FIVE YEARLY WINDOWS FOR TWELVE MONTHS

Simone Martini, Saint Martin of Tours, 1322-1326, Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi, Italy 

My favorite day of the year is New Year's Eve. To me, this day is the first window into my life journey's renewal. Celebrating a new start to the journey with the rest of the world is definitely a great event. 

The egg is a symbol of rebirth and renewal. 

However, there are other important windows during the year. Among all celebrations in Italy, we can list FIVE important occasions to celebrate the yearly revivals: 1. New Year's Eve, Easter, August 15th - also known as 'Ferragosto', November 11th - also known as 'St. Martin's day' and Christmas. Most recently I heard people rename 'Ferragosto': 'Summer New Year's, probably because of the fireworks closing the day's celebrations just like we do on New Year's Eve. 

We are now way ahead towards autumn. Our next yearly renewal appointment is November 11th. In Italy, on this day we celebrate Saint Martin of Tours. The reason is that we remind ourselves of being charitable in order to face the seasons' craziness.

Fireworks in Italy are part of the Ferragosto celebrations
on  August 15th 

These five-yearly celebrations became part of the religious and political calendar in classical ages already- such as the case of Ferragosto, which was the name given to this celebration by Emperor Augustus - Feriae Augusti --> Ferragosto in Italian ---> etymology from Latin: Augustus vacations. However in the beginning these celebrations were part of nature's revival cycles. These cycles were described by the fruits of the earth, among which wheat was indispensable for survival since the dawn of time. Ferragosto was meant to celebrate the closing of the wheat harvesting period. 

Christmas atmosphere in Sicily 

Cama® is a cultural brand on
her revival journey

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