Daily Archives: May 11, 2015

Assisi’s Calendimaggio: Una Festa di Amore

Yes, Assisi’s early May Calendimaggio festival IS – above all – a festival of love: an ebullient demonstration of the love that all the assisani have for their annual celebration of the birth of spring. A young journalist from Assisi, announced the winner of the festival even before the jury did. The day before the…

Calendimaggio: A Blessed Beginning

There’s a single religious moment in Assisi’s four-day medieval celebration of spring, rooted in pagan rituals: the blessing of the banners of the town’s two rival factions, la Parte de Sopra (“Upper Assisi”) and la Parte de Sotto (“Lower Assisi”). All the partaioli of Lower Assisi, gathered at the Basilica of San Francesco for the…