#mersdules

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Boes e Mersdules

Sardinia traditonal Masks folklore

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Su Boes e Mersdules

[cavegirl66]

Su BOES e MERSDULES

Traditonal Sardinian Masks

Sardinian populations (especially those of the mountainous provinces) practice a more ancient religiosity, manifested by stone deities and wooden masks. Sardinian legends and traditions are all closely linked to its millenary history, and although there is abundant evidence of indigenous culture, the innumerable migrations of the most authoritative ancient colonial powers have integrated their own customs and habits, altering the original cultural uniformity. But there were some presences, the Mycenaean and Greek ones, who between the 12th and 14th centuries BC, penetrated Sardinia in a decisive manner. And it is precisely from these latter commercial communities that the Sardinians had the most ritual influence. The Dionysian cult was decisive. All the worshippers of Dionysus ardently longed to emerge from their person by transfiguring themselves and then letting themselves be possessed by the Greek god. They did so through the intoxication of wine, ecstasy, music and dance. It was a way to eliminate the barrier that separated man from the divine. Man was annulled in the god. When they were convinced that they resembled the devotee, the diabolical sacrifice was carried out. In Sardinia this happened during some pagan, rural festivals. The so-called "festas de corriolu", festivals that today have been converted and transformed in honor of some saints. The word "corriolu" comes from "iscorriare" literally to tear the living flesh of the animal, to tear it raw. Just as the myth tells of the god Dionysus torn alive by the Titans. From "iscorriare" and its most similar meaning comes the term "carrasegare or carrasecare" (carra-flesh, secare-tear), a ritual of anthropophagy that included the rebirth of the god. Living flesh torn with hands and teeth, the use of the knife was prohibited. Then reused with the advent of Christianity.

Dionysus in Sardinia had many names and his descent into the underworld was repeated every year through the death of the victim who represented him. This tragic and bloody form of apotropaic and generative cult found wide space in Sardinia, where viscera, limbs and bones of animals were part of the "mask" used during these rites. The need to exorcise evil through his purpose. The cycles of death and rebirth of nature, the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic masks grotesquely re-propose the man-animal relationship, propitiatory dances linked to the rhythms of nature and the cult of pre-Christian rain deities.

Most of the masks representing Dionysus, both in ancient times and today, are those of the goat, the bull or other animal figures (almost all linked to pastoralism). They are made of cork, fig or wild pear, the tree sacred to Persephone, mother of Dionysus to whom he consecrates himself.

Until the last century, in some towns of Baronia and Barbagia, the victim who personified the puppet suffered light torture during the ancestral rite. Today, however, this passion is totally simulated. It was not a question of sadism but of the still rooted concept that the earth needed blood to produce. The victim represented the "maimone" (a deity linked to water and rain). He was the god Dionysus who had to die to obtain abundant rains and fertile lands. Almost all the towns of Barbagia and some of Ogliastra have preserved traces of this use, while the towns of Campidano and Gallura, more open to external influences, have replaced these apotropaic intentions with the culture of symbols. However, the archaic rites once belonged to all of Sardinia. Barbagia towns such as Mamoiada, Orotelli, Ottana, Orani, Lula, Fonni or Oristano towns such as Ulà tirso, Samugheo and Bosa preserve these apotropaic rites almost intact naming Dionysus (the god) s'urtzu, s'urthu. maimone, mamuthone.

in Ottana the caratzas (masks) of the Boes and Mersdules are supported by su mucadore. This element often appears in the various figures of the Sardinian su carrasegare. The wooden mask of the boe does not always represent an ox, often the horns are those of a goat, but in each one there is always the zoomorphic representation of Dionysus. The rest of the body is also covered by a long mastruca made of goat skins, even if it is believed that they also once wore black skins. The Ottana mask carries a bunch of bells over its shoulder that it shakes when it moves and is tied (just like su mamuthone) by a rope held by its guardian su merdule. He is dressed in white goat skins and has an anthropomorphic wooden mask on his face. The masks of sos merdules like those of sos issohadores are speaking, unlike those of the victims, the god Dionysus, who are mute. Su merdule in addition to the rope holds a stick with which he occasionally prods su boe.