Stories of departures and returns, stories of community and relationships, stories of heritage and new visions for the Apulian territory. From 3 to 20 December in Lecce there will be the event “Coming home” conceived by Italea Puglia, an organization that operates within the territorial network of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation as part of the “Italea” program on roots tourism.

An exhibition on the ritual dishes of the holidays, meetings, community workshops, musical performances and much more to explore all the worlds of roots tourism in Puglia.

Italea Puglia’s mission is to attract and welcome Apulian and Italian-descendants abroad to the Heel of Italy with the intention of discovering the places and traditions of their origins. The objective of Italea Puglia is therefore the networking and enhancement of the most dynamic realities active in the area, for the creation of a tourist offer expressly dedicated to travelers of the roots with a view to a 360-degree enhancement of the link between local communities and foreign communities.

In about a year of activity, Radici di Puglia aps/Italea Puglia has launched dozens of projects in collaboration with Apulian institutions, associations and operators, has promoted a large number of educational tours and events from Gargano to Salento, activating itineraries and workshops in each territory involved, and taken part in the missions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Italy and abroad (including São Paulo in Brazil, Buenos Aires, New York, Melbourne).

The December event in Lecce is a moment of restitution and storytelling of this first year of Italea Puglia, through many free activities open to the public.

The location of all the activities of the “Coming home” event, the former Convitto Palmieri, a refined and dynamic cultural container in the heart of Lecce, seals the special relationship between Italea Puglia and the Polo Biblio-Museale di Lecce, partner of the project since the beginning of its adventure, and official headquarters of Italea Puglia (in the spaces of the Castromediano Museum).

 

 

Coming home: the appointments

From Tuesday 3 December to 20 December in the spaces on the first floor of the Convitto Palmieri “Tornare a casa” welcomes the exhibition “La Santa Tavola” curated by Salento a Km0, dedicated to the ritual dishes of the Apulian festivals (see sheet).

On 13 and 14 December , the highlight of the event is the two-day event dedicated to roots tourism, including meetings, workshops and music.

On Friday 13 December starting at 9.30 a.m. at the Convitto Palmieri, the round table “Stories, perspectives and best practices of roots tourism in Puglia” is scheduled, created in partnership with numerous institutional and associative realities. An opportunity for discussion between institutions, associations with cultural purposes and tour operators in the Apulian territory, to share visions, ideas and strategies for a Puglia “tailored to the traveler of the roots”.

At the end of the day, at 6.30 pm, a “Sung Walk” will start from the Convitto Palmieri that pays homage to the ancient community rites for the Feast of Santa Lucia, which will cross the historic center to the sound of traditional instruments.

On Saturday 14 December starting at 10 am, again in the spaces of the Convitto Palmieri, the whole day will be animated by “roots workshops” open to the public.

Among these, there is also a “Community weaving” by IntrecciArte: we will work together to create a large basket following the craft techniques of the past. A collective work, evocative of the bonds of community that resist beyond all time and distance. The basket will accommodate a small tree that will be donated to the Polo Biblio Museale di Lecce, continuing to bear witness to these values in the Cloister of the Convitto Palmieri.

At 8 p.m., the two-day Italea Puglia will be closed by “Italea Puglia: the Festival of Apulian roots”, a stage of the traveling festival promoted by Italea Puglia on the occasion of the 2024 “Year of Italian Roots” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to enhance the stories of the communities and authentic traditions of the Heel of Italy.

To animate the party, the show “La Santa allegrezza”, songs, legends and Christmas rites by Enza Pagliara and Dario Muci with Gianluca Longo and the master puppeteer Dario De Micheli. The result of passionate research, the repertoire takes inspiration from songs and stories that have come down to us by oral transmission or through documents kept in the books of illustrious scholars of popular traditions. Music and songs meet the ancient art of the puppets of the nativity scene, in the act of shaping the earth that renews the mystery and the rite of creation and rebirth.

 

The exhibition “The Holy Table”

From 3 to 20 December , the spaces on the first floor of the Convitto Palmieri will host the exhibition “La Santa Tavola” curated by Salento a Km0 (free admission, visit on request at the concierge of the Convitto).

“La Santa Tavola”, an exhibition dedicated to Apulian ritual foods, the result of the meeting between Francesca Casaluci – cultural anthropologist and expert in Apulian food culture – and the master ceramist Agostino Branca.

A unique project of its kind, which condenses the history of food, popular religiosity, folklore, in valuable ceramic reproductions of the most iconic and identifying dishes of the Apulian popular tradition.

If there is one way through which man has communicated with the divine, it is certainly food. The peoples of ancient times offered libations to the gods, burning them so that the smoke would carry their offerings to the sky. Miniature reproductions of votive fruits and breads were widespread in the ancient world even in our region: it is possible to admire precious finds of this type at the Castromediano Museum in Lecce or the Marta in Taranto. In peasant religiosity, popular and essential, the tables represented thresholds between the “world here” and the “world beyond”, capable of connecting the immanent and transcendent, material and spiritual, sacred and profane. The keys to opening these doors have been ritual foods for centuries: preparations that follow ancient gestures, made by women, privileged officiants of a domestic, family ritual, faithful to recipes that have their origins in the mists of time.

“La Santa Tavola” for the first time offers an overview of the “sacred food” and the traditions connected to it, widespread in our region: from the “Wheat of the dead” in Foggia, to the “Bread of St. Joseph” in use in the rite of the homonymous Tables, passing through the “broad beans of St. Anthony” and many others, in a collection of life-size ceramic reproductions.

The great protagonists are, of course, the Christmas dishes. The Christmas festivities open with the Pucce dell’Immacolata, made with soft wheat and seasoned with fish, cheese and vegetables, therefore strictly “lean”, thus respecting the fast of Christmas Eve (a custom witnessed as early as 1772). Typical desserts prepared in this period in the Taranto area are the Taradd Scatat, so called because before baking in the oven, they are “blanched” in boiling water; in the city of the two seas, this simple and tasty tarallo is said to symbolize the crowns of the Three Kings. Moving north, in the Gargano, we meet the Poperati, sweets of Albanian origin introduced during the migrations of the 1400s. Not to be missed are the Mustaccioli, already prepared by the Romans; Porceddruzzi and Carteddrate, desserts of oriental origin, and the Almond paste fish, a masterpiece of Lecce monastic cuisine. On traditional tables, Epiphany offers simple desserts, such as curly almonds, accompanied by dried fruit and citrus fruits. All rigorously reproduced in ceramic.

Through these special preparations, reserved for holidays, it is possible to read the history of our region, made up of exchanges with other cultures, of which traces have remained in the dishes, in their names and in their ingredients. But other ingredients of these preparations, apparently less visible but perhaps even more important, are the intangible elements, the family and social ties that represent an identifying element of the Apulian people, set in motion and periodically renewed in the collective ways of preparing holiday food and in the sharing that still characterizes these dishes, obligatory gifts to friends and relatives.

“La Santa Tavola” will guide visitors in a territory where popular cuisine, rituals, peasant civilization and folklore are intertwined, enhancing the figula tradition, which is also very ancient, of which Agostino Branca, author of the works, is one of the best known and most appreciated exponents internationally.