Agnone Events

The 'Ndocciata

On the evening of 24 December, fan-shaped torches built from fir and broom — the largest carrying more than twenty flames on a single frame — are shouldered by hundreds of people and carried the length of the corso, until the street is a continuous moving river of fire ending in a bonfire. The districts build their own and compete. It is tied to the solstice as much as to Christmas and it is among the largest fire rituals in Europe. A second, smaller edition is held in early December.

Bell casting

Not scheduled and not a show: when a commission is poured at the Marinelli foundry it is an event in the town, and visitors who happen to be there are usually allowed to watch.

San Cristanziano

The patronal feast in late May, quiet and entirely local.

August

The month the emigrants return, with a run of village sagre across the Alto Molise and the town at its fullest.

The autumn markets

October and November bring the caciocavallo, the new oil from lower down, and the chestnuts.

Christmas week

The days around the 'Ndocciata fill with the building of the torches in the district yards, which can be watched and is in some ways better than the procession: the frames are assembled by hand, dozens at a time, out of fir cut for the purpose.

Transhumance

The drove roads are walked again in organised form in early summer and autumn, reviving a route abandoned within the last century.