29

The Pentecost and the Corpus Domini were two other important religious holidays. During these holidays processions were lead through the streets of the village. According to ancient traditions people living in the streets where the procession was going to pass hung colorful blankets or fancy tablecloths on their windows and balconies. As the procession passed in the streets, people threw from their balconies huge amounts of rose petals and flowers on the statues of Saints, creating a fragrant and colorful carpet on the cobblestones.

There were also the feast of All Saints on November 1 and the more dramatic All Souls Day on November 2. The people went to the cemetery and decorated the tombs with flowers. Usually at this time of the year the Chrysanthemums were the only abundant flowers, thus they became to be considered the flowers of the dead and they were never used for happy occasions.

The last and most important religious holiday was Christmas. It was a happy holiday. People set up the "Presepi", the Nativity scene, many of which were home made sets with roughly shaped clay figurines made by children. The manger and the different nativity characters were placed on rock moss, the roads were made of sprinkled flour, the lakes with broken glass, the background sky with the blue wrapping paper then used for pasta, and the moon and stars with candy silver paper
30

wrappers. The houses were made with paper glued with flour and water or with old postcards. Very few people had Christmas Trees to which a loving grandmother attached a few apples , dried figs or dried grapes. The most important event of Christmas was the Midnight Mass. It was the High Mass at which the men and not the women sang the Gregorian Christmas Mass. After the Mass many got together to eat something or to play cards. The "scruppell", the traditional fritters were made at this time and were offered to friends. There were no exchanges of gifts, for most people had nothing to give. Children hung their stockings (literally stockings) on the eve of January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, the feast of the Magi. The gifts were brought by the Befana, a benevolent witch, and usually consisted of some fruit, few candies, and occasionally some oranges. Bad children found charcoal in their stockings. The children of the very poor fell into this last group not because of their behavior, but because of their parents' economics. A few of the more compassionate of these parents put nothing in the stockings and said that the Befana was unable to climb down the chimney. These were times when children did not have the luxury of developing complexes, which had not yet been invented.

The other important events in Fallo were the harvesting of wheat, corn, grapes, olives and the killing of pigs. These were all traditional events of rejoicing for the gifts of nature.