdèa,
cu ti sarà paghèa la tu fadiga;
la ti sarà paghèada a dè par dè,
par pagament t' ha num aurè pu me?
lovely little love,
come now, I pray,
and help me lift the flax.
Your toil, I swear to you,
will not go unrewarded,
but you will be paid for it
in a very special way.
Customs
Hemp
It was cut after the first August dew, believed to be stronger, and retted in the river together with the flax, singing the song above.
Source: Michele PlacucciSeptember
Grape harvest and husking
Sayings
Songs and rhymes
The grape harvest song
che manch cha vi guerd, vo avi piò gost:
…
Se a mi vlù de ben, cos' aviv spindù?
Se am avi dea un sguerd, avnò res du.
that my glances displease you, that they torment you:
…
If you loved me, what did it cost you?
If you gave me one glance, you got two in return.
At the husking
sta ne la scranna ti darò la mi;
a ti darò la mi da ster insdè,
te t' sfujarè, e me a starò a vidè.
if you have no stool I will give you mine:
you will husk, sitting down,
and I, happy, will just watch.
Customs
The tub that never empties
Before the grape harvest the farmers asked the landlord's permission to make one tub of wine for the family. Then they filled it, drank half, filled it again, until the end of the harvest: it was always “the first tub”, the one allowed.
Source: Michele PlacucciHusking the maize
Everyone stripped the leaves off the cobs together, and with so many sweethearts present, there was singing.
Source: Michele PlacucciSaba and savòr
With cooked grape must, the saba, people make savòr, the autumn preserve with quinces, pears, figs and walnuts.
Source: Oral traditionOctober
Sowing
Sayings
Customs
Never on a Friday
Broad beans were never sown on a Friday, a day believed to be against the crops.
Source: Michele PlacucciHoly water in the fields
Once the wheat was sown, holes were dug at the corners of the field with holy water and a blessed palm leaf inside, so that no evil would enter the crops.
Source: Michele PlacucciThe bees
When a swarm left, people followed it banging iron tools and shouting “pora, pora la mestra!”, stop, mistress: where the queen settles, the whole swarm stops.
Source: Michele PlacucciNovember
St Martin and the pig
Sayings
Customs
The pig's wedding
When the pig was slaughtered, people said they were “giving it its wedding”: relatives were invited to taste it, and the invitation was returned.
Source: Michele PlacucciThe feast of the cuckolds in Santarcangelo
At the St Martin's Fair horns are hung under the arch of Piazza Ganganelli, and they are said to swing when a cuckold walks underneath.
Source: Quotidiano NazionaleDoing St Martin
On 11 November the sharecroppers' contracts expired: whoever changed farm loaded everything on the cart and moved.
Source: Oral traditionThe Lunêri di Smémbar comes out
Around St Martin's day the almanac of the Romagnols comes out in Faenza, printed without a break since 1845: a large sheet to hang in the kitchen, with the zirudèla in dialect that makes fun of the past year, the cartoons, the moons, the saints and the advice for sowing and for racking the wine.
Source: Wikipedia The nineteenth-century issues and the 1868 zirudèlaDecember
The Yule log and cappelletti
Sayings
Customs
The Christmas log
On Christmas Eve the biggest log in the house, called a Pater noster, was put on the fire: it had to burn all night and the next day, to warm the newborn Child. A piece of it was kept, and during storms it was placed under the gutter to chase away the clouds.
Source: Michele PlacucciCappelletti
As early as 1818 cappelletti were made on Christmas Day: ricotta, cheese, eggs and herbs wrapped in lasagne pasta.
Source: Michele PlacucciGrapes and wine
The wine left over at Christmas was poured near a vine, so that it would give plenty of grapes; in the evening a few fresh grapes were eaten, to have money all year. And a new shirt, against illness.
Source: Michele PlacucciNew Year's Eve
Women, especially the older ones, never left a job half done from one year to the next.
Source: Michele PlacucciRhymes and lullabies
Town by town
Mothers sang them to put the children to sleep, and children sang them in the yards and on the threshing floor. They change from one town to the next: each one carries the place where it was collected.
Forlì · Forlì-Cesena
Din don don, Brother Simon's bell
La campāna d' fra Simon
J' era tri chi la sunëva,
Pañ e' vèn i guadagnëva,
Guadagnëva di macaron,
J' éra sòtti, e j' éra bon,
J' éra ben infurmajé,
I prit e i fré u j' ha magné,
I l' ha magné la Catarèna,
La s' è fughëda cun la furzèna;
Si n' era e' su fradel,
La fughëva un tajadel.
Brother Simon's bell,
three of them used to ring it,
they earned bread and wine,
they earned macaroni,
they were cooked, and they were good,
well dressed with cheese,
the priests and the friars ate them,
Caterina ate them,
she choked on her fork;
if her brother had not been there
she would have choked on a noodle.
Fa' la nana, e' mi babèn, sleep, my baby
Bianc e ross e rizzulèn;
Fa' la nāna, fiol d' un fior,
E' babèn l' è d' e' Signor;
Fa' la nāna, fa' la nāna,
E' babèn l' è d' la su māma.
white and rosy and curly-haired;
go to sleep, child of a flower,
the baby belongs to the Lord;
go to sleep, go to sleep,
the baby belongs to his mummy.
San Martino in Strada · Forlì
E' burdel d' la scarpazza, the boy with the old shoe
L' ha paura d' un gozzal d' aqua;
Guërda mè ch' a n' ho paura
A j' ho e' caval a la pastura,
Ch' u mi māgna l' insalé,
Povar mè cm' a j' ho da fé?
is afraid of a drop of water;
look at me, I am not afraid:
I have my horse out to graze
and it is eating my salad,
poor me, what shall I do?
Forlimpopoli · Forlì-Cesena
Ninañ ninañ, ninöla, hush-a-bye
I babèn chi va a la scöla,
A la scöla pr' imparé,
Ch' i si vol indurminté;
A la scöla impararà,
I babèn chi durmirà;
A la scöla di parent,
I babèn chi s' è indurment.
the children going to school,
to school to learn,
who want to fall asleep;
at school they will learn,
the children who will sleep;
at the school of their relatives,
the children who have fallen asleep.
Fa' la nana, fiol d' un cont, sleep, son of a count
Tri cavël t' aspetta a e' Ronc,
Etar tri a la Coclì,
Fa' la nāna, e' mi babin.
three horses wait for you at Ronco,
three more at Coclì,
go to sleep, my baby.
Bidente and Rabbi valleys · Forlì-Cesena
La sdintêda, the toothless woman
e la 'n dà gninta a i su fradël.
I su fradël i fa la piëda
e in dà gninta ala sdintëda.
and gives nothing to her brothers.
Her brothers make piada
and give nothing to the toothless woman.
Tirindéna
met la cêva in te caset!
Tirindéna pân bufon,
met la cêva in te cason!
Met la cêva in tla canténa
ca fasèn la tirindèna!
Metla ad qua, metla ad là,
chicadun u la troverà.
put the key in the drawer!
Tirindina, bread and buffoon,
put the key in the chest!
Put the key in the cellar,
let's play tirindina!
Put it here, put it there,
somebody will find it.
Castellaccio · Ravenna
E' piov, it's raining
La gatta la fa l' ov,
E' prit' e' fa la torta,
La gatta la i la lorda;
E' prit i n' tira un fròst,
La gatta la sëlta in t' l' òss;
E' prit u i tira la furzèna,
La gatta la s' arimpèna.
the cat lays an egg,
the priest makes a cake,
the cat spoils it;
the priest throws a stick at her,
the cat jumps on the doorstep;
the priest throws his fork at her,
the cat climbs up and away.
Ravèna bela, beautiful Ravenna
Ravèna è bela e fior di la Rumāgna;
Ravèna è bela, Ravèna u si dis,
Ravèna è bela e fior de' paradis.
Ravenna is beautiful, the flower of Romagna;
Ravenna is beautiful, so they say,
Ravenna is beautiful, the flower of paradise.
Massa · Ravenna
Ninañ ninañ, badessa, hush, little abbess
Vostra māma l' è andëda a mèssa;
La vinirà stasera
Con e' lum di la candela;
La vinirà stanott
Con e' lum de' candilott;
La vinirà dmatèna
Con e' lum dla candilèna.
your mummy has gone to Mass;
she will come this evening
with the light of the candle;
she will come tonight
with the light of the big candle;
she will come tomorrow morning
with the light of the little candle.
Fa' la nana zijo da l' ört, sleep, lily of the garden
Si nun dormi, t' in fai tört,
Fai tört a la tu māma,
Dormi, dormi, fa' la nāna.
if you don't sleep you wrong yourself,
you wrong your mummy,
sleep, sleep, go to sleep.
Brisighella · Ravenna
Fa' la nana, fála tutta, sleep it all through
Fála intant ch' i fa la suppa;
Fa' la nana, fála ben,
Fála intant che māma ven.
sleep while they make the soup;
go to sleep, sleep it well,
sleep until your mummy comes.
Fa' la nana, fiol d' un fré, sleep, son of a friar
Va' a la mèssa che dis tu pé
A l' ustarèja dla Ghirlandèna,
Ch' u i va sera e matèna.
go to the Mass your father says
at the Ghirlandina tavern,
where he goes evening and morning.
Where every entry comes from
The sources
- Michele Placucci, «Usi e pregiudizj de' contadini della Romagna», Forlì 1818 (ristampa a cura di Giuseppe Pitrè, Palermo 1885) · open
- Aldo Spallicci, «Proverbi romagnoli», Giunti, Firenze 1996 (schede della banca dati ParemioRom, Università di Barcellona) · open
- Radames Garoia, «I giorni della merla», la Ludla, Istituto Friedrich Schürr, gennaio-febbraio 2023 · open
- Giovanni Zaccherini, «Lòm a Mêrz», Meer, 20 febbraio 2018 · open
- Il Resto del Carlino, cronache di Lòm a Mêrz e Fogheracce · open
- Ministero della Cultura, «Nott de Bisò» a Faenza · open
- e-borghi, «La pagnotta pasquale di Sarsina» · open
- Quotidiano Nazionale, «San Martino, la festa dei becchi» · open
- Banca dati ParemioRom, Università di Barcellona (proverbi emiliani e romagnoli) · open
- Benedetto Pergoli, «Saggio di canti popolari romagnoli», Forlì 1894 (ogni canto con il paese dove fu raccolto; traduzioni di Romagna Tourism) · open
- Palmiro Capacci, «C'era una volta... anzi appena ieri», filastrocche delle valli del Bidente, del Rabbi e del Borello (dal suo blog, 2019) · open
- Wikipedia, «Lunêri di Smémbar» · open
Oral tradition: customs still alive in people's stories, for which we do not yet have a written page to cite. We will complete them with the books below.
To carry on the collection
The books of the scholars who kept the dialect of our towns alive (in Italian and Romagnol). The next entries will come from here, each with its page.
- Mario Gurioli, «Usanze di Romagna. La nostra terra mese per mese», Tempo al Libro, 2022; dello stesso autore «In Rumãgna u s'dgeva...», «Fët d'una vôlta», «Padrõ, fatur e cuntadè»
- Mario Gurioli e Giuliana Pisotti, «Agenda romagnola», dal 2015
- Mario Gurioli e Alfredo Altieri, «Ninne nanne di Romagna e altri canti infantili»
- Giuliano Bettoli (Faenza, 1931-2017) e Luigi Antonio Mazzoni, «Puisèi 'd Fẽza. Cento poesie», Stefano Casanova Editore, Faenza, 2002
- Giuliano Bettoli, «Se la Tuda l'è una... Mingò l'è un...», Stefano Casanova Editore, Faenza, 2004
- E' Lunêri di Smémbar, Faenza, dal 1845
- Gianni Quondamatteo, «Tremila modi di dire dialettali in Romagna», volume III, 1974
- la Ludla, periodico dell'Istituto Friedrich Schürr per il dialetto romagnolo
More stories: E' Lunêri di Smémbar · Dialects · Curiosities and legends · Lost trades · Romagna recipes
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