La Sartiglia

83 First of all silence. The stories about the making process of fabrics colouring the “Sartiglia” are discreet, often familiar. There are no words or sounds, but women’s hands slightly touching satin ribbons. Whispers, slow accurate moves starting in September. It is another solemn intimate celebration. The fifty rosettes harnessing the horse blossom like flowers. Meanwhile “Su Componidori”´s clothes lie in some flat baskets. It is a kind of magic, fruit of the women’s work, inalienable legacy of a community, which does not forget Mother Earth. Those moves are performed once again during the dressing ceremony: the women’s fingers sew his clothes, help him with the shirt and the white veil, tie his sleeves with ribbons, pin a camellia on his chest, bandage up his face to wear the mask. It is not coincidence that “Su Componidori” has always been an androgynous figure, neither a man nor a woman, since his origins. Moreover it is universally acknowledged the “Massaia Manna” is the woman entitled to lead his dressing ceremony with her gentle moves and mild orders, accompanying every step to his metamorphosis. This is the pace of the “Sartiglia”. After the sound of silence there is the beat filling up the two Carnival days, which are typical sounds. The vital whispers of the “Sartiglia” are mixed from the very first moments. The ceremony loses its intimate side in favour of a public show. The discreet work, even before the crowd, is announced, accompanied and exalted by trumpet blasts and rolls of drums. The sacred and the profaned joined in one protagonist but told by an entire community. In the people’s eyes lie the galloping horses, the swinging star and the reckless “Pariglie”, in their ears the incessant rhythm of the instruments. In the past trumpet blasts were a safety warning along the sandy track, nowadays they are one of the many souls of this equestrian joust. Spectators look at that parade of musicians maybe ignoring that every piece of music has a history. It is the face of tradition: pieces and rolls with proper names played at specific times. From the “attenti e ritorno”, three single trumpet blasts before wearing the mask, to “su passu de su Componidori”, when the women conclude the dressing ceremony and the deity makes his appearance.