IT
"Lu Ciancialone" and the legend of San Leone
Lu Cencialon (Il Ciancialone) takes place during the feast of San Leone, patron saint of Silvi, on the last Sunday of May.
It is a traditional festival that originated in the 14th century and commemorates the defeat that the citizens inflicted on the Turkish invaders. According to the legend, a Saracen ship had plundered the small port of Cerrano, located at the foot of the hill of Silvi Paese and once ashore, the invaders would have headed towards the village of Silvi to make further loot. At the sight of this, a young man named Leone took a torch and started running towards the invaders: the more the young man advanced, the stronger the light became.
The light emanated became so strong that the Saracens believed they had an entire army running towards them, for this reason they decided not to risk losing the loot conquered up to that moment and beat a retreat towards the sea.
For centuries the patron saint of Silvi had been Santissimo Salvatore, to whom the romanesque church is also dedicated.
The cult of San Leone began to spread in the town in the fifteenth century, when a colony of Dulcignotti ( people from Dulcigno, a town of Montenegro) settled there. They had been called to repopulate this territory in a phase of demographic decline by the dukes of Acquaviva. The Dulcignotti introduced the devotion to San Leone ( identifiable as Saint Leo martyr of Mira) which soon spread and reached its climax with the miraculous event of this defeat of the Turks, when he was elevated to the new patron of Silvi.
The construction of the Ciancialone (a big bonfire made of dried reeds) takes place on the day of the festival, when the local youths take care to collect as many reeds as possible which will then be squeezed together to form the giant bundle. This operation requires great care and precision, since the success of the undertaking depends on the solidity of the beam.
The re-enactment takes place on the evening of the last Sunday in May when the Ciancialone is brought into position and raised in Piazza Largo della Porta, between the church of San Salvatore and the road that goes around the medieval village of Silvi Paese. The crowd of villagers helps to lift the bundle of reeds by pulling ropes from several sides and propping up it with ladders, until it reaches its final position and is secured.
Once the Ciancialone is in position, a local youth (preferably named Leone) climbs onto the structure and lights it up. From this moment on, people celebrate, dance and eat traditional foods such as porchetta, arrosticini, fried pizzas, accompanied by a glass of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo or ice-cold beer. The bonfire burns itself out, signaling the end of the night of celebration
The Ciancialone is one of the many traditions of Abruzzo that represents an example of how popular culture is intertwined with religion and local history.
