di Andrea Romanazzi

In ancient times, offerings of bread were often made on graves; Greeks and Romans commemorated their dead with votive offerings of food and wine on graves (M. Caligiuri, 2001) to appease the souls.

Babylonians and Assyrians buried pots of honey. The use of real food in tombs is demonstrated by various texts such as Michel Raufft’s “De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis” and Philip Rohr’s “Dissertatio Historico-Philosophica de Masticatione Mortorum.” These texts described how the deceased, lacking adequate food supplies, would start to feed by chewing their shroud and their own flesh. Cannibalism also became a way to ensure the second death for the deceased; the stomach became their final resting place. From this interpretation, several Italian popular expressions like “bere i morti” (drinking the dead) or “mangiare i morti” (eating the dead) (E. De Martino, 1959) and the custom of the funeral banquet might have originated. This could be the sense behind the customs we will examine later, where in many regions of the Peninsula, strange bone-shaped sweets are prepared, called “ossa dei morti” (bones of the dead) (A. Romanazzi, 2003), which are then given to children, almost echoing the theme of necrophagy. For instance, in Morcone, Campania, legumes, pears, figs, and granone were distributed as food offerings, with the cry, “cicciotti per le anime dei morti” (little sweets for the souls of the dead). In Sant’Andrea in Conza, long before the global event of Halloween, people used to go around with large hollowed pumpkins shaped like skulls illuminated from inside with “scamurzi,” small leftover candles. The same tradition was followed in Somma Vesuviana, where these “creations” were called “cape ‘e muorte.” Similar examples can be found throughout the Italian peninsula.

Even the typical “pro anima” bread from the Campania region would serve a similar function. The food is often offered during the night vigil, at the entrance of the cemetery or the house of mourning. In some villages in the province of Bari, it was prepared directly on the coffin or graves. In this disturbing ritual of preparation, we find a mitigated form of necrophagy. Eating the bread prepared on the deceased or that has come into contact with them is nothing but nourishing oneself with the deceased. The choice of bread as a ritual food, besides being the typical food of the deceased, is also related to a regenerative view of it, in close symbiosis with death and the regeneration of wheat or cereals in general, of which it is made.

Traditions related to sex are also interesting. Death brought a form of libido deficients, that attanassamento (E. De Martino, 1959), a term used in the Lucanian area, which could not and should not remain. The idea of an increase in libido after death has a dual purpose: the reaffirmation of life through mating but also a way to astound the dead so that they are aware of the great life force opposed to them. After all, obscene display is a way to manifest the energy of the living. Freud states that whoever utters an obscenity launches an attack, equivalent to a sexual assault, eliciting a reaction in the listener similar to what would have been generated by a real aggression. This aggressive act is made against the deceased in this case. Subsequently, from sexual acts and obscenity, the transition is made to laughter, a milder form of the same. Hence the tradition, still practiced today, of telling obscene or sexually themed narratives during funeral vigils that generate hilarity. This is evidenced by numerous popular sayings like “il morto non può uscire senza il riso” (the dead cannot leave without laughter) or “non vi è morto senza riso” (there is no dead without laughter) (A. Di Nola, 2003). In ancient times, there were also funeral dances and forms of hilarity, and the dances that later led to the medieval tradition known as the “Dance of Death,” depicted in many churches and cemeteries, originated. It’s the theme of death, played on the flute, taking the dead away, later interpreted with the idea of the democracy of the Black Lady. In reality, death replaces the pagan flutist who led the funeral procession and later transformed into a “playful dance” around the coffin (A. De Gubernatis, 1869), which might be the archetype of the “trick or treat” processions.

A clue indicating the atavistic origins of the search for libido can be found in the myth of the rape of Proserpina, as described earlier, where Iambe, a servant of King Celeus where Demeter was staying, tries to make her goddess laugh by engaging in an obscene performance. A similar theme is found in the myth of Baubo, who, in order to make Demeter drink the ciceone, a typical mourning drink, flaunts her genitals, generating laughter and thus overcoming Demeter’s lack of appetite (A. Di Nola, 2003). Obscene elements were present in many death cults. In Egypt, mourners often bared their breasts (E. De Martino, 1959), both as a display and as a new symbol of rebirth, as the breast is associated with breast milk and therefore new life. This practice remained intact until the last century; in the Lucanian lament, we find the ostentatio of the mother to her child in remembrance of the milk given and the one lost (E. De Martino, 1959). There were also many traditions of erotic and sexual games during funeral vigils. In Sardinia, there is even a specific figure tasked with eliciting laughter, called the Buffona (F. De Rosa, 1899), while sexual games, such as the game of the Flea, are reported by De Martino in many Lucanian villages.