Ju Catenacce
Wedding Bells in Scanno
Something is in the air in Scanno. Maybe not love exactly, but certainly a frisson of excitement. And is that wedding bells I hear? Ju Catenacce is about to begin.
It’s the eve of Ferragosto. The terrace of the Caffè Santa Maria in Piazza San Rocco is filling up. The square is confined on one side by a church, and people are bagging places with a good view of the chapel door.
Across the square, at the open end of the terrace, narrow streets meander up and away towards the centre of town, and people are lining up there too.
At last, down the road floats a smiling young woman. In her long gown with its full skirt, her regal bearing is in stark contrast to the dishevelled, shuffling crowd of onlookers. This graceful beauty is followed by others, many on the arms of their ‘bridegrooms’: when they have all paired up and posed for photographs, the couples disappear inside the chapel to be ‘married’.
Traditionally, only one couple is formally, actually, married during Ju Catenacce, the yearly wedding ceremony held on 14 August in Scanno. The name, in dialect, means ‘chain’ and it refers to the procession that winds round the town after the ceremony. This is a re-enactment of the weddings of long ago, when the bride and her new in-laws would parade through the streets under a steady shower of confetti and coins from well-wishers for good luck and prosperity. It is not clear when the Ju Catenacce tradition began, but there is mention of it in mid-eighteenth century texts.
As with all nuptials, there is a lot of hanging about. As we wait impatiently for the couples to re-emerge, I take a look across the road at the small statue of San Rocco, up there in his niche in the sturdy clock tower of the church named after him. Though San Rocco is usually invoked against the plague, he is also the patron saint of, amongst other things, bachelors. How apt, I think, that the weddings should take place in his piazza. On this day, as he looks down benignly on multiple unions, I guess he can bask in a little bit of glory.
Eventually the couples step out of the chapel, pausing briefly on the threshold for photos. We, the onlookers, now become the wedding guests as we follow the band and the bridal couples in a cheerful, noisy procession around the town.
Later, following a group photo on the steps of the church of Santa Maria della Valle, we find ourselves back in Piazza San Rocco.
As the couples mingle, I get the chance to scrutinize the brides’ costumes. I am intrigued by their hats which, though high and box-like, are surprisingly flattering and elegant. The women’s hair is intertwined with silk thread called ‘lacci’ and gathered at the back in a snood, sometimes decorated with gold coins.
Around their necks the brides wear the presentosa, a piece of jewellery originating in Abruzzo around the seventeenth century. The design of this filigree pendant recalls the rose windows of churches and it usually has one or two hearts at its centre. Traditionally, it was given to the bride by the groom’s parents.
After some ceremonial speeches, the couples dance a quadriglia in the square. The dance is graceful and restrained but smiles and laughter are never far away.
There is no wedding banquet – at least not for us, the uninvited guests – but as the hot summer’s day softens into a balmy dusk, we are all offered some pan dell’orso, the traditional cake of Scanno.
All you need to know
Ju Catenacce begins in the Piazza San Rocco, Scanno, in the late afternoon of 14 August every year. See here for directions to Scanno.
