Italian Superstitions E-Book

Andrea Malossini

• Herausgeber: Andrea Malossini
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

We are all superstitious, even those who affirm the opposite. Superstition is natural, it resides in all of us: it represents the human answer to rare, singular, and mysterious phenomena.All that cannot be explained or resolved in a logical manner disturbs the human spirit, promoting many to devise remedies that, while irrational, can restore hope and security. It is fear, therefore, that generates, feeds, and preserves superstition. Not surprisingly, religion with its dogmas, natural phenomena with its mysteries, and life’s cycle with its uncertainties, have always been a source of superstitious beliefs.Andrea Malossini’s book – which collects over one thousand superstitious – reports, in an orderly manner, Italian superstitious beliefs along with a brief description of their origin and mening.The intent is to give the reader an idea of ​​Italian superstitions, in a smooth and easy way, hoping, thanks to the suggestion in the titles, to arouse curiosity. This small book is therefore not necessarily devoted to superstitious people, but to all of those who, perhaps out of habit, want to know why, when they see an upside down piece of bread on the table, they turn it over, or why, not being happy to have spilled some oil, they also throw a handful of salt over their shoulder.AuthorA firmly convinced rationalist and agnostic, Andrea Malossini is not superstitious and does not believe in the absurd and irrational rites suggested by superstitions. Luckily, he was born on a Thursday, of an even year, of a non-leap year, and apprentice on a Wednesday, therefore, undoubtedly, born under the best omens. Maybe for this reason- and for his inexhaustible curiosity towards the things that appear to the many as strange, mysterious and incomprehensible- he has been studying, collecting and writing for many years on topics regarding superstition and witchcraft without the fear of being charmed by them. Among the very few superstitions that he grants himself- more to keep family-peace than anything else- there are the never upside-down bread on the table and never place the hat on the bed rules. On the subject of popular traditions he cooperated with several newspapers and periodicals. He was the author of the moon weekly almanac on the Sunday television program “Linea Verde” broadcasted on Rai Uno; today he is the author and voice of the weekly column “Lune e Cieli” broadcasted live on the Television station TeleSanterno- Odeon TV. He published over ten books for the publishing company Garzanti , A.Vallardi e Area51 Publishing, among which: “Manuale di stregoneria” (Witchcraft Manual), “Le ricette delle streghe” (Witches Recipes), “Breve storia delle streghe” Witches: a brief history), “Dizionario delle superstizioni italiane” (Dicionary of Italian superstitions), “Gli unti del Signore” (God’s Anointed), “Dizionario dei Santi patroni”(Dictionary of Patron Saints).

Leseprobe

Andrea Malossini

ITALIAN SUPERSTITIONS

Translated from the Italian by Marta Masotti

Over 1000 prejudices and beliefs

© 2013 Andrea Malossini

First ebook edition: march 2013

Translated from the Italian by Marta Masotti

Review and adaptation by Elisa Farinacci

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ISBN 978-88-908458-3-3

Superstitious people act irrationally and absurdly, but without doubt, help in keeping away bad luck

Andrea Malossini

Preface

The history of superstition runs parallel to that of man. Many argue that man’s natural fear for rare, unique and mysterious phenomena is the origin of superstition. All that cannot be explained or resolved in a logical manner disturbs the human spirit, promoting many to devise remedies that, while irrational, can restore hope and security. 

It is fear, therefore, that generates, feeds and preserves superstition. Not surprisingly, religion with its dogmas, natural phenomena with its mysteries and life’s cycle with its uncertainties, have always been a source of superstitious beliefs. 

The origin of the term “superstition” is somewhat uncertain. The word derives from the Latin superstitio, which can be interpreted in various ways. For some authors superstition indicates something that is beyond religion (super-sisto), for others it is something that survives (superstes) as an attitude that is not accepted by religion or by the official culture. Still others believe that superstes indicates a witness or a survivor of a past event; not so much as an individual, but as a ritual or a prejudice. In fact, superstitions are nothing more than the "survivors" of the battle waged between common sense and rationality in a scientific world vision and in a developing civilization. 

The term superstitio, already in use among the Romans, had a pejorative meaning and was opposed to the word religio (from re-legere, meaning to reunite or to gather together, to appropriately perform rites according to the standards). Superstition was conceived as a degenerative form of religion, exaggerated, unnecessary and unrelated to religion itself. For this reason, especially in the Middle Ages, the Church tried to reject and repress it, seeing in superstition the survival of paganism. Authors such as Calvin and Luther also considered the rituals and beliefs of the Catholic Church to be superstitious, as indeed they are in the eyes of followers of other religions.

In the modern world, superstitions are instead viewed with tolerance and regarded with irony. They are no longer challenged by the Church and not even ignored by rationalists. Most people rich or poor, educated or ignorant, sometimes when depressed, sometimes just out of curiosity, succumb to the temptation of buying a small amulet, of knocking on wood, or of changing directions when they encounter a black cat. Many people find themselves even repeating unnecessary and often ridiculous gestures, just because their parents did so and before them their grandparents, being totally unaware of the real reasons and the significance of these actions.

On the subject of superstition, the Italian philosopher and politician, Benedetto Croce, perhaps in a moment of weakness, said: “It may not be true, but I’ll take my precautions,” a statement that says a lot about how Italians think about the subject. Peppino de Filippo, responding to the philosopher’s remark, similarly named his amusing comedy “It's not true, but I believe it.” This is the Italian idea of superstition. The primitive "you never know," frequently arises in the behavior of each one of us. If the Italian man is the superstitious par excellence, Italy is then his homeland. In Italy, in fact, superstition has found fertile ground to grow and survive the changes of time. The fatalism, the joy and the imagination of the Italian people have turned superstition into popular culture, insomuch as, from being a subject studied and analyzed by theologians and religious people, it is now mainly taken into account by folklorists. 

The first work on the topic, which ideally marks the passage of competences between religion and popular traditions, is that of the French priest Jean-Baptiste Thiers, "Traité des superstitions." Written in 1679, it gathered all the practical beliefs considered excessive, vain or sacrilegious. In a stunning mix of contemporary superstitions and classic Church sources, the abbot, perhaps without meaning to, pointed out the separation of superstition from the concept of "deviation from religion." Superstitions, according to Thiers, are, in fact, a synthesis of rural traditions, enlivened with elements of folk medicine. The book was such a great success, that even after his death, it continued to be reprinted and updated.

The best method for studying superstition was inadvertently given by Napoleon Bonaparte. The General from Corsica, never battled on Fridays, and around 1811, knowing how important it was to have accurate information on the social status of the population for a valid governmental action, he promoted and launched a major investigation on the folklore present in all of the one hundred and thirty Departments of the Empire. In order to have information on the traditional life and customs of the people in his Empire, the Celtic Academy prepared questionnaires which were then sent to the prefects, mayors and prelates. The investigation also reached all of the twenty-four Italian Departments, whose functionaries answered and returned data and correspondence. For decades the results of this investigation remained hidden, but at the end of the nineteenth century, people like Pitre, Osterman, Finamore, De Gubernatis, and Ferraro, understood how important the material was for studying Italian folklore. Thanks to Napoleon’s investigation, Bellucci, wrote an interesting book on the rediscovered traditions of the Romagna Region. As a consequence, accurate studies and surveys flourished around the subject of superstition. Documents written at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are of great interest in that they have preserved an intact genuineness, not yet contaminated by progress and by urbanization. 

The material that I gathered to write this book was taken almost exclusively from the texts of that period and mostly from articles collected in the Archive for the study of popular traditions, directed by the Sicilian physician and ethnographer Giuseppe Pitré. I purposely avoided all recent literature, not only because it often has monomania connotations (almost all dictionaries on superstition have an Anglo-Saxon origin), but also because in those books, Italian superstitions are almost never separated from the foreign ones, much less do they distinguish regional variations. The superstitions that I took into consideration are linked to local situations and to specific places referable to the Italian territory. While I realize that superstitious phenomenon cannot be dismissed without a thorough phenomenological examination of the problems dealing with religious, moral and psychological interests, I have limited my research to superstitious Italian beliefs, describing briefly their origin and meaning. 

The intent is to give the reader an idea of ​​Italian superstitions, in a smooth and easy way, hoping, thanks to the suggestion in the titles, to arouse curiosity. This small book is therefore not necessarily addressed to superstitious people, but to all of those who, perhaps out of habit, want to know why, when they see an upside down piece of bread on the table promptly turn it over, or why, upset to have spilled some oil, throw a handful of salt over their shoulder.