Dance and Travel

Cimitero delle Fontanelle's detail Recently I have been travelling in Naples and I am truly convinced that if you don’t know about Superstition and Cult of Death you can’t really understand the soul of this city. Indeed, Naples traditions' are deeply rooted in both superstition and religion, till a point that they mix together and it is impossible to distinguish them. A great example of this melange is the Cult of Death or the Cult of Skulls. Such a religious practice is connected to the concepts of Christianity and a belief in Purgatory. According to the Catholic Church, Purgatory is a place for souls who have not been completely freed of sin. People believed if the living said prayers on behalf of the souls in Purgatory, they will get favors in return. A child's skull in Cimitero delle Fontanelle How does it work the cult of death in Naples? Let's start from the fact that there are a lot of bones buried under Naples, as a result of Centurie...

This year I had the pleasure to assist to one of the most important event that opens the spring in Spain: Las Fallas de Valencia . In this article I am going to investigate which was the original meaning and see how it has transformed all over the centuries . Sacred and Secular Origins: The mixture between sacred and secular it has always been strong in Catholic countries. However, there are different hypothesis about the origin of Las Fallas festival. O ne suggests that the Fallas started in the Middle Ages , when artisans used to burn broken artifacts and pieces of wood that they saved during the winter in order to celebrate the Spring Equinox. Another one is that Valencian carpenters used some planks of wood called  parots  to hang their candles on during the winter. When spring came, they were no longer necessary, so they were burned. Over time, and with the intervention of the Church, the date of the burning of these  parots  was made to coinc...