Customs of the Dolomites

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DESMONTEADA

It is a widespread tradition throughout the Dolomites and consists of disassembly of animals, which are festively decorated and accompanied to the village by the high mountain pastures where they spent the summer.

They are real village festivals, which were once celebrated as thanks for the harvest obtained during the summer season that has just ended.

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FALÒ DELL'EPIPANIA AND THE BRUSA LA VECIA

Choose to visit the Dolomites in the period following the Christmas holidays, there is a particular custom common in many areas of the Dolomites that varies in some aspects: it is thelighting of large bonfires, also called propitiatory fires, which are usually carried out on the evening of the eve of the Epiphany.

According to tradition, the high flames of these fires were studied, in particular the direction that the smoke took, useful for understanding and predicting the future of the year that has just begun.

The symbolism of fire had the meaning of burning the old to make room for the new year and the past was symbolically represented by the "old", a puppet who later became the Befana.

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SAN NICOLÒ AND THE KRAMPUS

Il 6th December it is customary to celebrate San Nicola di Bari or more commonly said San Nicolò.
Tradition has it that on the evening of the eve of San Nicolò to visit the children and bring them gifts (only if they have behaved well during the year), precisely for his arrival the little ones prepare hay for his donkey and good wine for he.

In some areas of Trentino Alto Adige and Friuli this holiday is accompanied by a frightening figure, a demonic being who stands next to San Nicolò and parades through the town dragging and banging big chains noisily to frighten young and old.
This is the Krampus, being that derives from Christian mythology, a demon defeated by Bishop San Nicola and forced to be in his employ and serve him.

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