Originally, it was related to a celebration of the middle of the summer and the end of the hard labour in the fields. In time, Roman Catholicism adopted this date as a Holy Day of Obligation to commemorate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary—the real physical elevation of her sinless soul and incorrupt body into Heaven.
Before the Roman Catholic Church came into existence, however, this holiday was celebrated in the Roman Empire to honor the gods—in particular Diana—and the cycle of fertility and ripening. In fact, the present Italian name of the holiday derives from its original Latin name, Feriae Augusti ("Festivals [Holidays] of the Emperor Augustus") [1].
Almost the entire month of August was taken as a holiday and leisure time in Italy in honor of this feast day.
In present days, Ferragosto is mainly a short holiday when Italians take brief vacations. Noting that Italy's shift from a rural to urban dominant population is recent and about one-third of Italians live in rural areas, many families with rural origins within the last one or two generations return to their village during Ferragosto.[citation needed]
Ferragosto is, next to Christmas, Easter and New Years, probably the most important holiday in Italy. You will read that the entire country shuts down on August 15 to celebrate, but in reality the country is already in shut-down mode. Many Italians take the entire month of August off anyway.
In our urban city of Torino that is void of beach access, the mass exodus from the city began a couple of weeks back. It is true, the streets are empty, stores are closed with their little notices pasted to the outside of the serandas giving their vacation dates. It feels like a ghost town in the month of August. This past weekend was the height of travel for the country and the lowest church attended Sunday of the year. When driving past the Catholic church in Leini' on Sunday morning, I ask Jonathan "Did the church cancel services today?" The parking lot was completely empty and no one was seen walking on the streets as is normal for any other given Sunday. Looking closely at the church entrance revealed two or three people, so it was definitely open. It was just as strange when attending our church. We began with 20 people including our family of 5, but midway through gained enough to give us a toal of 35 people. That is probably less than 1/4 of what we normally have on a Sunday.
When we return from vacation the final days of August it will also bring back neighbors and life to our city. Actually, our little fraction of Tedeschi will have started to celebrate their annual 10-day festa when we return. And thus, the final days of the summer will be spent in meriment with festas to be found in abundance as we say good-bye to summer and welcome to fall.
*Future Travel Tip: never visit Italy in August! (Unless you enjoy feeling like a sardine packed on a sandy beach or enjoy visiting Italy in it's life-less state)
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