Author Archives: Valentina Scarlata

“Il faut tourner sept fois sa langue dans sa bouche avant de parler”

Nationality: Italian
Age: 63
Occupation: Businessman
Residence: Bologna
Performance Date: 03/28/2021
Primary Language: Italian
Language: French, Spanish

Main piece:

“Il faut tourner sept fois sa langue dans sa bouche avant de parler”

Transliteration: 

Il faut: It’s necessary

tourner: to rotate

sept fois: seven times

sa langue: the tongue

dans sa bouche: inside the mouth

avant: before

de parler: speaking

Translation: Before saying something, you ought to think well about your words / Think before you speak

Background:

P.S.: My father used to tell this a lot…my aunt as well. There are similar sayings in Italian as well, but…hum I don’t know, my father sometimes just switched to French to make concepts more vivid.

My informant is my father, who was born in Belgium from Italian immigrants and who spent the first years of his life in Mons, before moving to Italy. Even after his transferring, he continued to visit many times each year his native country, also because much of his family still lived there. Since really young he was told many French proverbs, especially by his parents and by those family members who continued to live in Belgium.

Context:

My informant and other relatives of mine told me several times multiple French proverbs, and, in this particular case, we were in the informant’s living room.

Thoughts:

I believe each culture presents a similar proverb, which encourages everyone to think carefully about his or her own actions and words, as they could easily affect or, even, damage the other. At the same time, it invites people at thinking logically and reasoning reflectively on something before acting, as it often happens that impulsive behaviors or decisions are the ones a person can regrets the most.

This sort of saying has been a fundamental part of my up-bringing, it being repeatedly mentioned to me in multiple occasions by family members. 

Les Gilles de Binche

Nationality: Italian
Age: 63
Occupation: Businessman
Residence: Bologna
Performance Date: 03/28
Primary Language: Italian
Language: French, Spanish

Main piece:

I still remember the first and only time I have seen it. I don’t know this giant feathers, the chaos, the movements it’s…it’s quite fascinating, but also intimidating for a child of four years old I guess. They start to march like.

[gets up and starts imitating the movements of the performance and the rhythm played]

ts-mpa ts-mpa ts-mpa. 

[smiles] 

My father used to imitate them perfectly. 

I remember being astonished by this ritual. What they do is basically march, all dressed in costumes with the colors of the Belgian flag, so black, red and yellow, and wearing clogs and feathered hats. 

Then they start throwing oranges to the crowd, because, if I am not wrong, it is supposed to bring luck.

Background:

My informant is my father who was born in Belgium from Italian immigrants and who spent the first years of his life in Mons, before moving to Italy. Even after his transferring, he continued to visit many times each year his native country, also because much of his family still lived there. He remembers taking part as spectator to this festival when really young, this is why his memories are a bit confused. When recounting it, he really placed much emphasis on the sensorial impressions the performance gave him, so the sounds of the clogs, the music, the visual effects of the feathers and costumes. 

Moreover, being Belgium the place where he was born, he visibly has a certain degree of emotional attachment to the country and his infant memories.

Context:

He told me this story several times when asked about his first years of life in Belgium. This particular espied occurred in his living-room, while we were chatting over a coffee.

Thoughts:

Many are the Carnivals practiced around the world, but this surly is one of the most peculiar ones. There are various hypothesis on the origin of this festival; the more acclaimed one states that the carnival -despite the first textual references belonging to the end of the 18th century-traces its origins back to the second half of the 16th century, when Spain conquered Peru. As a matter of fact, it is said the costumes of the Gilles recall, in someway, some pieces of clothing of the Incas, and that the thrown the oranges symbolizes the Incan gold. This hypothesis can find resolution in the ‘lavish’ and majestic headgear made of ostrich feathers, but, as my informants points out at the end of his interview, different could be the reasons of the oranges’ thrown.

In fact, the reason why the oranges symbolize and bring luck could find an explanation in the fact that they were not a common fruit easily procurable in Belgium. In this way, especially in the past, they were synonym of prosperity and richness, as it meant that the country and, in auricular the city of Binche, could afford foreign product and, therefore, be quite wealthy. Consequently, oranges become an emblem, a magical object meant to homeopathically symbolize fortune and success. 

On the other side, it is interesting to notice the strong nationalistic and identity’s sentiment the Gilles symbolize. In fact, all the 800 dressed men who perform in the festival must have rigorously been residents in Binche for at least five years, the uniform they bear has the colors of the Belgian flag and the shoes they wear are typical of the geographical region in which Binche -and Belgium- is located.

-“Carnival of Binche.” Cultural Studies: Holidays Around the World, edited by Pearline Jaikumar, Omnigraphics, Inc., 6th edition, 2018. Credo Reference, https://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/hfcwd/carnival_of_binche/0?institutionId=887.

-Alford, V. “Carnival at Binche.” Folklore, vol. 66, no. 3, 1955, pp. 352–357. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1258143.

-https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gille

Apelle figlio di Apollo

Nationality: Italian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bologna, Italy
Performance Date: 04/26/2021
Primary Language: Italian
Language: English

Main piece:

“Apelle figlio di Apollo fece una palla di pelle di pollo tutti i pesci vennero a galla per mangiare la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle figlio di Apollo”

Transliteration: 
Apelle son of Apollo made a ball of chicken’s skin. All the fishes came to the surface to eat the ball of chicken’s skin made by Apelle son of Apollo

[there is no real translation as also in Italian there isn’t a deeper sense expressed by the words, which have, as main purpose, the one of being musically rhythmic and twist your tongue]

Background:

L.L.: I remember when I was at school and there were literally contests between children [laughs]. Like during the break we would meet in the corridors and challenge each other on who was the best at performing tongue-twisters. And like, if you were faster or better at telling them, you would feel superior…you would feel super smart. Oh and, not to mention when you learnt a new one that your classmates didn’t know and so you got to teach them. That was a real satisfaction [laughs]

Context:

My informant performed this tongue-twister over a dinner, in which other friends were present, and, after the performance of the piece, we all started to practice other tongue-twister we learnt when younger

Thoughts:

Tongue-twisters surely are a fundamental piece of folk-speech, which is performed by children as well as adults. Usually they are learnt in young years of age, when, as my informant explains, they represent a sort of ‘exposition of intelligence’. 

In the case of Apelle figlio di Apollo, in fact, Italian kids would battle each other on who was the best at telling it, and, consequently, he or she would gain a feeling of supremacy on the other peers. 

Tongue-twisters as well are, therefore, definable as one of the many forms of rite of passage children use both to approach adulthood and to gain some sort of power inside of their social group. 

Pierino and his grandma

Nationality: Italian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bologna, Italy
Performance Date: 04/26/2021
Primary Language: Italian
Language: English

Main piece:

“Un giorno Pierino esce con la nonna e Pierino raccoglie una moneta per terra e la nonna gli dice: “Pierino non si raccolgono le cose per terra”. Allora Pierino la rimette dove stava. Ad un certo punto la nonna cade e dice a Pierino: “tirami su” e Pierino dice: “non posso nonna hai detto che non si raccolgono le cose per terra”.

Transliteration and Translation: 
One day Pierino goes out with his grandmother and picks up from the ground a coin, and his grandmother tells him: “Pierino, you must not pick up things from the ground”. Therefore, Pierino puts it back. At a certain point, the grandmother falls and tells to Pierino “lift me up” and Pierino answers:”I can’t grandma, you told me that I must not pick up things from the ground”

Background:

L.L.: I used to tell this to my grandmother all the time. At elementary school, everyday a different classmate of mine would come up to the others and tell “guys I absolutely have to tell you this new joke I have learnt, so that we then can tell it to our parents”. Often, these jokes had things like curse words within them…and, I don’t know, it was a form of rebellion, like something a bit transgressive so to obtain a shocked reaction from adults.

Context:

My informant told this joke this over a dinner, in which other friends were present, and, after the performance of the piece, they all started to talk about their infants memories related to this kind of humor.

Thoughts:

As many other categories, jokes as well are a big part of children’s folklore as they often represent -as my informant highlighted- a tool through which shocking or simply outsmarting parents and adults. Jokes are, indeed, ‘by definition’ a practice commonly used to sign a rite of passage, and, in the case of kids, they were and still are a means to approach adulthood and the liminal ages of growth. This joke, if read or heard by an adult, won’t probably be as funny as a child perceives it, and this is attributable to the fact that what makes it especially hilarious to the youngest is the sense of rebellion, audacity and ‘adulthood’ they gain from it.

Many are the childish jokes which portray this Pierino as main protagonist, and this shows another indicative aspect, which is the one of recognition in a specific figure by multiple members of a peer group. Pierino is, in fact, a nickname for Piero, which is one of the most common Italian names of all, and this makes of him a sort of spokesman for every Italian children going though his age. 

Ambarabà ciccì coccò

Nationality: Italian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bologna, Italy
Performance Date: 04/26/2021
Primary Language: Italian
Language: English

Main piece:

«Ambarabà ciccì coccò
tre civette sul comò
che facevano l’amore
con la figlia del dottore;
il dottore si ammalò 
ambarabà ciccì coccò!»

Transliteration: 
Ambarabà ciccì coccò, three owls on the dresser, which made love with the doctor’s daughter; the doctor got sick, ambarabà ciccì coccò.

[there is not a proper translation as also in Italian it does’t have a metaphorical or deeper sense, as the main purpose is the one for the words to rhyme one with the other and sort of articulate and give rhythm to the count children should do with it]

Background:

My informant is a 19 year old girl who was born in Crotone, Calabria(Southern Italy), but who spent most of her lifetime in Bologna (Italy). She claimed this piece to be an “integral part” of her up-bringing and childhood, and while recounting this to me, she naturally started to intone this rhyme, while pointing the fingers to me and the other people present. In fact, this nursery rhyme is usually performed with hand-gestures, in which fingers point people in a group so to ‘do the count’. 

Context: (the context of the performance)

My informant performed this over a dinner, in which other friends were present, and they all started to participate in the ‘practice’.

Thoughts:

This nursery rhyme is extremely interesting from multiple perspective. 

First of all, it is something which, despite being directly associated to infantry and childhood, is used by adults as well, especially in the context of folk-speech. For example, if you do not know what to choose between two options, people will say to you “do Ambarabà ciccì coccò” which basically mans ‘do the count’ —something similar to what in English would be toss a coin. 

Another curious aspect of it, it’s its evolution throughout time. I have, indeed, recently discovered that, in the original version, the verse “tre civette sul comò che facevano l’amore con la figlia del dottore” actually was “tre civette sul comò che facevano timore alla figlia del dottore”, which translated would be “three owls on the dresser which intimidated the doctor’s daughter”. This gives a complete new value to the song, as it shows how some means of expressions and communication young children have -like folk-songs or rhymes- are used by them in the attempt of approaching the adult’s world. Int his case, the fact that the three owls, from frightening the girl, make love with her, (beside the strange and quite perverse connotation) transform and include a grown-up thematic into a playful song. In this way, children not only indirectly get closer to a new and mature topic, but they can also be directly advised against certain behaviors. Particularly, little girls are advised not to act like the doctor’s daughter did, who, by making love with the three birds, made his father become ill.