Songs, music and dances of traditional feasts

The “Bafanate”, the “Maggi”, the “Veglie” and other ancient popular traditions were produced by ancient rural communities and civilization. The Veneziana, the Trescone, the dances, songs and poems that emerged from the mountain peoples in Pistoia, in the Mugello, in the Sienese countryside and in the pine groves of the Maremma, are all expressions of popular rural culture. These rituals are fascinating for their immediacy and use of the simplest messages that indeed withstand time. Some people have declared their eventual extinction along with dialects, culinary traditions and ancient professions, however in the information and Internet age, these ancient rituals have the unique chance to be re-discovered and re-launched in totally new contexts.
 
Thanks to globalization and the Internet, these ancient traditions are thriving today and help valorize the rural communities of both past and present. Today, many of these traditions have been re-created ad hoc by local institutions to give those from the present the chance to know them and start practicing them again. Institutions have tried to reclaim a complex, well-articulated and timeless cultural system. It is more than just a nostalgic revival, but a way to validate the territory and its people, in addition to being another way to get people together in an enjoyable and entertaining context.