Sunday, May 30, 2021

Farming today compared to the old way, part one.

WELCOME TO MENFRANCO GENERAL BLOG. Today we will talk about, Farming today compared to the old way, part one, from my Hub Pages life story articles. 
What you see here, must be a show off of harvester machines and how harvesting is done today. So we have to say that this photo is just an exaggeration, because it is too crowded with machines. Anyhow, here all we want to point out, is that harvesting was a lot in the old times. 
 

Welcome to our article, Farming today compared to the old way 

Dear readers, because this original article was too long to use in a single blog, we have divided it in two parts.

Anyhow, here we are going to talk about farming today compared to the old ways, because I can mentally see the great difference that it has made in our standard of living. So, I believe that today we are better off than we were before; but let me see how I can describe this difference. You see, I am writing about my life story, so, I mentally compare the ways of life of today to the ways of life in the past when I was young; for this reason, I have become aware that there is a great difference; in fact, the difference is so great that it is worth writing an entire article to explain my personal point of view.

Anyhow, we must acknowledge that this modern wheat farming in Australia, and in other parts of the world, it has slashed the present cost of living a lot, and this helps us to live a better life. We believe that this has happened because of the new farming machines available to the farmers, and the fertilizer available to them; so, farmers are able to produce wheat and other produce a lot cheaper than in the past, so, food has become cheaper, therefore, we are better off today in many ways.

In this article, we invite our readers to compare how different farming and farming life was at the time when I was young in the fifties, and also, how hard was life then because most of us had to work hard just to earn enough to feed ourselves and our families.

This difference that we are talking about applies to the farmers and the general public as well, because today it affects both in a beneficial way. So, there is a lot to be said about this great difference in cost and hardship or easiness, and this has happened during my life timelifetime. So, I believe that our standard of living has improved a lot, at least in the sense of being able to feed ourselves with wheat and other farm products, because the cost of farm products are more affordable today than in the past; so, let us compare the cost of living, perhaps for the sake of seeing where we have come from and how much we have improved since then.

Today we often wonder how easy it is to grow and harvest wheat, at least it seems so when we look at a video that shows harvest time in the wheat farms, we see a few harvester machines in a field collect the wheat in no time at all, and because of this speed of these wonderful combine harvester machine food is a lot cheaper today than it used to be; of course these machines are only part of the machinery that helps the farmers produce the wheat, because there are many more machines required. So, let us talk about some other machinery that the farmers require.

---------------------------------------

Some farmers' machinery. 

Now let us talk about the farmer’s machinery and the benefit that has come from them; of course, this is due to the industrial revolution that has started a long time ago, and last century has reached the farming communities improving it a lot. It seems to me that the farming sector has been one of the last communities that has benefited from the industrial revolution, anyhow, that doesn’t matter how it has worked out, because today we are better off, so, let us talk about these machines.

We can say that the most important machine in the farms is the tractor, as this machine can be used in all sorts of farming, in wheat farming the tractor is followed by the harvester machine and other devices to till the soil and to sow the seeds, and all these machines put together make farming a lot easier today, therefore, wheat can be produced a lot cheaper, this of course helps keep the price of bread and other wheat made products down, since wheat is the main food elements required in the western world to prepare food, therefore, this new way of farming helps a great deal just about everybody, since wheat is one of the main ingredients to make foods for us to eat, and we require lots of it.

Of course, if we want to talk about farming there is more to say than just wheat farming, because there are many other things that the bloke on the land can produce, see this link here-under how Wikipedia explains farming.

Agriculture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dear readers, now that we have talked about these farmer’s machines, let us talk about wheat farming and the great benefit that we get from it; we must be happy about what is happening because it is a good thing for all of us; so, we want to point out that there is a great difference in the ways of living, and we are a lot better off today than we were when I was young, so, let us compare some of the benefits that we have achieved, since today the farmers can use these farm machines that the industrial revolution has made for us.

--------------------------------

Let us compare these benefits.  

Now, let us compare the great difference between today and the past. For comparison sake; today here in Australia there are a few places that a 600 gr loaf of bread costs you just one dollar, we know that this bread is sold at a very special price from these supermarket, in order to get the customers to the shop, but we wonder and we do not know how it can be done so cheap but they do it anyhow, this very low price of bread is possible only because the farmer can produce the wheat cheap for a start.

Then, because the wheat is cheap the price of bread can be cheap, the supermarkets make it even cheaper to attract customers, because the supermarkets have a price war to attract customers on bread and also on milk, so, we can buy a loaf of bread for one dollar and we can buy a two litre bottled milk for two dollars, that works out at one dollar per litre, again how they can do it I do not know, but they do it anyhow; so, there is plenty of cheap wholesome food around for us to enjoy, thanks to the farmers and the supermarkets. (We hope that this will last for a long time, but I have my doubts). Anyhow, I must point out that in the past, the price of bread and milk was a lot dear, in fact there have been times, when people were struggling to feed themselves, as we will explain before we finish writing this article.

But even though bread and milk is cheap beyond compare, there are people that still complain about the cost of living today, I know that what I am talking about here are only a few items and a lot more are needed to live well. But for comparison sake let us show you how easily we can afford to buy bread and milk to day, you see today, while I am writing this article for the first time, most people on the government old age pension in Australia receive about 700 dollars per fortnight, which would be about 50 dollars per day, they can easily afford to buy bread and milk and other food items.

Now that we have said how easy it is to buy bread and other staple food today, let us see how things were done in the past. You see, when I was young things were a lot harder than today, for sure we could not buy bread and milk as easy as we buy them today, because to produce these things took a lot more physical work than today, therefore, they were more expensive, they were so because the way of producing them was different, in order to show you what we mean, we are going to describe how wheat farming was done at the time when I was young, and how hard it was for some people just to have something to eat, even if it was just a piece of bread and butter, bread and milk, or bread and tomatoes or other basic things that one could find in the fields if you were in the farms. Anyhow, let me describe how farming was done then, in this following sub-article, farming the old ways, so, we can have a better understanding of the whole issue, and be able to compare the past with the present way of farming.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Farming the old way.  

Dear readers, to compare and explain how farming was done at the time when I was young, we are going to write here the way of farm life that was going on in those times; we know already that things have changed for the better since then, as we have written above, because of the tractor and new farming machinery that have come out since then, all due to the industrial revolution or progress; which we have experienced in the last hundred years or so, but when I was young there were a lot less advanced farming machine that could make farming easy, of course, the tractors were already there, but they were very expensive to buy for most of the small farmers, so, we had to do most things the old ways. Now let me tell you how life was in the farms of southern Italy in the early fifties and earlier.

It is a well-known fact that in those times and even now, there are two times during the year, when in the farms everybody is working hard and working very long hours; one of this was sowing time and the other is harvest time, let us start with sowing times. When I was young the working day at sowing time would start two hours before dawn, because we had to make the horses, mules and other animals ready for working in the fields, we had to feed them and water them as well, it had to be done in such a way that everything should be made ready to go into the fields at daybreak.

At that time of the year in the morning it was very cold and there are lots of frosty days, so, in the morning the outside temperature could be around zero or below, it is very hard then to harness the horses to the plough as everything one touches is so cold; but then when one gets going it is not so bad, because walking in the fields holding the plough in one hand and guiding the horses with the other hand is hard work and it makes one warm. This type of very hard work at sowing time goes on for about a month if the weather is good and perhaps it could be longer than a month. When the sowing is done then everything slows down again, but we had still to look after the farms’ animals and do other farming chores; see this article My farm life continues, where we describe what we did after sowing, and what we did during the winter time.

Now let us talk about harvest time, since this is the busiest time in the farms, because harvest time is when the farmers collect the fruits of their hard labor, so, there is no time to be wasted at harvest time, therefore, this was and is the most hectic time of the year for all the farmers, and it is a very worrying time too for the farmers, you see if something goes wrong all their work goes down the drain for the whole year, so to speak. Here we are talking about mostly how things were run in the farms when I was young.

Now let us say a few things about today farming, especially about wheat farming, because wheat is one of the most important produce that we need from farming, as we have already said at the beginning of this article. With wheat we make bread and pasta and other bakery products, therefore, it is the most important farm produce that we use. So, let us compare what is changed in wheat farming since I was young. 

Anyhow, I believe that this blog is long enough, so, we will continue with the second part of our article, in our next blog, Farming today compared to the old way, part two. Wheat harvest in the fifties, and the very old way. 

To see more click on this link, Farming today compared to the old way. 

See you soon. 

---------------------------

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Sunday, May 23, 2021

These are my simple life observations.

WELCOME TO MENFRANCO GENERAL BLOG. Today we will talk about the Madonna of Genzano story from my life story articles. Since nothing important to report has happened. 



Dear readers, we want to know what is the meaning of our life, but life is very complex, so, we can only observe and learn from it, if we do that, then, we may know the answer to our question and perhaps learn what we would like to do in life. Our life observation and our life story are like our own shadow, it will follow me everywhere I go, and I can use my observation of life, to live the rest of my life the best way I can. This is all I can think about life. 

These are simple life observations.   

Welcome to our article, Our life observations

Dear readers, what I am writing here are my life memories and observations, which bring me to another observation. You see, we have to learn from our life, before we can say these things; for instance, what I am doing now: Well I am writing my own life observations in this article, we will call this part, simple man life observations; and then, we will break my writings in several sub titles, like the following, observe and learn from life, let me talk about my childhood and my childhood pains; one can still learn from the hurting part of life, we need to be positive.  

Anyhow, as I have said, we have to observe and learn, and then we can use our observations to guide us during our life; our observations of life are like our shadow that follows us everywhere we go and it never fails, so, let us learn from life by observing whatever happens around us. I know that sometimes we want to forget what has happened to us, because it is painful to recall, but even those painful memories are worth remembering, because they can teach us how to avoid them next time.   

Looking at the ways that we are living today, we can say that it is better than it used to be; if we compare the way we used to live with today standard of living. This I am going to show you the difference in our next article that we have called, Farming today compared to the old way

Anyhow, even if life is easier today, living today is not as simple as it used to be; because of the changing ways that progress has brought with it, therefore, living our life today is complex, it needs to be looked at closely, even if it is a life of a simple man like me.

You see, in the old times it was easier, because life followed the same pattern of the generation before, so, it was easy to copy the previous generation. But today is different, because things are changing quickly, so, we must change if we want to keep up with the times, and the best way is to plan how we want to live our life. 

But even if we plan well ahead, there are times during our life when we must do whatever is most appropriate, to survive and thrive, and be able to earn our living. because that is the best way to solve the problem. You see, we need to observe and lean, it is necessary to do that even if it is done to survive those times that we happen to live in.

Observe and learn from life. 

We must accept life the way it comes, because that is the only thing that we can do; we must do it without upsetting ourselves too much; I am saying this because, during my life I have had a few of those life experiences that are not the best; 

Today, I am looking back at my life that I have lived, and I am thinking that I have lived the most important part of my life. You see, I happen to be in my sixties while I am writing this page for the first time. So, right now, I am wondering why I am writing this article, because writing articles is new to me, it is another lifestyle change, which has been brought about from those changing life events, you see, when I was young I could never have guessed that one day I could be writing something and publish it in something called the Internet, and I would be writing in a language that is not my native tongue.

All this has happened to me, because there have been lots of changes since I was born, there were life events that have changed my lifestyle during my life, so, they have forced me to change and to adjust with them as required. 

Anyhow, here I am talking about my own personal writings, and even if they are worth nothing to the rest of the world, they are my personal writings and my experience of life, therefore, I want to keep them forever while I am alive. Now, let me talk about my childhood and the problems that I went through when I was young.

Talking about my childhood. 

Let me write a record of my life, I was born near the end of the year 1938, and that is before the Second World War started. I was the second child in my family, my brother is only fourteen months older than myself, and for my parents my birth was too soon after their first born. 

I was born a good healthy boy, but in those days medicine was not as advanced as today, so, they didn’t immunize children as much as they do today, so, I did not receive Whooping Cough immunization as a child, so, I caught the Whooping Cough, and although survived it, since then I have kept coughing on and off for the rest of my life; the Whooping Cough most of the time leaves this condition to whoever caches it for the rest of their lives, at least this is how my mother has explained my coughing condition to me.
Another health scare happened when I was three or four years old: I was playing with my brother who was older than me by one year plus, and while we were playing I don’t know why he hit me with a heavy boot in my face; so that, my nose started bleeding, and it bled for a very long time, my parents were worried, and helped me stop the bleeding, but since then my nose has been bleeding very easily.

Anyhow, the blood loss and a poor diet in the farm made me grow very skinny, so, skinny that one could say that I had all the signs of malnutrition, I was so skinny that one could count my bony ribs, and I was also so light that other boys made fun of me, when we were playing and they used to lift me up.
I need to say also, that all these hardships and poor health that I have suffered when I was young; they are also due to the greatest drawback of my life. Because then Fate struck a heavy blow to my parents, as my father and three work horses perished from a lightning strike, while they were carrying on a cart one of the last loads of wheat of the season from a faraway field, I remember my mother crying several times about my father dead.

Death in the family and the greatest drawback of my life

When this great misfortune happened, we were left with no father and with great financial loss. So, after our father misfortune, our family that consisted then, of my mother and two boys and a girl including myself, we were left in a poor position to prepare for a decent future life.

My mother had to rely on her two younger brothers, who were still teenagers at that time, and they had to help her to run our small family farm, so, we could earn a living, because in those days there was no help from the government whatsoever, we were on our own, those were hard times indeed.
So, when I was about ten years old, because my family could not afford to hire a youth to help in the farm, I was chosen to help in the farm, instead of my brother who was one year older than me, and by right he should have been chosen to help. So, I instead of continuing to go to school and get a better education, I had to go to help in our family farm, and this became the greatest drawback of my life.

The way of life in the farm was very boring, as it had been for centuries before my time. But before my time people didn’t know how to live a better life, so, it didn’t matter much to them then. because everybody was at the same level of awareness, and they accepted life as it was. They did not worry if the lot of them were dull people compared to the towns’ people, because they were less educated and lived a lonely and boring life. Anyhow, the way of life that I was living, slowly became old fashioned, because of the human progress everything was changing quickly.

So, I have been unfortunate as a young man, because everything that had not changed for centuries started to change, and most of the people that were living in the towns who before depended from the farming sector to earn a living slowly became better off than us in the farms.
Because of the changing way of living and farming, it became hard for us to live in the farm and earn a living, so, in the end I had to leave our small family farm, to earn a living somewhere else. And it was then, that I realized that the work that I had done in the farm, and what I learned in the farm was a waste of time. Because I had to start to learn how to earn a living somewhere else.
So, I migrated to Australia. In Australia I changed job and worked in the building industry, which was a lot better than farming. About this building industry I will be writing a few articles.

------------------------------------------------------

Life means what you want it to mean, even when it hurts. 

Now, let us look at my life like a philosopher, and learn what we can from life. Here, we want to talk about the hurting part of live that we had to go through in our young life. Anyhow, life means whatever we want it to mean, even when it hurts us, because we can learn something from it, so, I need to say that, we the younger would be farmers of those times kept working in our farms to feed the rest of the community, and even if we were working our guts out, and while we were doing that we were becoming dull, we did our part to support the rest of the community. But the town’s community doesn’t see it that way, and they think that we are stupid people that work our guts out, because we are dull and don’t know better.

But what’s hurting us most, it is when the towns people seem to laugh at us because we have become dull compared to themselves; this is the way that we are being treated from the rest of the town’s community and it hurts too much.

So, we the hurt ones, we feel that we want to shout into their faces that they should be ashamed of themselves because; They have first sacrificed us, as they have put us in a position where we could not improve ourselves, instead of treating us in the same way as they did for themselves, and then they laugh at us because we have become dull. What a shame! You first sacrifice your own children by sending them to work at a very early age, and then you laugh at their sacrifice, only because through their sacrifice they have become dull.

Now, I need to say that I have written the story of my life when I was young, but there are a couple more articles that I need to write before I start the second part of my life story. One article is about my problems about love, which in this case will continue hereunder. Then, I will write about, Farming today compared to the old way. Then I will write the second part of my life story, beginning from when I migrated to Australia and what I did in Australia.

To see more click on this link, Our life observations. 

--------------------------------------------

Welcome to my article, Midway love life story

Dear readers, this is a second article in this same blog, so, this article is going to be shortened a lot, it is another life story event that has happened to me, we can say that it is more like a psychological event than a real-life event. Anyhow, today I have a dream of becoming a writer in my old age and write many things, I know I am dreaming to become a writer, in the hope of being able to reach her heart.

Psychological pains of unwanted love

Dear readers, this is my painful love story, if you believe that love exists. You see, being in love with one of the opposite sex, it is the most beautiful and natural thing in the world, because from this love that we feel with one another, one day another human being is going to be born, so, I suppose that nothing can be more natural than that, if that didn’t exist, then we could not exist. But love emotions have many twists, everyone of us has had experience with that, but let me tell you, those love feelings instead of bringing happiness and love, they can bring pain and bitterness, like what has happened to me, in my unwanted midway love story.

You see, what we are talking here are these psychological love things that happen to us, and they are those things that have accumulated within our system and they will drive us to do unusual things, even if they seem wrong to do at the time; here I want to become a write for love, because I am being driven to do it, so, let me write about, my unwanted love story.

My unwanted love stories

Dear readers, I know that I have said that I am going to tell you the story of my life. So, I hope you understand my position, I want also to tell you that when I started to write the story of my life, I felt as if I was going back to school to learn how to become a better writer.

Now that I have explained that let me introduce myself, my name is Frank and I am a simple bloke, and here I welcome you to read my unwanted love story and the ‘Observation of my life; but do not expect my writings to be well written because I have not been trained to be a writer, and I am not even a native of the English language, but I want to write about my painful love life, because my love emotions have pushed me to write about it.

 I want to write my life story because, I need to improve my knowledge of the English language, and by writing my life observations I will have the opportunity of reaching a higher standard of knowledge of the English language, which I would not achieve in any other way at my present advanced age.

So, for the present time, I can only hope that my writings will be clear enough for somebody to read and understand, and that the readers accept my writings just the way that I have been able to write them, because this love force within me drives me to do it anyhow.

----------------------------------------

Life observation on love. 

Life observation on love and wanting to become a writer

During my life I have observed what was happening around me. So, we can say that observing is a way of life that everybody does, because we can’t help it. Since it is important to know what’s happening around yourself in order to survive. So, everybody must observe what’s going on, even if one lives a simple life like I have done. 

Therefore, I have made my own observations during my life, and most of my observations are ordinary observations. But during my life, there has been one of my observations of life that took me by surprise, and I was shocked by it, not only at the time when it happened, but also for a long time afterward, and that event is one of the most important observations of my life. 

I must say, that this life event has happened to me past middle age, at a time when I was assuming that because of my mature age nothing would shock me, or even surprise me. But this happening did take me by surprise, and I was upset very much, therefore, I happen to have learned from this event a great deal about human nature, which I didn’t know before, and this human experience has made me change my views, about life and about love. And because of this rare event of my life, now I believe that, when one falls in love everything has a different meaning.

Anyhow, there may be times in our life, when we human beings will go crazy about somebody or something, and we will desire to have this something so much that we will try to do anything to reach out for it, to make it our own. So, at that moment of life when this happens: We will feel that we want to reach out and do whatever we must do without sparing any efforts, and we hope so much to succeed in our attempt, believing that it will make ourselves feel better, if we succeed to reach our goal. We must do it, because the desire of getting whatever we want so much is so great that we can’t escape it, and even if our reasoning mind tells us that what we are doing is not right, we will keep doing it anyhow. Because, we will be driven from the inborn human nature that’s within us.

All these love feelings with no love happenings have pushed me to write for myself only, because I was forced to write in the hope that through writing I would be able to reach her heart.

Well, here I want to point it out to you, that my love dream has made me write a lot about my love feelings, and even though they were only painful love feelings, I had to keep writing them: so that I could keep dreaming about my love and not despair, and while I was writing and dreaming I felt that I was trying to prepare myself for the future, so, I was hoping that there was a future for me with this special person. But it never happened, and my dream of love has remains only a dream.

Having realized that my love dream would never become true, I found that I could not forget about my love dream writings, because they were and are a part of myself, and therefore I could never willingly destroy them. I have also to say that I have been able to write about my love dreams, because we have a computer nowadays, and therefore, it is a lot easier for me to write on the computer, and the computer allows me to store my writings and edit them.

Anyhow, I believe that this article is becoming too long. So, see you with my next article, where I am going to write about; Farming today compared to the old way.

To see more click on this link,  Midway love life story. See you later.

----------------------------------------------- 


Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Saturday, May 15, 2021

The Madonna of Genzano story.

WELCOME TO MENFRANCO GENERAL BLOG. Today we will talk about the Madonna of Genzano story from my life story articles. Since nothing important to report has happened. 



Now let me explain, this is a close up of the Madonna of Genzano that we take around town at the Madonna feast, but it is not the Madonna we found in 1621 at Capodaqua, it is a replacement for the feast.   



Now, this is the Madonna with child effigy that they found the year 1621 at Genzano di Lucania. In reality the effigy they found had no gold crown, it is a sculpture on a rectangular flat stone about 45 centimetre wide and 60 centimetre tall or there about.  


The Madonna of Genzano story.   

Welcome to our article,  The Madonna story. 

Dear readers, in this article we will write about the history of the Madonna of Genzano. Anyhow, here is a link about what sometime happens in the church of this Madonna of Genzano, some days now. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsPrg1ucmsQ

Now, in our last article the heritage chapter, we have explained that in Genzano di Lucania a long time ago there were Greek people living in one of the chasms, since even today it is called the Greek chasm. Anyhow, I want to go back in time and talk about the Greek people; because we believe that this Madonna story that we are writing here, could not have happened if the Greek people were not there. You see, before those Greek people left the chasm for the last time, they hid this Madonna effigy that has made history in the town of Genzano.

Anyhow, we must assume this imaginary story, because when we look at the evidence it seems that the Greek people were forced to move away from their living place in the chasm, and when they did, they hid their Madonna effigy at the lower end of the chasm. Why they hid this Madonna effigy we are not sure, but they did.

Here we are talking about the Greek people of the early Christian community that lived in the chasm of Genzano; we have to admit that there is no written evidence, so, what we are telling here is folklore stories and logic human explanations, when we put together what is known today.

Anyhow, what follows here is guess work, because nobody knows what happened to the Greek people, it is known that they were there in the chasm and then they were not there anymore, but the facts are not known, and today it is not important to know what happened to them, since we want only to tell you the story of the Greek Madonna effigy. It seems that the Greek people were persecuted and had to run away, and when they left, they had to hide away their most precious religious things. So, they left behind buried in a secret spot in a little-known cave, an effigy of a Madonna, which was to be found later by the people of Genzano di Lucania.

How they found this Madonna icon, everybody in Genzano seems to know the story, because it is a story that has been told from generation to generation, since they found this Madonna, so, just about everybody in Genzano can tell you the story. Therefore, I had only to find a few names and a few dates to write my own version down, which I want to tell you now.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Telling the Madonna story. 

One day in the year of our Lord 1619 there was a fourteen years old youth grazing oxen in the fields of Genzano, in the zone that we call Strippara; his parents were of a good and honorable family, the youth name was; Pietro di Giovanni Filippo, and he was minding some oxen in the fields, at the beginning of the chasm ‘Del Monte’ when this event happened. While he was browsing his oxen; a Lady all dressed in white appeared to him; and she told him that he should go and tell the people of Genzano that, they should go into the chasm near the fountain of Capo d’aqua, and dig in the cave that was once known as the vineyard of ‘Don Fabio’ and they would find her there.

The youth went to town and told the people and the priest of the apparition of this great Lady, but they were not sure whether to believe him or not; so, nothing was done. But after a few days or a week or two, the Lady in white appeared to the youth again; but this time she asked the youth to open his hand, and she wrote in his hand a message to the priest, she closed the youth hand and told him to go to the priest and show him that writing. The youth now with his closed fist that he could not or would not open for fear ran into the town and found the priest, and told him about the second apparition of the Lady in white, and that the Lady had written on his hand in his closed fist something; the priest took his hand to see and there in front of the priest he could open his hand again; and in his hand the priest could see the message which read (I am Maria Santissima Delle Grazie, and come to find me).

So, now the priest had no doubt in his mind from where that message was coming from, and he assembled the people of Genzano and told them the facts. A search was organized, and they dug in and around the said cave for a very long time, and not knowing where else to dig, they also dug farther up the mountain, where they found some human remains and other object as evidence that eremites had been living there, a long time ago.

The search went on for about two years. So, they thought that there was not a real Madonna image to be found, because the only image of a Madonna that they had found, it was a Madonna traced over the sand which was slowly disappearing. And thinking that this was all they would find, they decided to give up the search, but at the same time they wanted to build a small chapel in honor of this Madonna. But while they were digging the foundation for this chapel, a whole heap of hard rocks fell from the chasm’s wall above, which showed them that there was a smaller cave near the old cave higher up in the chasm’s wall, and in this small cave they found a few religious items, including a small image of St. Peter on a brick, but there was no Madonna image or icon to be found.

-------------------------------------------

The Madonna is found.  

Anyhow, they decided to remove the fallen rocks, they could use the rocks to build the chapel, when the following happened; it happened the 25th day of March 1621 late in the afternoon, it was about the time when in the church they say this afternoon Vespers’ prayers, at this time of the day most people that are in the country pack up to go home. But there was a worker working at the fallen stone heap, he was tired, but he wanted to do a little bit more, so, he kept working: His name was ‘Giovanni Malatesta’ and he was digging with a pick to get the stones loose from the fallen heap of rocks, when he hit a very hard rock, and a beautiful aroma filled the air: he had struck with his pick the sculpture of the ‘Madonna with Child’. What a shock to this man must have been, when he realized that he struck with his pick the icon of the Madonna over the eye. They say that he never was the same man again, and he died early in life, after this event.

As soon as they realized that they had found the Madonna, somebody ran up the road to town, to let the people of Genzano know that they had found the Madonna icon.

All the religious authorities were in due time advised about the finding of the Madonna icon, and they took part in the prescribed religious events that followed. A Chapel was built on the spot where they had found the Madonna, with the intention that one day they would build a church there. After they found the icon of the Madonna with Child many people came to adore this Madonna, they came from the surrounding towns and from far away towns and they received many miracles from this Madonna that would be hard to count them. Anyhow, this is the Madonna folklore story that goes around Genzano town even these days.

---------------------------------------

Taking the Madonna to town. 

But there is more folklore story about this Madonna, so, let us tell you the story, the way it has been told and retold many times from the elders of the town.

The story is, that while they were taking the Madonna effigy to town, to the church of Maria SS Della Platea, which was the main church of Genzano then, when they reached the entrance of the town, the Madonna effigy became heavy, (In those times every town had their entrance doors that were shut at night), the effigy was so heavy that the bears had to stop and set the devise they were carrying the Madonna with on the ground.

Then when they tried to lift her off the ground they could not lift her; so, the priest and the town authorities started to think, why this was happening and what they could do to overcome this unseen problem, some wise man started saying that perhaps the Madonna wanted to be recognized that she was a powerful spiritual being, and to recognize her the best thing to do was to give her the keys of the town, and hope that this was what the Madonna wanted, so, they went to fetch the keys and placed the keys beside her effigy, and soon the effigy became light again and they were able to take her through the entrance of the town and into the church. 

We need to say that believer believe any religious thing that are being told; I am saying this because of the following event, I remember when I was young that at this same entrance where the Madonna came into Genzano town the first time; there were times when some peregrines would come to adore this Madonna with child, and they were bringing with them a little statue of a child, I don’t know exactly what all this meant, but there is a phrase in the town dialect “U bambnid d Frenz” meaning the little baby Jesus of Forenza; Forenza is a town that take several hours of walking to reach Genzano, and those peregrines did all this walking to come and adore this Madonna in Genzano, there were really religious believers in those old days.

-------------------------------------------

Building the Madonna church. 

A few years after they found the Madonna icon at Capodaqua, somebody dreamed that the Madonna wanted a church of her own, built on a hill called ‘Montefreddo’. When the dreamer dreamed that the Madonna wanted her church built, that night was snowing, but in the morning the snow had melted away everywhere except where the dreamer had dreamed that the Madonna wanted her church built. The dreamer told her dream to the people of Genzano, which then they understood and took notice of the strange event of the snow. Therefore, it was decided that the new church had to be built where that large patch of snow was left. And this is the reason why the church of this Madonna with child was built on this hill called, Montefreddo.

With the building of the Madonna church many devotees came to adore this Madonna, and they prayed to her for graces and miracles; and many graces and miracles they received in return, so, this Madonna sanctuary grew and became well known all around the country for a few centuries.

Today, this Madonna church has been damaged badly twice by earthquake and once by fire, it has been rebuilt and restored and it is still popular, but not quite as much as it used to be, I suppose it is the sign of the times, because people nowadays don’t believe in religion as much as they believed the old times, when they found this Madonna.

Anyhow, in the town of Genzano, we still celebrate a great feast for this Madonna, the yearly festivity for this Madonna are held for three days the first weekend in August. We will come back to tell you about these festivities later; because now I want to tell you what else the people of Genzano did after they found the Madonna Icon at Capo D’aqua.

------------------------------------------------------

Madonna chapel and fountain. 

The Madonna chapel and Capo D'aqua fountain

Anyhow, when they built the Madonna chapel; at the same time, they built a larger fountain, because when they were digging to find the Madonna icon, they found a large spring of water, so, they channeled this water to make a larger fountain at Capo d’aqua, because on the abundance of this spring waters.

Since then this fountain has been rebuilt and enlarged several times, one of this was about the year 1800, to serve the people of Genzano as the population was growing larger. The fountain has inscribed in a corner the name of a certain ‘Lepore’, perhaps he was the mayor of the town at the time when they built or rebuilt the fountain. 

The fountain was built as a simple country fountain, and it had five or six large troughs of about three-metre-long and one-metre-wide, all built of solid and simple masonry. We believe that the people of Genzano have used this fountain outside the town a lot, because there was no reticulated water in town in those days.

So, this fountain was used in various ways, as there are two troughs which have three and four water sprouts each, which are fed from the spring and are constantly pouring water into the troughs. The two troughs with the sprouts are reserved for the animals to drink, and for those people that want to fill some vessels straight from the sprouts. From these two troughs then the water runs out into the rest of the troughs, and these secondary troughs were used to do the town’s washing, since there was no reticulated water in town in those times.

Capo d’aqua fountain was very popular in the old times, there was even a song that a young girl used to sing happily, she would sing about the time when she would go to Capo d’aqua fountain to do the washing. I can still remember a few of the dialect verses, and they go like this:

My Italian dialect verses.

Me chiam Rosa e teng vent’ann

E a Capodaqua ije lav li pann

Kess eij la dota ca me dai mam

na strecatora e na cest pei pann.

--------------------------------

English version

My name is Rose and I am twenty

And a Capo D’aqua I wash the clothes

This is the dowry that my mother gives me,

A scrubbing board and a basket for clothes.

---------------------------

There is a longer version of the washing lady written from the writer 'Angelo Valente' which must be a lot closer to the original; I am going to post it in my blog, http://genzanoit.blogspot.com/, once you open this link on the left side find a list of pages and click on, Poem the washing lady.

Now this blog has been shortened, to see more click on this link, The Madonna story. I believe that I have said enough. So, see you next time with, our life observations.  

--------------------------------------------


Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)