In Naples for the Day of the Dead

Sorrento, 2014

Yesterday we said goodbye to Rosa and Simone who were making the long journey south from just outside Milan to Naples.

It is a journey they have taken each year since they left Naples in the summer of 1960.

And it has nothing to do with holidays or getting away from the increasingly cooler weather of the north of Italy but simply to celebrate the dead.

The Festival of the Day of the Dead is not unique to Italy; our Saul will be taking part in a similar festival with his partner and her family in Warsaw.

Now to many it may seem macabre but it has its roots deep in our common culture and predates Christianity.

If I have understood it correctly the dead return to the living on the night between the first and second of November and stay until Epiphany.

Naples, 1890

On the first night the family will include some of the favourite dishes of their loved ones, and after the main meal set the table again with fresh plates for those who will be returning.

Like so many rituals surrounding death and the loss of family members it plays its part in both honouring the departed and helping ease the pain.

It is more widely followed in the south than the north and I guess for some Italians today it is just a holiday, but for Simone and Rosa it has a special meaning.

Naples, 1890

And maybe one year, sooner rather than later we will join them if only to avoid the over hyped banal and commercialised event which is Halloween.

As things go I know which I prefer.



Pictures; The Via R. Reginaldo Giuliani, 2014, Sorrento from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Naples circa 1890, from Napoli coom’era, 2013, courtesy of the publishers, Intra Mo