#MESSINA

[alien-bottle]

delicioso

[theworldatwar]

US troops advance down a war ravaged street - Messina, Sicily 1943

[ghminerals]

Quartz point with inclusions everywhere. Ajoite, Copper, Hematite, Epidote. Messina mine South Africa 6.5 inch tall. Long side car. CE label

https://goldenhourminerals.etsy.com/listing/1280079650

[wandering-italy]

Just a random church I walked into. Santa Maria dello Spirito Santo, in Messina, Sicily

Feb 28, 2024

[wandering-jana]

Views of Messina, Sicily. Thankfully the storm waited until lunch to start being gross.

Feb 28, 2024

[ciccio72]

Messina e il suo splendido Duomo

[drrestlesshate]

Jean-Pierre Houël - Messina, Festa della Vara

[solosepensi]

La natura non è un posto da visitare.

E’ casa nostra.

Home!

[calabria-mediterranea]

The Festival of the Giants in Catanzaro, Calabria, Italy

A glimpse of i giganti at a Sicilian or Calabrian festival is a treat for all ages. But who are these folkloric giants – the golden-haired damsel and her dark-skinned suitor – and what are their origins? Just as the evocative figures float and whirl through the streets, their history entwines actual events and colorful myth to create the intriguing tradition.

The legend of the giganti is generally thought to originate in Messina, the northeastern Sicilian city that is separated from Calabria in the toe of the mainland by the aptly named Strait of Messina. Some accounts tell of a beautiful peasant girl, others of a local princess, but whatever her social position, the young maiden came from a virtuous, Christian family. Her name was Marta, or Mata in dialect. One day around 970 A.D. during the period of the Saracen invasions, a very tall Arab named Hassass Ibn-Hammar came ashore with his men to pillage the city. Upon seeing the lovely Mata, the prince asked for her hand in marriage. She refused, causing him to plunder all the more.

In the picture: THE IMPRESSIVELY GIANT GIGANTI IN MESSINA, SICILY

As a good Catholic, Mata resorted to prayer. Some stories tell of her kidnapping, but whether voluntarily or by force, she eventually capitulated and fell in love with the Muslim prince when he converted to Christianity and gave up his barbaric ways. He subsequently changed his name to Grifo and came to be known as Grifone due to his noteworthy physical stature. (The suffix -one denotes largeness in Italian.)

Across the Strait of Messina in Calabria, the giganti are constructed of papier-mâché and rest on the shoulders of their handlers.

Hidden under the giants’ skirts with a face hole to help guide their way, the puppeteers engage in a dance of courtship – the swarthy, mustached Saracen versus the fair, rosy-cheeked girl next door.  Fast footwork to the step of the tarantella conducts the couple through turns, inclinations and other gestures that draw them ever nearer and lead to an embrace or kiss to the delight of the crowd.

The ballo is accompanied by the incessant beating of drums that not only requires great stamina from the puppeteers, but has even inspired legends.

Calabria and Sicily share the giganti as they share the Strait and histories plagued with foreign incursion and domination. The ballo of Mata and Grifone is commonly viewed as a representation of the struggle between Islam and Catholicism. In festive atmospheres throughout the regions, the conflict is peacefully resolved, the people emerge victoriously, liberty is preserved and everyone has a good time. Long histories and engaging folkloric traditions come together to form part of a rich cultural fabric in which i giganti play an important part, both enlightening and entertaining the generations of today and tomorrow.

Video by Giganti Varapodio RC Profilo

Written by Karen Haid

Follow us on Instagram, @calabria_mediterranea

[sciatu]

SPIAGGIA SENZA SOLE

Una spiaggia senza sole è come una chitarra senza corde un libro senza parole un sogno che non ricordiamo. Eppure, in questo giorno atono senza luce e voci lungo il freddo bagnasciuga qualcuno osserva le onde raccoglie sassi colorati segue le navi scivolare nel blu ascolta ed il vento scuotere nervoso ombrelloni chiusi, barche arenate. Qualcuno insiste testardo ad amare questo mare ora inutile perché la ogni spiaggia è come il bordo della vita vive indifferente e instancabile nutrendo vite ai margini con una forza vitale indomabile come la speranza degli uomini. Per questo c’è sempre qualcuno lungo il suo grigiore infinito, forse i sognatori, o i coraggiosi o forse i più incoscienti ma sicuramente i più innamorati sedotti da questa instancabile distesa da questa liquida energia immortale come la vita. Qualcuno che sa attendere il sole che aspetta che voci e colori tornino sulla sabbia scolorita. Qualche folle, instancabile amante qualcuno presente per vocazione a ribadire speranze e illusioni malgrado le nubi basse ed il vento gelido. Qualcuno che crede nel domani qualche invincibile profeta fermo e risoluto nel suo amore. Così bisogna credere nella vita fedeli ai suoi domani, drogati delle sue pure certezze malgrado le bombe malgrado le stragi la fame ed il dolore qualche poeta inutile qualche cantante da strada o un pittore cieco deve confermare che malgrado tutto la felicità appartiene alla vita che il dolore, come il grigiore è un vestito provvisorio, che la speranza ora assente è come il mare indomabile che la vita è inarrestabile e che le sue onde infinite vincono il nulla, donano nuovi giorni generano altra vita malgrado tutto il dolore malgrado tutte le guerre ed i silenzi, le lacrime che noi uomini ogni giorno doniamo al nostro futuro.

A beach without sun is like a guitar without strings, a book without words, a dream we don't remember. Yet, on this toneless day, without light and voices, along the cold shore, someone observes the waves, collects colored stones he follows the ships sliding into the blue, he listens and the wind shake nervously, umbrellas closed, boats stranded. Someone stubbornly insists on loving this now useless sea, because every beach is like the edge of life, living indifferent and tireless, nourishing lives on the margins, with an indomitable vital force like the hope of men. For this reason there is always someone, along its infinite greyness, perhaps the dreamers, or the brave or perhaps the most reckless, but certainly the most in love, seduced by this tireless expanse from this liquid energy, immortal like life. Someone who knows how to wait for the sun, who waits for voices and colors to adorn the faded sand. Some crazy, tireless lover, someone present by vocation, to reiterate hopes and illusions, despite the low clouds and the freezing wind. Someone who believes in tomorrow, some invincible prophet, firm and resolute in his love for him. This is how we must believe in life, faithful to his tomorrows, addicted to his pure certainties. despite the bombs, despite the massacres, the hunger and the pain, some useless poet, some street singer, or a blind painter, must confirm that despite everything, happiness belongs to life, that pain, like greyness, is a dress temporary, that hope is now absent, is like the indomitable sea that life is unstoppable and that its infinite waves overcome nothingness, they give new days, they generate new life despite all the pain, despite all the wars and silences, the tears, which we men give to our future every day.

[superfuji]

il progetto del ponte sullo Stretto rappresenta un grande inganno a danno dell’intera comunità nazionale e una forma di inganno becero perché le conseguenze di un progetto del genere potrebbero essere devastanti da molti punti di vista, in particolar modo per Calabria e Sicilia

Messina: l’inganno del ponte

[postcard-from-the-past]

Lighthouse in Messina, Sicily, Italy

Italian vintage postcard

[italiasparita]

Messina. Palazzo del Granchio

[jkrikis]

messina  / sicily series 170

© 2022  Yiannis Krikis

[wandering-jana]

Cathedral of Messina, Sicily.

Feb 28, 2024

[wgm-beautiful-world]

M E S S I N A