Sweet September
This is the focus of the number which, like all others, is in Italian and English and is pulled in 10,000 copies.
The pelican is a sea bird that feeds on fish. It has massive body, the plumage is black and white and has a long yellow beak with a bag of skin. It lives along the coast rich in fish of temperate seas. It is so named the boat of Domenico Barricelli, 55, a fisherman from Sant’Angelo of Ischia which can have a crew of six sailors.
It is the “Pellicano” which each year brings in procession to the sea on September 30, the statue of St. Michael the Archangel, the protector of Sant’ Angelo which is called so because of the cult to Angelo revered as protector and warrior driver represented with drawn sword on the dragon.
The cult of St. Michael the Archangel in Sant’Angelo is dated back as early as the fifteenth century. Domenico Barracelli with his “Pellicano” leads the procession to the sea at least 25 years and this “Pellicano” is the fifth since before there were four others.
The feast of St. Michael the Archangel in the sea closes the long cycle of religious festivals with processions to the sea that begin on May 17 with Santa Restituta in Lacco Ameno and go on for the whole summer of Ischia.
Among the celebrations of local color that one of St. Michael the Archangel is perhaps the most impressive. On September 29, there is the procession of the saint through the streets of the village which is lit by a thousand of oil cans placed on the seven reefs and on September 30 the procession to the sea with hundreds of boats with in the head the "Pelican" with San Michele. The procession reaches the top of the Punta Maronti and Punta Chiarito almost to bless the whole southern side of the island of Ischia that greets the sister islands of Capri and Ventotene each placed 18 miles from “the mother island”.
Then there is the spectacle of the midnight fireworks with the simulated fire tower to commemorate the bombing of the British in 1809.
At the feast of St. Michael attended by thousands of islanders and tourists every year with the same enthusiasm.
September is the sweetest month of year for Ischia. The days are shorter and cooler but nature is much more quiet. It is the month of spa treatments and those sun therapy and long walks on the hills and on the summit of St. Nicholas as the roads of the island of Ischia call with its 788 meters. The month of the discovery of the "island of the earth" and its age-old traditional viticulture with “Visiting wineries”, the great event in its seventh edition, which takes place on September 14 to 18 at the initiative of the Pro Loco Panza and to which we will dedicate a special issue.
September is also the month to find out the ins and loads of history of Borgo di Celsa and Forio especially where during the years 1950s have stayed Truman Capote and WH Auden writing short stories and poems sitting at the "Caffè Internazionale".
Ischia has changed compared to that seen and narrated by Capote and Auden with the great mass tourism but that romantic air is still and in September with the fiery sunsets viewed from the "church of the fishermen that juts out into the sea as the prow of a ship”, as Capote called the Church of Soccorso, that air becomes purer almost requires compliance of History and Geography of the places where many people of Contemporary Culture have passed, and where the churches preserve the memories of a centuries-old ancient island.
The ancient religious festivals begin on September 8 with the feast of Our Lady of Montevergine in the small hamlet of Succhivo but also in the village of Schiappone in Barano and then 12 with the feast of Santa Maria al Monte in Forio and again from 12 to 15, the feast of San Leonardo in Panza in the town of Forio.
On September 24 is a public holiday in Fontana, the highest center of the island place 452 meters above sea level, to the Madonna of Mercy and also in the district of Majo Casamicciola with Our Lady of Sorrows or Our Lady of Sorrows.
But September is also the month of the cultural and artistic events that take place mostly in the City of Ischia and Forio, the "two capitals" of the island posed to the East and West.
In this issue we try to introduce the sweet September of Ischia but also the recipes of the month with our recommended restaurants, local products, the beauty centers, the sights to see and the wonderful spa gardens with our best wishes for a peaceful holiday with good and Ischia ... in your pocket.
G. M.
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