Ardia of Sedilo

There are other sacred and profane elements, horses and knights in the "sedilese" demonstration which occurs on the 6th and 7th of July held in honour of the Emperor Saint Constantine. The ritual race of the Ardia celebrates the victory of Saint Constantine over Massenzio: the knights simulate the fight around the banner of the saint, whose defeat would symbolize the victory of the evil forces over the good ones. Historic time and myth melt in the memory of very ancient rites linked to the death and rebirth of the nature.Not by chance the feast is a kind of link between the end of the spring rites and the summer rite of reaping: thanks for the harvest and expiation of the sacrifice that the countryman is about to make, that's to say the killing of the field by reaping the wheat.