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NIGURU CCU NIGURU UN TINGI (BLACK DOES NOT DYE BLACK)
The proverb means that if two people are equally cunning, they cannot cheat each other; if two men are equally strong, they cannot prevail against each other, and so on. We could construct other similar proverbs, for example, ‘White does not dye white’, or ‘yellow does not dye yellow’, and so on. However, if we want to give a more philosophical interpretation to this very beautiful Sicilian…
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FROM ENNA TO ASSISI
I have talked about my visits to the city of Saint Francis in my book, A Hidden Sicilian History. I do not want to repeat what I have written there. Now, I just want to highlight something about my third trip to Assisi with my wife. We decided to go to Assisi while we were walking down the street and passing by a small green area that had recently been created next to the Church of Saint Francis…
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THE STATUE OF OUR LADY OF THE LETTER IN MESSINA
Every time I left my hometown to go to the University of Pisa or to the Lateran University of Rome, when the train arrived in Messina and entered the ferry, I went up to the deck to look at the sea and the opposite coasts of Sicily and Calabria. At the end of the port of Messina, the statue of Our Lady of the Letter stand on a tall column. I consider it the symbol of the entrance gate to Sicily…
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NATUZZA EVOLO, THE WOMAN THAT OPENED MY MIND AND HEART
The man I met in Rome, in the Church of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, who gave me a list of forty-two books, among other things, told me about two mystical figures: one was Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, who had already died, and another Natuzza Evolo, who was still alive. I trusted that man because the books he had recommended me to read were highly educational. I thought that if he told me about…
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MATERA
After visiting Recanati and making two short stops in Rimini and San Benedetto del Tronto, two cities on the cost of the Adriatic Sea, our next destination was the city of Matera, a provincial capital in the Italian region called Basilicata. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful city in Italy. While visiting the ancient ‘Sassi’ area of Matera, it came naturally to me to make a comparison with…
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RECANATI
When I was a student at the classical high school in Enna, while I was studying ‘Romanticism’, I came across the very popular Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi (Recanati, 29 June 1798 – Naples, 14 June 1837). He was the poet I loved most, perhaps because he had a nature similar to mine. He loved study and solitude. He wrote his poems at a young age, when he had inspiration. Later, his poetic…
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THE SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF THE CROWN IN SPIAZZI DI CAPRINO (VERONA)
The Shrine of Our Lady of the Crown is one of the most evocative holy places I have ever seen. It stands on the edge of a rocky ridge. The location is unique. I had never seen a Catholic church on the edge of a cliff hundreds of meters high. To go there, we parked the car in the village of Spiazzi di Caprino, in the province of Verona, and then we walked on a paved road to the shrine for about…
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MOZART'S MUSIC TO HEAL BODY AND MIND
After we left Theresa Newman’s village, Konnersreuth, we headed back to Italy, passing through Austria. On the way back, our first stop was Mozart’s hometown of Salzburg. We checked into a hotel not far from the city center. From there, we walked to the bridge over the Salzach River, which runs through Salzburg. Before reaching the river, we came across the tomb where some members of the Mozart…
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FROM SICILY TO KONNERSREUTH
I heard about Theresa Neumann for the first time about thirty years ago in Enna. At that time, I was strolling down the main street with a friend of mine. We were talking about religion. He was the brother of a priest and an honest person respected by everybody. I told him about my fear of death and my concern that after we die everything will end and we will vanish into eternal nothingness. In…
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A MEANINGFUL SICILIAN PROVERB: CORI ALLEGRU DIU L’AIUTA (GOD HELPS CHEERFUL PEOPLE)
God is happiness and joy. Can you ever imagine a sad God? Of course not! According to the proverb, God helps cheerful people. He created man to be happy, not sad. I once wrote in one of my books, The Vibrations of Words, that life is like a painting. If you are happy and cheerful you will paint a beautiful picture, otherwise the result will be the opposite. According a Buddhist friend of mine,…
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MY REVIEW OF EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF A PROSCRIBED SICILIAN BY ALFIO BALZANI
After reading Extracts from the Diary of a Proscribed Sicilian, I cannot say whether it is a diary or a novel. At times, it seems to be a diary, other times a novel. The book is set in the period in which a united Italy did not exist. Bourbon kings ruled Southern Italy and Sicily. Naples was the capital. Their government was absolutist and disliked by the Sicilians. The story narrated by Alfio…
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U MIGLIU TIMPU IE CHIDDU CA VENI (THE BEST TIME IS THE TIME TO COME)
The Sicilian language has no future tenses. I do not know if there are other languages in the world without future tenses. Those I have studied so far all contain future tenses. Even Latin, from which Sicilian comes, has future tenses. As for Sicilian, even the term ‘future’ does not have a corresponding word which it can be translated into. To express a future idea we use adverbs, nouns, and…
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HISTORY AND LEGEND OF THE FEAST OF THE PATRON SAINT OF ENNA
Enna is the city where the cult of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Kore was particularly rooted. Perhaps, it is the only Italian city where paganism survived until the end of the Middle Ages! To put an end to this situation, in 1412 the municipality of Enna sent a delegation to Venice with the task of buying a statue of the Madonna to replace that of Demeter. The delegation went to Venice…
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FAITH, RELIGIOUS FOLKLORE, AND MUSIC IN ENNA (SICILY)
The celebrations in honor of the patron saint of Enna, Our Lady, last for two weeks. During this time, the wooden statue of the Madonna is exhibited in the church annexed to the Franciscan Monastery of Montesalvo. In the same place, pagan rites in honor of Demeter were celebrated until the end of the Middle Ages. The small Catholic church was built there for the purpose of putting an end to…
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THE FEAST OF OUR LADY IN ENNA (SICILY)
Since time immemorial, the feast in honor of the Mother Goddess has been celebrated in Enna on July 2. At the beginning, it was the celebration in honor of the mother goddess, Demeter; later, with the end of paganism it turned into the feast in honor of the Madonna. On this day, people in Enna thank Our Lady for protecting the city. The statues that parade down the streets are those of Saint…
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A SICILIAN PROVERB: CU ANNASCI TUNNU UM PO MORIRI QUATRATU (WHO IS BORN ROUND CANNOT DIE SQUARE)
The proverb is rather fatalistic. It means that every human being comes into the world with his genetic heritage, which will remain unchanged throughout his life. However, the proverb does not seem to consider the importance of the environment in which one lives and the conditioning that comes from family and society. Sometimes, a person with a low IQ can excel if he has studied hard or if he…
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A SICILIAN PROVERB: A CASA CAPI QUANTU VOLI U PATRUNI (THE HOUSE CONTAINS WHAT THE OWNER WANTS)
The ultimate decision on who and what to let into the house is the prerogative of the owner of the house. The house and the landlord are metaphors. The unveiled meaning is that whoever heads a business, a company, a political office, or, in some way, is put in charge of something, he or she is the person entitled to make the ultimate decision on what concerns the goods or people that are subject…
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