Ritual

I'm still reeling from the surprise that is Padua.  It was so different in 2009 that I hardly recognise it now, except for the familiar sense that here in Padua all is well.  It's a very surrounding and enveloping town, cosy like a warm blanket and welcoming like an old friend.  Below are two photos taken looking each way down the street from the window of our apartment, early this morning.

A huge part of the community here is made up of university students, as Padua is an old university town - the University of Padova was founded in 1222.  The young people provide colour and light to this old town and their laughter and joy is apparent.  How could anyone be sad, in this town which offers so much?

It appears that today is graduation day for some of the students; further, it appears that there are some interesting rituals which take place on this special day.  After the official ceremony, students parade down the main street to the piazza (public square), wearing a wreath of bright green laurel leaves and bells around their necks, so that everyone can easily identify the students out of the general throng.

On arrival, their friends and family form a kind of guard of honour for them and the student runs back and forth through this, while being slapped on the back.  At this point, they are still wearing their graduation outfits, but soon thereafter the family surrounds the student and another set of clothing is dragged out for them to change into; this second outfit has been put together by their friends and might be a superhero costume, a great big nappy, funny hat or another strange costume of some kind (one boy we saw was dressed only in his jocks, with a beak on his face - more of this later...). 

A pedestal is erected and the student must stand on it and recite a long funny poem about his life which has been written and transcribed onto a huge scroll along with a large caricature of the student, by his friends; in the meantime, the mates spray him with shaving lotion, pour water and flour on him, throw eggs at him, squirt tomato sauce or any of a number of other concoctions at him in order to distract him from the reading - if he makes a mistake while reading, or hesitates, he must take a swig of the(reasonably alcoholic) beverage which has been brought along for him.  By the end of the poem, the student is generally covered head to toe in a mixture of all the things he or she has been sprayed with.

The aforementioned student wearing only jocks, was covered in something very sticky, followed by a pillow-ful (?) of feathers, so that he looked like a 6-foot chicken.

All of the swigging is of course accompanied by chanting and laughter and it's all great fun to watch.  There might be a limbo stick or the local fountain to be contended with, too - all with great hilarity, of course! When it is over, the graduand is wiped down and tidied up enough to be able to put his proper clothes back on, then everyone goes off to a big celebratory meal elsewhere.  The theory behind the ritual is that this is the fun part at the end of the studies and before the serious part of real life begins. Good theory.

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