Cricket’s Festival

 

Festa del Grillois a traditional festival in Florence, celebrating the singing crickets.

It is an ancient tradition and when I was a kid I loved spending the afternoon at the festival looking at the crickets. In fact in the past you could buy a cricket and bring it home with you holding it in a nice and colored house-cage.

In Florence tradition the singing cricket is considered a lucky-charm, preserving the happiness of the family. And the festival dates back to polytheistic festivals celebrating the arrival of Spring. Then it was transformed into Calendimaggio (May Day) where young men used to decorate with flower windows and doors of their beloved girlfriends all around the city. Then they used to bring them a cricket as lucky-charm. The festival was also the occasion for pic-nic at Cascine Park with the family, while flirting with girls.

Nowadays the Cricket Festival is a local fair where you can find arts and crafts, local products and mechanical crickets in colored cages. In fact they don’t sell anymore real crickets as they used to do in the past. The Festa del Grillo takes place at Cascine Park in Florence on Sunday May 20th from morning till evening.

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