Night of Cucibocca

The night before the Epiphany, the city of Montescaglioso, in the evening hours, It is the scene of a real rite: The "Night of Cucibocca", event from the unique character of all the regions of Southern Italy. The event is organized by the local Pro Loco together with the City Administration.

The program includes, at 18.30, at the cellar of the old town, The dressing of the Cucibocca; from 19,30 all 22 the Cucibocca will move to the Abbey St. Michael the Archangel to continue their walk through the alleys of the old town montese. Their journey will end in Piazza Roma where he will follow the final concert of Kalàscima, and you can taste the "Nine of Bocconi Cucibocca" with stands of typical products.

What is a rite of Cucibocca immersed in the roots of a mysterious past that the city montese helps to keep alive. And 'likely that this is a ceremony that originates in the Orthodox calendar - Byzantine, in which it is celebrated San Simeon The Stylite, whose characteristic is represented precisely by a broken chain. The ceremony is based on the disguise of some figures, "Cos l 'Vucci" (Cucibocca), unrecognizable thanks to a pair of glasses derived from orange peels and a bushy white beard (that remembers, very closely, the god of the Egyptian silence Arpocrates, depicted in a fresco in the Abbey Library, who he forefinger to her lips to indicate silence), from straw hat or from a hemp disk that is used routinely in many mills present in the territory, and the dark colored clothing, (old coats or cloaks, called the 'cappottl). The mysterious figures roam the streets of the old part of Montescaglioso dragging a broken chain that produces a thud on the pavement. In hand, as usual, supporting a basket and a lamp, in addition to a long needle with which "threaten" the smallest sewing their mouths (hence the name of Cucibocca), scaring them and leaving the green light to the day after Epiphany, 6 January, will bear gifts.

The tradition has always been maintained over the years by the elders of the village, as well as they recite the testimonies of citizens and they also speak of newspaper articles at the time, in particular, an article in 1966 he was born in 1990, the journalist Alberto Parisi. The demonstration was carried out by 1967 on the Pro Loco of Montescaglioso, in 1999 The Environmental Education Center has made a real tourist event in collaboration with the Ente Parco Murgia Matera entrusting the graphics Mauro Bubbico, teacher ISIA of Urbino and member of Alliance Graphique Internationale, that made the image of Cucibocca a real emblem recognizable around the world. From the 2015 the event has been included in the list of “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Basilicata Region "with a rededication to the Pro loco" G.Matarazzo ", former member of the demoantropologiche Masks Network della Lucania through the presence of the masks of the ritual of Carnevalone Montese.