In Montescaglioso, the Cucibocca wanders through the streets of the town. With him you eat the Nine Bocconi to cross the Epiphany Night with prosperity and health
"Tea còs’ la vòcch ’!" (I sew your mouth), he is intimating, with a huge needle, the Cucibocca on the night ofepiphany along the streets of Montescaglioso (Matera). Just the mouth, the one to use to eat his own Nine Bocconi. Nobody really knows who he is: he could be a soul in Purgatory or a pilgrim. The strange figure seems to have been tried by a long journey: a long hemp beard, orange peel for eyes, no mouth, a fiscolo for a hat, ankle chains, a lantern and a wicker basket in his hand. Maybe he travels to get to some holy place, maybe he travels to look for something or he walks outside to get to a destination inside … Cucibocca travels, with that needle that scares children, and more, in the magical night. And as he travels, he needs those last Nine Bocconi to cross the line between the Old and the New Year. Getting to 9 and starting over from 1 already on the threshold of the New Sun, with prosperity and "good wishes".
The Nine Bocconi
Nine Bocconi each different from the other: if even one is not counted, the new year could be poor and unfortunate. A ritual imposed by a face that does not have a mouth, but only a very long beard. So down with the traditional pettole, strascinat, cod a ciauredda, fucazz, dried figs, dried fruit, olives, crustl, and cauzunciedd. In more recent times, the people of Montesi have had the brilliant idea of putting all the Nine Bocconi in a gigantic mess: the Calzone del Cucibocca, a loaf of about one and a half meters stuffed with olives, mushrooms, aubergines, dried tomatoes, sweet salami, black pepper, paprika, parmesan and turnip greens. I don't know how happy Cucibocca is for this variation on the theme, but the calzone is certainly a tasty street food to be discovered by following in the footsteps of the mysterious wanderer. The larger the size of your piece, the greater your luck. And at this point you can toast: "Gentlemen, stu mier’ fac touch touches, nu brindisi facimm a li Cucibocca! " (Gentlemen, this wine makes a splash, let's have a toast to the Cucibocca).
The Cucibocca begins the journey fromAbbey of San Michele Arcangelo. Here originally stood the old Greek acropolis of the seventh century BC. C., which from 893 was a monastic seat up to the 16th-17th century, when it was entrusted to the Benedictines. Same Benedictines they had the frescoes painted in the Hall of Mysteries or Hall of the Library of the Abbey. There is only one certain element in crossing Cucibocca's journey to Montescaglioso, and is frescoed in the Hall of Mysteries: Harpocrates, god of Silence. "Isis, after putting an amulet around her neck, gave birth to Harpocrates at the time of the winter Solstice, giving birth to him still imperfect and immature, in the midst of the first flowers and the first fruits that sprung up in advance of the season …", this is how Plutarch describes the birth of this divinity who brings his index finger to his mouth to order silence. The Silence of the one who knows and does not speak, eats. And in fact in Montescaglioso the god recommends: "Silentium sit vobis charum ut vivet non sit amarum" (Silence is dear to you so that living is not bitter).
It is not a "pilgrim" to think that, centuries and centuries ago, Montescaglioso was seen going "for the countryside" the dusty and mysterious "pilgrim" who today celebrates Epiphany through the streets of the town, just as the Magi pilgrimage in the wake of a comet even earlier. The rest is silence.
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