Sacred Fire, Creativity and the Bonfire of Vanity

Dante Alighieri "The Supreme Poet" meets his love, Beatrice Portinari (in the foreground), in front of the Church of

Santa Margherita de' Cerchi, accompanied by her mother, Cilia de' Caponsacchi and by her friend, Monna Tessa. The painting is hanging on the left wall of the church located in downtown Florence.  This church is also known as "Dante's Church"  (photo by: Roberta Niccacci). 

"Dante" (short for "Dante Alighieri") is known as
the father of the Italian language, "The Poet" who gave the
the final touch to our language in its evolution from Roman
Latin to Italian. 

I thought of our most important poet of all times, our "Greatest Bard of All", "The Poet", the Father of the Italian Language, Dante Alighieri (Florence, 1265 AD - Ravenna, 1321 AD) when I was exploring ways to describe the importance of the "Sacred Fire", "Fire", "Divine Fire" within the celebrations of the Summer Solstice in Italy. On June 23rd and June 24th "Fire" is celebrated in Italy as much as "Water" with different traditions according to the areas and mostly with bonfires.  An interesting aspect of sacred fire is its miraculous sparkle that turns our passions on and makes everything we do into magic expressions of life. 

Additionally one of the latest interpretations of the "Divine Comedy", which is the most important epic poem written by Dante Alighieri, is that the book is a description of the creation process, which is perfectly tuned with the theme of the sparkle of sacred fire: creations, innovations, inventions are not easy matters especially if our natural gifts are not fulfilling enough, still going through lots of struggling, turmoils, hard times as in Hell (tr. "Inferno), then resting and posing in a sort of limbo known as Purgatory (tr. "Purgatorio") and finally enjoying success as if in Paradise (tr. "Paradiso"). Indeed the "Divine Comedy" is divided into three parts called "cantiche" (tr.canticas): Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.  

Dante's "Inferno" (tr "Hell") is in the shape of a funnel, starting
with a large hole in the ground, divided into circles of condemned people
according to their sins. 

Lines from the Divine Comedy are written on marble plaques all over the walls of the narrow streets downtown Florence, Dante's rhyming, selection of words and metaphors are uncomparable and impossible to translate in any language including current Italian, we would spoil its reading and our perception of beauty because the "Divine Comedy" is considered as "The Book of Beauty". Florentines are very proud of Dante's artistry. 


In the Summer Solstice traditions the "divine fire" is expressed by bonfires, "falò" is the Italian translation. "Falò" is such a beautiful word! It reminds me of the title of a beautiful book called "La luna e i falò" (tr. "The Moon and the Bonfire") by Italian writer Cesare Pavese (1908-1950), one of the most wonderful classics of Italian literature. 

The Moon and the Bonfire by great Italian
writer and translator Cesare Pavese,
one of my favorite books

Fire makes me think of Hell (tr.Inferno), where temperatures are so high that they are not bearable by our body, on the contrary, the word "Falò" ("Bonfire") is so sweet and delicate that to me it has nothing to do with the fire itself and with hell. Nevertheless, the word "Falò" was also used for deplorable historical events that took place in Florence in the Renaissance among which the most famous one is the "Bonfire of Vanities" (Feb. 7th, 1497, on Mardi Gras day) by Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola who induced the citizens of Florence to burn hundreds of their belongings that were expressions of vice and bad habits such as cosmetics, gowns, mirrors, books and works of art, among which paintings by Botticelli!

In my new life, nothing such as "sin" exists to me, I am in favor of deleting this word from our dictionaries, and as a consequence the word "guilt", these are the two words to be erased, if we did that the world would be a better place to live in, it would be our Paradise on Earth.


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A selection of quotes from Dante's Divine Comedy:

• Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa. (tr."let's not talk about them, just look and go ahead" is used to recommend not to care about what people say but keep going);
• Amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona (tr. "love sealed by marriage does not permit to have other lovers")
  
• Godi, Fiorenza, poi che se' sì grande che per mare e per terra batti l'ali, e per lo 'nferno tuo nome si spande! (tr. "be proud, dear Florence, you are so great that by seas and lands you are successful and you are famous in hell as well!");
• Fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza.(tr."you were not born to be crude but to follow virtues and knowledge");
• Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta (tr. and...his back had turned into a trumpet) !!!

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Curiosity

The etymology of the Italian word "falò" comes from Greek (PHALOS, PHALAROS) which means "bright", "shining", "sunny", "beaming" related to the idea of a flambeau, partying, gaudy also common to romanesque languages.
The etymology of the American word "bonfire" comes from Middle English banefire (late 15th century) and it means "a fire in which bones were fired", it is a Renaissance neologism first used in the 1550s.

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- Original Posts by Roberta Niccacci -

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