The Pasquella is a tradition of the territories of the Papal States and takes place in the evening between 5 and 6 January.
The tradition is told that, on the twelfth night of the winter solstice at Epiphany, the dead come out from the ‘underground kingdom’ and are embodied in the animals of the stable that suddenly could talk.
It was said that to listen to the speech of the animals brought bad luck and the animals had the power to take bad people to the underworld. In those days, then, the farmers treated their animals with kindness.
Groups of people sing ‘Pasquarelli’, accompanied by musical instruments, and they roam from house to house asking for food and wine and wishing good luck, fertility of both the soil and young brides.
These groups represent the souls of the ancestors, but at the same time they are shunned by the ghosts of those same ancestors.
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