PhD Program in Historical studies
The Feast of the Assumption and the Candelieri of Sassari
The main participants in the Feast of the Candelieri (candle holders) of Sassari are the guilds, the city’s major corporations. From its origins onwards, the Associations of Arts and Trades is given the honour of participating in the famous Faradda de li Candaleri (the descent of the candle holders), who carry huge votive machines in the form of columns. It is a ritual that has taken place for five centuries, which originated as a vow to Our Lady of the Assumption for the cessation of the plague. Over time, of course, some aspects of the festival have been transformed. During the seventeenth century, for example, the wax used as a ritual offering to the Virgin disappeared from wooden columns. And it was in those years that the Candelieri took on its current Baroque form. Today, as then, the Festha Manna (the Great Feast) takes place in Sassari on 14 August, the eve of the celebration of the Assumption of Mary into heaven. A ritual, that of votive candles, which in Sardinia is also present in Iglesias and at least two other towns in the vicinity of Sassari (Nulvi and Ploaghe). Similar festivities are also found in Sicily (the Cannelore of Sant’Agata) and in Campania (the Gigli of Nola). During the morning of 14 August, the guilds busy themselves with “dressing” the columns, which should be ready for the parade that starts in the late afternoon, leaving from Piazza Castello to the vault of the Church of Santa Maria di Betlem. Along the way, the carriers advance, twirling the candle holders to the rhythm of drums and fifes. Upon arriving under the Ducal Palace, the procession stops to celebrate the ritual of the intrigu: the Obriere Maggiore (the head) of the Guild of the massai (farmers or small landowners) receives the municipal banner from the Mayor and invites him to accompany the rest of the procession in the Church of Santa Maria. Before reaching the parvise, however, the candleholder of the masons is dragged near the Porta Utzeri, one of the ancient entrances to the city, where it performs a symbolic dance to commemorate the expulsion of the plague outside the walls. Around midnight, finally, the Guilds enter the church and have their candleholders around the catafalque of the Madonna, as if to form a crown. The vow is dissolved. The massai accompany the Mayor to the City Hall and the most spectacular Feast of Sassari reaches its conclusion.