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Rituals

TAG

• Badalisc
• Calendar rites
• Mask
• Parade
• Traditional costume
• Wild man

WHERE

Cevo (BS), Lombardia - Italy

The search of Badalisc takes place yearly with routes changing every year. Whatever the route it always leads to the balcony in front of the Town Hall of the town.

WHEN

5th January

Badalisc of Andrista

Every year the night between 5th and 6th of January in Andrista the Badalisc is captured and brought to the town square where the community gathers to listen to its speech.
A group of men meets late at night in a quiet place on the outskirts of town to dress up. A few women gather around to help them with their costumes. With the help of capes, shawls, skirts and wigs they transform in old men, women and old maids. To finish they wear masks with scary traits of wrinkles and white hair and beards.
Once ready they start the search - a real dramatization of the hunt - with a torch in hand. The masks yell, run, comment on the hunt and incite in dialect running around the street of the town. The frenetic search comes to end only once the hiding place of the Badalisc is found and the monster is forced to come out.
According to the tradition the Badalisc is a mytological being living in the forests of Valle Camonica. The costume is made with cow hides, goat horns, beaming eyes and a big mouth. In the period of Epiphany the monster hides in one of the stables of the town, every year choosing a different hiding place.
Once the Badalisc is found it is bound with a rope and dragged by the procession to the centre of town up to a balcony in front of the Town Hall that faces the main square. To make way to the monster as it moves towards the main square, two masks throw water on the ground cleaning it with brooms. A procession of women, men and children follows the monster accompanied by an accordion player.
Once on the balcony, one of the masks receives a speech on a piece of paper from the Badalisc and reads it on its behalf to the people below. The speech is written in dialect and it rhymes. It contains gossip, memorable stories from the past year and political events presented in a light manner and with satire. Once the speech is over the festivity continues with dances and polenta inside. The spell is broken, the Badalisc has lost its powers and no one is afraid of it anymore. Somebody jokingly invites it to dance and a little after the monster is displayed in a corner of the room.

PROTECTIVE MEASURES

The Badalisc of Andrista is a member of R.E.I.L. (Registro delle Eredità Immateriali Lombarde), a project of appreciating, protecting and promoting the cultural property, traditional knowledge and ritual practices of the region of Lombardy.

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To learn more

Material resources

Costume of the Badalisc

Produced by

Regione Lombardia - Archivio di Etnografia e Storia Sociale - Giulia La Marca

Release Date

12-SET-2013 (Giulia La Marca)

Last update

04-NOV-2014 (Fabia Apolito)

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