The House of the rural culture consists of 14 rooms. These rooms belonged to the vicarage and until few decades ago oil and wine for the farmers were prepared here. The olive press and its majestic mill stone are proof of that.
All the rooms hold the rural life memories and you can virtually visit them thanks to the illustrations on our website.
Room 11: Religious tradition
In rural culture, religion and its traditions marked every situation in life: the farmer calls on God to protect them from disease and abuse, asks for the countryside and the harvests to be blessed, as a protection against famine and bad weather, to obtain high yields. For this reason the parish priest was held in high regard by the peasants, who listened to him and respected him. For the feast of Sant’Antonio abate (St. Anthony Abbot), patron saint of animals, he blessed the animals brought by the farmers to the churchyard. On Candlemas Day, the housewives who went to the Parish received a candle blessed by parish priest, then placed it in the bedroom at the head of the bed as a symbol and reminder of the event. While in the days of the Ascension, the land owners were asked to decorate shrines placed along the path of the procession with flowers, candles and rose petals. The seasons were thus marked by religious events in which the whole farming community participated. In the winter months, unmissable events were the feast of the Immaculate, the feast of San Giuseppe (St. Joseph) and Olive Sunday, when everyone adorned their homes with olive branches blessed during the service. In May and October every night people went from the fields to the Parish church for the Mass and to say the rosary together with the parish priest, while the processions of Corpus Domini were true celebrations of the people.