The Maitunate of Gambatesa

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Music and pranks on New Year’s Eve

It is New Year’s Eve, amidst dinner, friends, relatives, parties and fireworks the hours are spent to close a year and begin a new one, with its good intentions and expectations. In many towns in Molise, however, there is also an ancient tradition, the maitunate, which in Gambatesa sees its highest expression.

These are improvised stornelli sung door to door to the most prominent people in the place accompanied by typical instruments such as organetti, bufù, tambourines and others.

The origin of maitunate is ancient and there are several interpretations and hypotheses about the birth of this tradition. What is certain is that these stornelli are improvised by groups of singers and musicians to jokingly and mockingly target the homeowners where they go.

The singers, being able to enjoy a kind of immunity extended only to the duration of the events, can afford to mock public figures in the life of the country but also ordinary people who perhaps has something to hide or who have made less than honorable gestures during the year.

To this day, maitunate are still sung as a joke also to tell facts of daily life of the people for whom they are performed and, in some cases, as companionship and support for those who are not going through an easy time.

So it starts from the early evening hours when the different teams start making the rounds of the alleys to reach the various houses. This continues throughout the night with a small festive break at midnight to toast the New Year and kick off the New Year. The maitunate go on until the afternoon of January 1 when they perform on stage in the square to be voted on by a panel of judges.

Thus ends the longest night of the year, returning to homes tired, happy and, perhaps, having been able to get a few pebbles off their shoes.