Explore the best of our Abruzzo Event calendar this week and this month with our handy list of sagre, feste and events in Chieti, Pescara, Teramo and L’Aquila provinces. Click on any of the map’s pins to discover each fun-filled Abruzzo event that is local to you or deserving of a road trip! Alternatively, on the desktop version, scroll through the event flyers on the right and click thru to discover the event’s full details.
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To read our reviews of events and regional-wide events click here and a list of the key sagre in Abruzzo.
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Atri – La Notte dei Faugni
Thursday 7 December 2023 @ 19:30 - Friday 8 December 2023 @ 19:30 CET
Atri holds an all-night spectacular fire rite celebration on the 7th December known as La Notte dei Faugni. This is an ancient, agricultural tradition, the “Fauni Ignis”, the fires of Fauno, when they city streets become “rivers of fire”, and celebrate the ancient and traditional custom of lighting fires during the period preceding the winter solstice to defeat the winter frost and attract the God Faunus and the sun back.
This pagan rite, these fires of attraction and purification across Abruzzo were later adopted by Christianity and are also used as means to celebrate for Santa Barbara and Santa Lucia across the region.
On the night of the 7th of December the townsfolk of Atri light a large bonfire in Piazza Duomo and then veer between concerts, wine, card games, singing and more wine. Just before dawn on the 8th of December, hundreds of people arrive in Piazza Duomo with their faugno (torches made of reeds) and light them. If a faugno goes out, you have to knock it on the ground to remove the burnt part; the procession called the Marisa stops, and your neighbour re-lights it for you.
At 06.00, a mass is celebrated in the Church of Sant’Agostino for the Immaculate Conception.
Related Events
We will do our best to keep this calendar up to date, however in the case of last-minute cancellations due to adverse weather conditions, Covid outbreaks and so forth this may not always be possible. In these cases, you should contact the event organiser for a refund as we are not responsible for the events on the calendar, only compiling them into an easy list. As soon as we have news from an organiser when any event will be rescheduled we will update the calendar accordingly.
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