Buono (mezzo) Onomastico

Yesterday was June 29th, Paolo's onomastico, or name day. Of course he complains, because he only gets half a onomastico. It is shared with St. Peter. When he was a kid, he used to get little gifts, but as folks get older, they tend to stop celebrating onomastici, even though they were considered as important as Americans tend to consider birthdays.

Anyway, the town went all out for Paolo. All the ships were in the harbor, there would be no fishing on Paolo's St. Day. I had no idea he was that important.
The streets near the port were bustling with bancarellas selling more junk than you can find at a county fair. Of course I was tempted by everything, but ended up with an air pump to help fix flat tires that plugs into car cigarette lighters. Now I will no longer have flat tires that can be fixed.

Of course the band was there, as were boy scouts and girl scouts, all in their different colored uniforms. Actually, the uniforms of the girl scouts and the police almost looked the same. The only difference being, of course, that the girl scouts acted in a far more mature manner.

I had come down the night before to wander through, and it was indeed a good time. The streets had been crowded with young families, old couples holding hands and arguing past all the stalls, and adolescents, their hormones raging, running down the street to get to the luna park, or carnival rides, as we call them in the states.

Usually on Saturday and Sunday night, all the junior high age girls get dressed up as junior sluts to promenade downtown in front of the boys, who hang out against the wall and try to act cool. Well, for this festa, the girls got dressed up as super sluts. I would print pictures for you, but I would fear we could both be arrested for kiddy porn.

The festa runs for four nights, and each night the fisherman push the statue of St. Paolo through the streets. This time it really isn't fair, as Paolo is on wheels, so they do not have to work as hard as they did for Sta. Maria de Soccorso, where they actually picked her up and paraded her through the streets. It is still fun to watch. I am amazed at how little the statue at the right looks like the real St. Paolo, pictured at the top of this entry. Oh well.

And by the way, in case you are wondering why the port goes overboard, so to speak, for St. Paolo and ignores St. Pietro, even though the two share the same feast day, it is because the port is named St. Paolo. So even the port was celebrating its name half-day.