Sicilian Culture

Literature and Language The official language spoken in Sicily Sicily is Italian even if the vast majority of local people also speak a Sicilian who, in spite of the UNESCO and other international organizations recognize as the language does not enjoy any form of protection from either the the Region of Sicily or the Italian state. The literature is very much alive throughout the centuries, initially by the court of Frederick II with his Sicilian school. Between 1230 and 1266 in the Swabian court developed the first illustrious vernacular worthy of the name. As its use remained confined to the Italian courts and literature, was revived after the Swabians Tuscan writers who were also heavily influenced by the prestige of the literary school, whose leader, Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the invention of the sonnet . Thanks also to the poetic style of the Sicilians, many of their words and expressions in the Tuscan illustrious passed, the Italian language.

Special thanks to great poets such as Giovanni Meli, Domenico Tempio, Mario Rapisarda and Ignazio Buttitta, writers such as Gesualdo Bufalino and Andrea Camilleri and dramatists such as Pier Maria Rosso di San Secondo, Nino Martoglio, Luigi Pirandello (Nobel Prize) and Luigi Capuana. We should also mention the likes of novelist Giovanni Verga and the same Capuana for realism, as well as Federico de Roberto, a native of Naples, but who lived in Catania (hometown of his family where he set his masterpiece, The Viceroy) , while a special mention goes to Pirandello, Leonardo Sciascia, Vitaliano Brancati and Ercole Patti for having revolutionized the novel of the twentieth century. Salvatore Quasimodo (Nobel Prize) was also a pioneer of Hermeticism. We also remember Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, famous for his historical novel The Leopard, portrait of the Risorgimento Sicily, and Elio Vittorini.

On the island there are also some linguistic minorities, few in number but very important, especially in terms of historical and linguistic. The cock-Sicilian dialect, for example, is a variation of the Sicilian, born in the Norman period. When a large revolt put at risk the throne of William the Bad, the king responded by defeating opponents. To maintain their status, however, brought from northern Italy many men loyal to him and transplanted them in the island. The linguistic islands began to be eroded in the twentieth century, and today only a dozen or so common (in the province of Messina and Enna) keep the tradition alive. The heart of this enclave is the city of Nicosia (Italy). Another important thing is that the Albanian minority, also called arbëreshë. The language of this community that lives in the province of Palermo (especially in the town of Piana degli Albanesi, Santa Cristina Gela and Countess Entellina) is an ancient dialect closely related to Albanian Albanian recognized by national law 482 of 15 December 1999 the protection of linguistic minorities. It is still kept alive thanks to a strong folk tradition and cultural institutions

Music
Francesco Paolo Frontini

Over the past four centuries, Sicily has given birth to illustrious representatives of the music world.

Among the first, in chronological order, are: the madrigal and Sigismondo d'India Toward Antonio, and operators Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Pacini, Vincenzo Bellini, Francesco Paolo Frontini, and Pietro Antonio Coppola Antonio Ticket, the contemporary Matteo Musumeci.

In the twentieth century, some composers have distinguished themselves in Sicily of avant-garde postweberniane: Girolamo Arrigo, Aldo Clementi, Salvatore Sciarrino, Francesco Pennisi, Roberto Carnevale, Federico Incardona, Marco Betta and Giovanni Sollima.

In the field of popular music is reminiscent of some leading figures in the landscape and Pop Rock national and international Giuni Russo, Franco Battiato, Gianni Bella, Marcella Bella, Carmen Consoli, Giusy Ferreri, Uzeda, Silvia Salemi, Barry Manilow, the Dye, Agricantus, Mario Venuti, Mario Biondi and Roy Paci, Fiorello, Toto Cutugno.
Giuni Russo


Traditions

A key part of the Sicilian tradition regards the oral histories collected in the nineteenth century by Giuseppe Pitre in the Library of Sicilian folk traditions. They range from cunti, to fairy tales, proverbs, tongue twisters to. The character stereotyped stooge is the protagonist of most of the stories that end with a moral.

Many of these stories have not yet been fully encoded. There are many legends (like the four of Gammazita, Pii Brothers, and Uzeta Colapesce) that have a variation in each city (the legend of Colapesce there are thirty-coded versions) would constitute a real Sicilian mythology [19].
"We need to fully understand the true, the great soul of our country. The main responsibility of this mission only because we feel we musicians in music and song we know Sicilian temper our true feelings. Remember that. "

(Francesco Paolo Frontini)

Sicilian folk traditions are many and varied, as there s'impressero and not a few divergent colonization. It is easy to remember, in fact, that the island was gradually dominated by Greeks, Latins, Byzantines and Arabs, Spanish and French, just to make the examples more handhelds. Of course, each Of this influence was exercised on the local ethnic group in a more or less generalized, amalgamating and clashing from time to time with pre-existing traditions, beginning with indigenous peoples. The Sicilian civilization and culture seem so spontaneous island, compared to similar fruit ripening in Sardinia and Corsica, but a wealth of features and best practices for a scholar. Just remember that the folklorist Giuseppe Pitre work in twenty-five volumes devoted to the folk traditions of this area, mixing with ethnographic descriptions relevance and historical perspectives.

In the domain of folk traditions include the spoken Sicilian, as has been the only group of the Italic dialects that preceded the Tuscan in raising the dignity of the literary lexicon, much to the leadership contender to it long enough, as the national language. In practice, in the Sicilian can distinguish different layers: a phonetic consonant will have meetings Horizon pre-Latin and others who apparently seem to the modern languages of the Balkan area. The etymology, however, refers to the Roman, Byzantine and especially the Arabs. For example, the Arabic "Gibel" (mountain) is a component of many place names: Gibilmanna, Mongibello Gibellina. We also have various provinces in which the idiomatic Sicilian shattered with local characteristics, and linguistic islands: and this applies to the colonies Albanians, mostly stationed in Peloritano, but also in Piana degli Albanesi (near Palermo), and the centers of Lombardy Nicosia, Sperlinga, Novara, San Fratello, Piazza Armerina and Aidone where local dialects reveal addentellati Gallo-Italic.

With regard to the popular literary heritage, it must be said that the island moves spontaneous conception within both literary themes as religious or moralistic on secular subjects, as in the case of the epic texts of the Carolingian cycle of the famous Puppet Theatre, the strambotti Sicily in the eighth, and the fables that appear as narrow in subject, always has an exemplary narrative development: initiation realistic input elements and well-graded factors superhuman or at least plausible, careful attention to detail, even in the most fantastic and Articulating a vivacity that never fails, is the most poignant love affairs or those stories that center around a sense of humor sometimes skimming the grotesque and the surreal.

Connect to the literary scene specific musical references, is that now we will look, also pointing to certain choral events. As part of the invention composition stand out quite a few components that seem to originate from the Hellenic musicality. The Sicilian melody, for example, tends to descend from high, indeed dall'acutissimo the grave. In addition, from area to area, there is a change characteristic of the scales used, each of which rises to the dignity of the "motto of the country, but who regularly connect to the ancient Greek modes. This applies also to the technique of the variation that is highly melismatic (blooms on a syllable or vowel sounds of text), but as often incorporate these ornaments below the semitone intervals it follows that they may derive as much from "chroai" such as enharmonic Hellenic ranges Arab, rich, indeed, of such intervals. The bottom-up "Saracens" in the way we do also hear the intonation of his voice, always tense and bitter. The Hellenic cultural horizon reappears in the main instrument of the island, namely in the "Mariolu", similar to the ancient "lyra", even for the healing powers that are attributed to its sound. The art of music is also present in the manifestations of faith, for example, with songs of joy in the representations of the crib "living" in Ciancina (Girgenti, Agrigento), and with mourning, backed by drums and wind instruments, in the story of the Passion of Christ , which takes place in action, in the province of Enna.

In complex expressions referred to above binds the interpretative art of the storyteller. At one time, it had assets of two major groups: the street singers themselves, devoted to ballads of chivalry and the profane stories, and "blind" (the blind), specializing in stories and songs, and whose religious nomadism, for obvious reasons, was limited to the surrounding places of pilgrimage or to the provinces. Today, the first still survive, but the beginning of the century, their role has been progressively depleted: first the influence of music "consumer" and turn to the subject of the news modern, mostly "black", factors affecting them have been uprooted from the soil deeper than tradition, and more recently, due to a process of intellectualization all external and dominated, not infrequently, by stress of petty politics.

No less interesting inventions choreography, the context in which it has particular relevance to the "rope dance", certainly heir to an ancient fertility dance, how to leave cause the execution time (May Festival) and the foundations of his figures. The rope dance, in fact, takes place around a pole, hanging down from the top of multicolored strings: I remember clearly stylized tree full of flowers. Codest tapes must be governed by the free end of each performer's right hand and twisted during the dance. The center has a kind of dance that is the prerogative of Petralia Sottana, in the province of Palermo. Among the remaining forms choreographic island must remember: the old Sicilian, pastoral character dance, moving moderate cut in time 6 / 8, 12 / 8 or 6 / 4, which entered the realm of classical music and funeral dances, almost disappeared, which was very popular in the "suites" or "sonatas" (also lends itself to vocal music and was always one of the favorite forms by musicians, so that is not only in works of the last century, but also in chamber works of modern authors).

The world of beliefs and legends, in various ways, is akin to the fable heritage, poetic and musical just outlined above, can often play the primary source. As in almost all Italian regions, there can be traced components pagan and Christian, more or less commingled, and superstitions that affect all aspects of human life. Messina and Palermo in that area, for example, is still alive the memory of Cola Pesce, but many other characters of aquatic nature use a bit 'all over the island's folklore. According to a legend was a fisherman living in Messina in the age of Emperor Frederick II (XIII), half-man half-fish: his metamorphosis would have been the result of a curse of his mother, tired of watching his son go all his days in the sea. The ability of swimmer Cola and its strange appearance would have intrigued the Emperor, who had traveled to Messina, it was called, and threw a cup or a ring into the sea, I would invite him to bring it back. Cola would obey him, but Frederick had wanted to repeat the test would no longer be returned to the surface. Apart from the most popular flavors of classical origin, we can report here the siren that every year, according to the old belief in Modica (Ragusa) in the night between 24 and January 25, emerges from the bottom of the sea with a gentle hand and ready to predict the future who knows how to approach her. Images and more reasons there are also worrying in recurrence or otherwise of specific dates. So Capodarso (Caltanissetta) It seems that at least once a year to play a real "proud" of spirits, near a bridge built by Charles V and at which it sells, among other things, fruit that is going to be gold, the next day. At Termini Imerese (Palermo) is a deep-rooted myth that Salome, the daughter of Herodias, was to lead, in time, in this latter shores in search of atonement for the death of John the Baptist, which she caused, so he built a church in memory of the martyr, but as soon as it was finished it emerged from the bowels of the earth a river of blood that dried up all around. The fine would have been sinful then drowned in these waves. As soon as it happened - the legend continues - the blood Giuma sank underground. But every year, on the night of the vigil of St. John, enchantment, Salome and the course of blood will reappear at the surface, stopping every flicker of life, until, in the morning, the sun disk, bearing the decapitated head of John the Baptist, not Salome and their forces again to return the river to the underworld. Similarly, a note talking about a hidden treasure buried in a cave and guarded by the ghosts of "infidels" that there had buried in Sciacca, handed down a dark history of blood which includes the repeated resurrection of the dead, for the purpose of revenge, and so on. The view of active beliefs is no less rich in references to pre-Christian times. For example, annual gifts to the children went to commemorate the return of the dead in the first few nights of November. In those days in the local pastry chefs are using packaged cakes, said just the "dead", the macabre subject: skeletons, skulls and bones. The practice in question and particularly strong in the Palermo and Catania. The feast of Saint Lucia (December 13), and the days immediately following, until the eve of Christmas, they are required to take auspicious horoscopes progress of the forthcoming new year. The Epiphany, finally, is widely regarded as the first day of Carnival. About festivities also deserves to be remembered the ride the Giant and the Giant held in Messina on the day of Ferragosto, the Feast of the Assumption, as opposed to the procession of the "vara": building a pyramid adorned with pictures of angels and that goes to the top of the statue of the Madonna and Christ. Equivocal Christian character has, however, the "devil" of Adrano (Catania): a sacred drama which sees the victorious battle against the Archangel Michael legions of devils and against death itself. Of course, the same applies to the popular celebrations of the patron saint of Palermo Santa Rosalia, commemorated in three different dates, on 11 January, July 15 and September 14, with massive processions and giant "Vare", similar to the "vara" Messina. On a higher plane, one also with votive tablets kept in the sanctuary of Trecastagni (Catania).

In respect of certain aspects of culture ergologica well known is the island's typical high-wheel cart, usually carved and painted with scenes that are inspired by stories of chivalry, told by the storytellers and the Puppet Theatre. On the origins of this means of locomotion is no shortage of discussions among the specialists of the century. Joseph Cocchiara has shown that the island's road system could not allow the emergence of this form if not in full eighteenth century. However the earliest examples have survived until the cart does not go back to Sicily, as a rule, more than half of last century. In the specimens back in time carving ornaments and paintings can be a sacred subject, instead of "Carolingian". It is not certain, however, this distinction iconological to ensure their antiquity. As for the spontaneous architecture observe that it comes fully a part of the "Mediterranean style" typical of the entire South. Here and there, however, whether or s'individuano or individual buildings shaped trulli.

Two words are finally expressed on the costumes. Also in this area are clear enough evidence with the other regions of the south of the peninsula. The woman's dress, in fact, shape and color resembles that of Calabria and Sardinia, varying of course according to ages and occasions. The same is true for the male costume, the more severe and characterized by broad-colored bands running belt.


The Sicilian

Popular traditions, along with the ancient culture and the use of the Sicilian language, are still alive, more countries than in the cities. These traditions, such as picturesque details, together with the character, the myth and the approach to the life of Siciliano has created over the centuries a stereotype that has been translated into words by the end of Sicily.

Cicero marked the Sicilians as "acute and suspicious people, born to the dispute." Until now, many authors have identified a common feature of the behavior of the Sicilians, of course subjective, but probably not entirely untrue. There are many other relevant characteristics of the Sicilians: the high sense of family and honor, respect for women and femininity, but also attachment to their land, the theatricality of the gestures and acts, the sense of ' welcome, mistrust, etc. ... All this has led some scholars consider the Sicilian people as an ethnic group separately, taking into account the culture and aspects of everyday life so different from the rest of Italy.

The Sicilian family usually form a much broader group that also includes the more distant cousins, but it is rarely closed in on itself. It is widely used to make large tables for lunch or dinner, especially in summer. The times have moved a little 'ahead of the north, coming to dine at two o'clock in the afternoon and dinner around 9:00 to 10:00 in summer. We tend to hold back a bit 'more to the table after having eaten dinner.

Gesualdo Bufalino Sicily called the land of "light and mourning," a place of contradictions, of extremes come together: the Sicilian imagination as a man looks like sunny and welcoming but also sinister and suspicious, convinced that his way of 'to be both the best and fairest. With this content Tomasi di Lampedusa declared in his famous novel The Leopard that "Sicily is change so that nothing changes, because they are the same in Sicily to seek change, but at the same time to stop it, fearing that it could topple the secular habits and privileges acquired.

A land and a place at the same time complex and anthropologically fascinating to discover: cinema, literature and the arts in general. The sometimes tragic sense of destiny but also of pride and attachment to their land and to his roots is also demonstrated in the literature. Notable is the picture left to us by Giovanni Verga, leader of realism, the so-called Cycle of the vanquished, a collection that includes The Malavoglia. While the cult of the "stuff", good material obtained from land and labor should be adjusted so sacred but also the sense of family, people who want to change the world are punished by ill fortune, which obliges them to return to the starting point , to their land and their roots.

The commercial enterprise Malavoglia guilty of wishing to depart from their country, shall be punished with the sinking of the boat that carries the load of lupins, which condemns them to poverty even more than that from which they tried to escape. Mastro Don Gesualdo became so famous a building contractor from scratch but do not get to enjoy the fruits of his labor that eventually goes to the family legacy. Verga's bitter reflection on life: he, too, once you reach the Wellness Centre, is in his beloved North rifugerà from Catania, where, disenchanted by life, will pass his last years.

Singularity of attitudes are found in other Sicilian: Mario and Giuseppe Aurelio Costanzo Rapisardi, poets guilty, according to the criticism of Benedetto Croce, for transforming the poem into "sociological essay. In the poems, the two poets, who make the complaint not an end in itself but is combined to great ideals: social justice, the need for change, rebellion against an unjust social order, which symbolically represents the class of the poor and oppressed in the work of other writers in Sicily is only able to put aside .
Religious Festivals
The cart full of roses of St. Rosalia paraded through the streets of Palermo in 2008

The Catholic religious feasts are very important in the folklore of Sicily. The feast of Santa Rosalia in Palermo, one of Sant'Agata in Catania, the Madonna of the Letter to Messina, that of Holy Week in Caltanissetta, that of Saint Lucia in Syracuse, San Giorgio in Ragusa Ibla, processions of Good Friday Ghost in Enna, a procession of passion living in Marsala, and the procession of the Mysteries in Trapani.

Other important festivals are:

* The party Sant'Alfio Lentini
* The feast of San Sebastiano Acireale
* The feast of San Giacomo in Caltagirone
* The feast of Our Lady of the Visitation in Enna
* The feast of St. Joseph in Santa Maria di Licodia
* The Festival of San Calogero Agrigento
* The feast of the Holy Savior of the Transfiguration in Cefalù

Secular parties

Carnival is celebrated with events in Sicily among the most beautiful and characteristic national enough to participate in the Carnival of Viareggio, particularly notes are those of Paternò, Valderice, Acireale, Misterbianco, Sciacca, Termini Imerese and carnival Regalbuto, high expressions of folklore and carefree.


Puppet Show

In 2001 she was included among the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO the Puppet Show, the Sicilian puppet theater. With cuntastorie, the puppets, which represent the characters of the Carolingian cycle, enact the stories of the Chanson de Roland, Orlando Furioso and the Jerusalem Delivered. The main character is the knight Orlando, but there is also room for Rinaldo, Angelica and others. Puppet is the cradle of Palermo, where there are many theaters as well as a museum and a school known as that of Cuticchio, another important center is Acireale, baroque town, which this art flourished thanks to the many teachers puppeteers, including the famous Emanuele Macri, who has dedicated his namesake museum-theater, where daily, you can attend performances of master puppeteers.


Gestures

Deserves a separate chapter in the gestures marked the Sicilians, who typed them in the world (often associated, in error, intrinsic to an alleged mafia). Fostering a concept with gestures is inherent in the Sicilian culture since ancient times, the reason is likely to be found in its cultural and commercial relations with the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean since ancient times. The great Scrambling languages and peoples has certainly increased the use of gestures to better understand it is in fact quite natural, when you are not well understood among people of different language, using gestures to accentuate the clarity of dialogue. Some put forward the hypothesis that the origin of this parallel language there was the need to communicate with young people: a time, the restrictions they imposed a distance between boys and girls made it necessary to create a series of signs that clearly defined help design meetings or simply to exchange ideas. The place of choice for these discussions was the silent church.

Pitre also dealt with the Sicilian gesture, collecting all possible information to Customs, beliefs and prejudices of the people of Sicily (1889). Among the various information, reports the legend that tells of a king who arrived in Sicily, wants to test two of his subjects on the supposed ability to communicate without words. The two subjects, taken aback, they pass the test and cause great wonder in the sovereign. The gesture is said to be one of the aspects of theatricality of Sicily, one of many ways to demonstrate the need to act and give vent to creativity [20].
Education
Façade of the former Benedictine monastery, which houses two faculties of the University of Catania.

In 1434 the first university was founded in Sicily: Siciliae Studium Generale, today simply University of Catania. The father of the university culture Sicilian Alfonso V of Aragon, who sponsored the birth of the study in Catania. Ignatius of Loyola, however, was to found, in 1548 the University of Messina University. Are there more recently established the University of Palermo (1805) to which is added the Kore-Enna (2005) Semi-private, is also present, Palermo and Caltanissetta, there are two sites of LUMSA. In total, the three largest public universities in the semi-Enna count of about 180,000 members.

Sicilian university levels are not high. A study of the Republic of Censis-2005 (not including Enna because they are still being established) classifies Palermo (63,400 subscribers) and Catania (50,700 subscribers) between the mega universities, that is, with over 40,000 members, while Messina (39,600 subscribers) is placed between the universities average between 40,000 and 20,000 members. The study continues a series of evaluations based on four fields (the student services, scholarships, facilities and the web) to establish a ranking of each group of universities. Palermo is ranked 7 th (tied with the University of Bari), while Catania is 10 º out of eleven mega universities. Messina is 15 º instead of 18. In the first two cases, the structures to determine the lower grades (grades, one hundred and ten, respectively 71 and 76, the lowest in the group), while Messina is lacking especially as regards services (74).

He followed the same criterion for each option, which involves ranking, however, all universities. If you exclude those not evaluated, the faculty often use in the last few places in Sicily: all three for the Economy (Catania, Palermo and Messina), Messina and Catania for Medicine and Surgery, the only Messina for Education Science, again the couple Messina-Catania Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences, Political Science and Palermo to Messina for Statistical Sciences. The option seems the best science of the formation of Palermo, which is the sixth largest national 89.4/110.