Santa Lucia Posted by Serena on Dec 12, 2010 in Uncategorized
Here in Italy, the 13th of December is the festival of Santa Lucia, a day which, in many countries of the northern hemisphere, used to be considered the shortest of the year. Many cultures still celebrate the winter solstice at this time with ‘festivals of light’. This brings back a memory from my childhood, when we lived abroad. One year some Swedish friends invited me and my family to watch their traditional Santa Lucia procession. A group of young girls dressed in white and holding candles escorted an older girl wearing a crown of candles on her head (Santa Lucia), whilst singing a familiar sounding hymn. I heard an exclamation of surprise, and turned to see my mother whispering, with an astonished expression: "Ma … ma questa è la melodia di una canzone napoletana!" (But … but this is the melody of a Neapolitan Folk song!) When I asked her later why she had been so surprised by the melody that we heard my mother explained that the song Santa Lucia is not a religious hymn, and doesn’t really have anything to do with Santa Lucia or festivals of light. It is simply a popular song about an area of Napoli.
This famous ‘barcarole’ (the name for this type of song) portrays the beauty of Borgo Santa Lucia on the Bay of Naples as seen by a sailor from his boat, and was composed by Teodoro Cottrau in 1849, right at the beginning of the wars for the independence and unification of Italy. For this reason the lyrics of this song were written in Italian instead of the more popular Neapolitan dialect.
This song has been translated into many languages and sung by many famous singers, including Elvis Presley in 1965. In the Scandinavian countries, its lovely tune has been used, with different lyrics of course, for the winter festival of Saint Lucy, which explains why we heard it sung in the procession that we watched all those years ago. Here are the original Italian lyrics together with my translation in English:
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Sul mare luccica l’astro d’argento. |
Upon the sea shines the silver moon. |
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Con questo zeffiro, così soave, |
With this zephyr, so gentle, |
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In fra le tende, bandir la cena |
To lay out supper in amongst the sails |
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Mare sì placido, vento sì caro, |
Such a placid sea, such a sweet wind, |
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O dolce Napoli, o suol beato, |
Oh, sweet Naples, oh, blessed soil, |
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Or che tardate? Bella è la sera |
Why do you linger? Fair is the evening. |
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Comments:
Vince:
Salve Serena:
If you went by music alone, it would be hard to imagine than anyone could love their part of the world more than i Napoletani.
Vince
andreas:
Salve Serena!
E’ una canzone bellisima. L’ho ascoltata interpretata da Caruso e Pavarotti. Purtroppo non la cantano tutta.
Andreas
Cathy W.:
Here is a youtube link to the Elvis version, beautiful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsCBZxpoqIc
charles laster:
wonderful song.
Nils from Göteborg, Sweden:
Thank you Serena for this explanation of what ‘Santa Lucia’ really is! In around 1959 I happened to learn the 4:th verse ‘Mare sì placido, vento sì caro,’ etc by heart. Don’t know how that came about, but I still remember the first two lines. I always have wondered how the placid sea could have anything to with the saint Lucia, but now I know, thanks to you! ( i e nothing! )
On my next visit to Napoli, I will have a look at Borgo Santa Lucia, if it is still there…
Serena:
@Nils from Göteborg, Sweden Salve Nils, I’m glad you enjoyed the blog.
When you say
are you by any chance referring to the fact that it may have disappeared under a mountain of rubbish? 😉
Saluti da Serena