Abruzzo is a region of striking contrasts, where majestic mountains, rolling hills, and the blue Adriatic Sea meet. This diverse geography has shaped not only the landscape but also the traditions and festivals of the area, many rooted in ancient pagan rituals transformed by Christianity and later enriched by modernity.
These events celebrate the land, seasons, and community bonds, often announced locally through posters or social media a week prior. For those planning ahead, here’s an overview of notable events I’ve gathered. I will keep updating it throughout the year and add more local sagra’s as they are announced.
Festivals and Sagras: Key Highlights
Spring and Easter Celebrations
I begin with Easter and end with Carnival, so for celebrations in December, January, and February, look further below.
Processions during Holy Week: Throughout the region, solemn processions mark Holy Week leading to Easter Sunday. Participants often wear traditional garments and hoods, carrying statues of the Virgin Mary and Christ through the streets. The atmosphere is deeply contemplative and spiritual, not a tourist event, which visitors should respect. As a child in Tortoreto, we watched Easter plays depicting Christ’s Passion. My neighbor Nino, playing Christ, wore only a loincloth, braving the cold with layers of fat to stay warm—a memory that left a strong impression on me because the audience was freezing to the bone.
Sulmona’s Procession of the Dead Christ: On Good Friday, Sulmona hosts a moving nighttime procession with dramatic lighting, somber chants, and a statue of the Dead Christ, accompanied by the Virgin of Sorrows. This event draws locals and visitors alike.
“La Madonna che Scappa” (The Running Madonna): On Easter Sunday, Sulmona celebrates La Madonna che Scappa (“The Running Madonna”). This event symbolizes Mary learning of Christ’s resurrection. I participate once in my youth and it still feels deeply emotional and unforgettable.
Le Virtù – Teramo: A food festival dedicated to virtù, a soup blending seven types of pasta, 7 legumes, and 7 spring vegetables, symbolizing the seasonal shift.
Festa dei Serpari (Snake Festival) – Cocullo: on the first Thursday in May this fascinating festival honors San Domenico, the patron saint of Cocullo, who is believed to protect against snake bites and toothaches. A statue of the saint is adorned with live, non venomous snakes and carried in a procession through the village.The festival is thought to blend Christian traditions with ancient pagan rites honoring serpents as symbols of fertility and renewal.
Summer Traditions
- Giostra Cavalleresca di Sulmona: Held on the last weekend of July and in August, this spectacular knightly joust pits riders representing Sulmona’s neighborhoods against one another in the town square. The event features Renaissance-style parades, music, and traditional dances. In August, the lively Borgo Tournament involves neighboring villages. Though somewhat touristy, it remains highly enjoyable.
- Certame di Popoli: A reenactment of medieval military traditions with a night market and art events.
- Ferragosto: Celebrated on August 15, this holiday marks the Assumption of Mary and the end of the ancient harvest season. Festivities include fireworks, the ballo della pupa (a dancing papier-mâché figure with fireworks), beach picnics, and playful water fights.
- Festa dell’Emigrante – Ofena: On August 16, Ofena honors returning emigrants with food, music, and celebrations near the village schoolyard. It’s a warm, nostalgic gathering not to be missed.
San Rocco celebrations in Abruzzo
On the 16 of August Saint Roch (or Rock) feast day is widely celebrated in Abruzzo, often highlighting his role as the protector of animals, significant in the region’s sheperds’ transhumance traditions. Iconography depicts him with a dog on his side. Its winter equivalent is the celebration of Saint Anthony the Abbot, often pictured with a piglet, on the 16 of January (see under). Key festivities of Saint Roch include:
- Pescocostanzo: A village procession with San Rocco’s statue, accompanied by music, markets, and food.
- Roccamontepiano: A unique torchlight procession featuring the burning of large straw bundles (farchie) as symbols of protection.
- Scanno: Combines religious ceremonies with parades in traditional attire, music, and dancing.
- Festa del Perdono (L’Aquila): held the last week of August his UNESCO-listed festival celebrates the indulgence granted by Pope Celestine V in 1294. Highlights include the opening of the Holy Door between the 28 and 29 of August at the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, processions, concerts, and cultural events.The festival combines spiritual devotion with artistic performances, drawing visitors from across the world.
- Mastrogiurato di Lanciano: in early September the Mastrogiurato commemorates the medieval figure responsible for overseeing the city’s markets and fairs. A grand historical procession features costumes, flag bearers, and knights, with medieval-themed markets and performances.
- Corsa degli Zingari (Race of the Gypsies) – Pacentro: on the First Sunday in September this daring race involves participants running barefoot down a steep and rocky hill to a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The event is accompanied by feasts and celebrations in the town’s medieval streets.
Winter Highlights
- Presepi Viventi: Live nativity scenes during Christmas in villages like Rivisondoli, showcasing biblical reenactments in stunning landscapes. Many churches and villages showcase their Nativity scenes with antique and modern statuettes and decors. Especially dear to me is the open air Nativity of Carrufo. Carrufo is a tiny village with some 20 residents, all very active in maintaning traditions in order to gather emigrants and visitors. Their more than 120 wooden silhouettes have been painted this year for the first time by artist Fausto Rapinesi (picture right). In Spring they will hold a decoration day with volunteers to paint more of them.
Sant’Antonio Abate Celebrations
Between the 16 and 17 of January another protector saint of livestock is celebrated. Saint Anthony the Abbot, the most famous hermit of the Church. In traditional iconography, he is depicted surrounded by domestic animals, especially a piglet, of which he is a popular protector. Therefore in Abruzzo he is also known as Sand’Andonie de lu porche (St. Anthony of the pig). Another strong connection in his cult is the one with fire. Main festivities entail:
- In Fara Filiorum Petri before the feast people build huge torches with bundles of reed called farchie (like those of Roccamontepiano for Saint Roch) that are set on fire on the night of the 17. This ritual in the hearth of winter symbilizes light and fire as a celebration of the return of the sun after Winter Solstice.
- Also in Scanno where the saint is known as Il Barone or the “Baron”, fires are lit near the Saint Anthony’s church. Once the fires had burned out, the charred stumps and remaining ashes were collected and used for fertilizing the crops and marking the passage from winter to spring. The burning coals were also collected and used to heat the villagers’ homes and even dry wet clothes. Popular medicine believed that the ashes of these fires were a cure against herpes zoster, which in italians is also called Fuoco di sant’Antonio.
- Many other villages, among which Ofena, where our summer school is located, celebrate the so called: Lu Sandandonie. Groups of singers go around the houses to sing a traditional song in dialect in which the life os the saint is humorously depicted as a a guy whose relatives found a good wife for, but he preferred to go and live in the desert in order not to be bothered. And while being an hermit in the desert the devil (called Lu Dimonia and Satanasse) keeps pestering him, hiding his fork when he is about to eat, his buttons while he is sewing his pants. The whole biblical story of the temptations of the saint in the desert is reduced to neighbourhood quarrels. Luckily the saint never looses his cool, what in the song makes him the enemy of the devil. The singers get food, wine, sometimes money, which in general is collected for charities. Here a video, but if you google Lu Sandandonje you will find lots of celebrations in different villages.
- Another tradition around Sant’Antonio Abate is slaughtering a pig and making hams, sausages and all sort of yummy things. On the one hand when people had no fridges this was the best period of the year to make these products. Usually a group of friends or relatives buys a piglet, tends him for the whole year, and slaughters him the next Saint Anthony feast.
- A typical sweet of this feast are the so-called: cillitt’ de Sandandogne (little birds). These cookies are made in the shape of a bird with a filling of jam and grounded almonds or walnuts.
Carnival (February)
- Schiavi d’Abruzzo: Carnival celebrations in Schiavi d’Abruzzo, an isolated mountain hamlet, have preserved the traditional costumes with colorful high hats and the bats to chase away winter and cold.
- Francavilla al Mare: A vibrant event with floats, costumes, and parades.
- Carnevale Morto (Montorio al Vomano): A satirical “funeral” for the carnival season.
Unique Abruzzo Elements
- Culinary Specialties: Local sagras feature saffron, wines, olive oil, and treats like pizzelle/ferratelle/neole (they are called differently in de different parts of the region, is a sort o waffle, can be crusty or more soft, sometimes filles with jam and nuts, or nutella.)
- Historical Sites: Gran Sasso and Majella mountain ranges host spiritual retreats like the Eremo di San Bartolomeo.
- Cultural Immersion: Events reflect deep connections between nature, faith, and community.
For full details on visiting or participating in these traditions, visit Madrelingua’s Summer School in Abruzzo, where cultural, culinary, and linguistic experiences converge, and check our program for 2025.