September
SELARGIUS
TRADITIONAL WEDDING
The
commemoration of the ancient Selargius wedding is a great folk festival: it
is actually a return to the oldest Sardinian traditions. The ceremony starts
with the blessing that bride and bridegroom receive from their parents on their
homes’ threshold, before relatives and neighbours. Here, in turn, parents sprinkle
with corn and salt the head of their kneeling children, wishing them (using
an ancient-wisdom set phrase) prosperity and high moral standards. Then, kissing
them before they leave their paternal home forever, mother and father address
their children some last advice. In the second part of the ceremony the processions
of the two fiancés, still “bagadius” (= unmarried), move on to meet in the church
courtyard. During this long and joyous procession along the streets the two
fiancés, arm in arm with their fathers, receive the wishes from their fellow
villagers; a few women hold a plate full of corn and salt, recite set phrases
of blessing and give the couple more wishes and advice. Finally, provoking the
applause of bystanders, these women drop the plates to the pavement, breaking
them, thus performing an oldest magic propitiatory ritual intended for those
preparing to form a new family. The two processions, reunited in the church
courtyard, enter the church, welcome by the solemn music of organs and “launeddas”.
Here, according to the rites of the Roman Church, the wedding is celebrated
(in Sardinian language); bride and bridegroom are tied up one another with a
chain, “sa cadena”, which is the symbol of the everlasting bond of matrimony.
Now the newly-married couple (“cojaus”), protagonist of the great feast, bursts
once again into the square, welcome by applauding and shouting people dressed
in traditional costumes, and makes for their new house, where their mothers
have been waiting in order to say goodbye (“s’adiosu”) and give the couple (the
fruit of their nuptial bed, of whom more lives will be born) the last moving
blessing. “Potzàis bivi medas annus con saludi e trigu” (= Live long in good
health and prosperity).This final wish, pronounced by the dispersing crowd,
opens the last act of the Wedding: the banquet with the guests and the dances
till late in the night.
OROSEI
AND ITS OWN GULF
To
whom it originates from Olbia it is advised to take, along the Olbia-Nuoro,
I release it for Siniscola and to cross the line of the National Road 125, Sardinian
Oriental, that hands to Orosei after 40 Kms, or, instead of turning for Siniscola,
to continue to the Km actually 70 and to always turn to the alternative for
Dorgali. Orosei, country of few more than 5.000 inhabitants, gives the name
to the ample homonym gulf and is situated to the intersection of the National
Road 125 with the National Road 129 to little distance from the mouth and from
the right shore of the river Cedrino enter a beautiful enclosure of high ground
dominated by the calcareous massive structure of the Tuttavista mountain,
with his 805 meters, and edged from small highlands basaltic called Gollei.
The territory of Orosei boasts numerous churches of which well 18 are inside
the inhabited area. Between the most important the church of Saint James Apostolo,
situated in the historical center, of Romanesque plant but radically restructured
in the seven hundred one, with to side the oratory of Saint Cross; the architectural
complex of Saint Anthony of the Fire that includes a vast courtyard with church,
tower of sighting, well and enclosure of cottages; the sanctuary of the Remedy,
to the limit of the inhabited center, with the cummessias, the residences for
the participants to the novena that is developed in September and the oratory
of the Souls. Orosei is also rich of points of interest of the landscape for
the presence of the damp zones of the mouth of the Cedrino and the pond Su
Petrosu, populated by a marshy ancestor-fauna of gulls, ashy herons, coots,
sea crows, hawks fishermen, real Germans and the splendid pink flamingos, the
everything between the beauties of Biderrosa, a naturalistic oasis with her
splendid beaches and the secular vegetation. From the center inhabited part
the road to the sea that conducts to the Marina of Orosei and the mouth of the
Cedrino, while if it proceeds along the Sardinian Oriental, immediately after
the bridge, is developed on the right for Saint Maria ‘and Sea placed on
the left shore of the Cedrino, ancient church in style pisano with to the inside
numerous ex I vote of fishermen and seamen. These, in line of motto, the
indications for the tourist that wants to pass one or more days to Orosei, but
if you want further information and assistance turn to the Tourist Association
For Loco Orosei in Plaza of the People, telephone 0784998367 that
it organizes the entry for the cars to the oasis of Biderossa, limited entry
in the number, or it organizes trips in boat toward the most suggestive beaches
of the gulf of Orosei. Every day, time allowing, a boat departs at 9.00 o'clock
from the Marina Centrale to reach Cove Moon, Cove Sisine, Cove Mariolu and to
visit the caves of the Sea Ox to reenter in I bring at 17.30 o'clock. The For
I rent it organizes besides, twice a week, driven visits to the monuments of
the historical center or it proposes two different itineraries of trekking with
guide and typical lunch Sardinian-oroseino, one to the Tuttavista Mountain,
the other to the oasis of Biderossa where possible to also go horseback riding
is.
