Pyxis - Cagliari (Oristano

Cagliari (Oristano - Sa Sartiglia)

Pyxis

Karen & Richard

Sun 22 Feb 2009 00:00

Sunday 22^ndFebruary – Cagliari (Oristano – Sa Sartiglia)

39:12.064N 9:07.510E

We were up very early as most of us from the marina marched into town and took the train to Oristano for Sa Sartiglia, a famous equestrian event dating from the 16^th century. It takes place on the last Sunday and the last Tuesday of Carnivale, organised by the Gremio dei Contadini (countrymen’s guild) and the Gremio dei Falegnami (carpenters’ guild) respectively. There is much historic ceremony and ritual.

The Theory:

The Dressing Ceremony: It starts with the leader of the equestrian group, called Su Componidori (the Head of the Joust), arriving on foot at the Guild Hall where he steps onto a platform. From this point on his feet are not allowed to touch the ground until the end of the day. The ceremonial ‘dressing’ of Su Componidori takes place by young ladies (massaieddas), wearing the traditional costume of Oristano under the supervision of an elderly lady (Sa massaia manna), who cloth him and put on his mask, veil and a top hat. Once dressed, his seconds arrive on their horses along with his horse. His horse is taken into the building and he gets on his horse and rides out of the building.

Parade: Su Componidori is then joined by all the other masked riders, trumpeters, drummers and members of the guild, each wearing magnificent costumes, and he rides through the town blessing the population with a bunch of violets (Sa Pippa e Maiu).

Corsa alla stella (the tournament or star joust): After this there is the joust. A star is hung from a green silk tape across the road in Via del Duomo and each rider races down towards it at a gallop and tries to impale it. It is not easy! It is finally closed by the rapier test, reserved for the Componidori, and then there is a blessing of the crowd before the reassembly of the procession for the ‘Pariglia’.

‘Pariglia’: The final equestrian event is a parade followed by a display of acrobatics where groups of three horses gallop down the road together with their riders demonstrating acrobatics on the back of the horses.

The Undressing Ceremony: The celebration then finishes with Su Componidori retuning to his platform on the other side of town to be ceremonially ‘undressed’. This is followed by dinner, dancing and singing.

The Practice:

On arrival in Oristano, as we walked towards the centre of town from the train station, we saw a group of people waiting by a railed off building and went to investigate. We found that this was the Countrymen’s Guild venue where the event would start with the dressing of Su Componidori so we waited there for him to arrive. Invitations were required for entrance so we watched from outside with a group of others.

After Su Componidori went into the building we couldn’t see anything so we waited patiently for the next event which was the arrival of his seconds and the other masked riders. Whilst we waited I made friends with a lovely Italian woman who was as vertically challenged as me and who spoke enough English to be able to help me understand what was happening inside the building – she also persuaded one of the organisers to bring out some wine to refresh her ‘Americano’ friends – we felt very welcome.

The crowd was asked for silence whilst the Su Componidori rode out through the entrance, not that it helped much as his horse was still very skittish as its hooves echoed on the wooden ramp. The costumes of those taking part in the parade were very elaborate. We then followed the parade down into town where it was already crowded ready for the joust, and fought our way along Via del Duomo for a spot to watch the jousting.

Standing at the side of the road on Via del Duomo where the horses galloped past for the star joust was like watching Formula 1, the horses were going so fast and the view so narrow that they had gone before you registered what was happening. We gave up and tried to find a better view with less jostling. Eventually we managed to reach a place where we could see the star itself and see a couple of runs – I managed to get onto one of the stands and see one successful spearing of the star. We then went for a walk and found that round the corner in the main square, a large television screen had been erected, showing the event ‘live’ for anyone who couldn’t see.

We wandered on through town and as we were getting ready for a rest we found ourselves in the vicinity of a hotel at the side of the road where the ‘Pariglie’ would take place later. The lure was too much and we walked in for a drink, found an extremely comfortable sofa in front of, guess what, a large television screen showing the ‘live’ jousting. Now finally convinced we had the best seats in Oristano, we ordered cappuccino and enjoyed the rest of the joust event in comfort, complete with slow motion replays!

Just after 5pm we dragged ourselves outside to see the ‘Pariglie’. We saw the parade and then a couple of groups of the acrobatic riders race past at a gallop in formation before a big delay and the announcement of a problem. Eventually there was another run and then another big delay. Then Su Componidori came past to end the event. We heard later that the acrobatics had had to be cancelled because of a horse being injured (and subsequently put down) and then a suicide (with one of the crowd running out in front of the galloping horses) L

As darkness fell, we wandered back through town, to look around at the parties getting underway. By coincidence we arrived back at the Countymens’ Guild Hall just as Su Componidori was arriving on his horse. We stopped to look and got quite a shock as it was not the ‘invitation only’ event of the morning. As soon as the rider-less horse emerged from the Guild, the locals started to pile in through the entrance. We like to join in and so we joined the locals and went into the Guild to join in the ceremonial ‘Undressing’. As the ‘Undressing’ is accompanied by lots of drum rolls, it was a very ‘loud’ event but nevertheless very good to see.

After we had seen the ‘Undressing’, we had to get a move on to get back to the train station but missed a turning in the dark and needed to retrace our steps. Obviously Richard, being a man, would not ask for directions, but I did. I selected a young man standing outside a church. What luck – he said he would need to ask his father, who was picking him up in his car as we spoke, and who then insisted on giving us a lift to the nearby station – wonderful people.

Back at the station, we met up with some of the others from the marina on the train for the return journey. We chatted all the way back and then decided to catch the bus back to marina as our feet had had enough. We were all shattered by the time we got back to the marina where we discovered that we were the last contingent.