Festival In Naples (1950s)

[Music] Naples with historic Mont bazus in the background is the scene of one of Italy's oldest festivals the P the grto and this year it has all the color and Romance of the first one held 2,000 years ago half of the million people who live in Naples turn out for the event each year men women and children the celebration is jam-packed with excitement and sometimes it becomes a little too much for the youngster who can't keep up with all that's going [Music] on the P grto dates back to the days of the early Greeks who colonized this part of present day Italy one of the world's Beauty spots in mythology the Greek God Saturn was the creator of the Earth and the Sun and this was their way of honoring him the Christians later replaced Saturn with a statue of the madon and the statue originally was placed in a grotto hence the fiesta became known as P Grotto or at the feet of The Grotto a touch of Hawaii comes to Naples and it makes a big hit with the other children at the festival the seashore Resort of sento outside Naples joins in the fun with the fame Tarantella dancers staged on the Terrace of of the Grand Hotel excelsia Victoria High in the castella Mari overlooking the Bay of [Music] Naples the Tarantella is supposed to illustrate the efforts of neapolitans to cure themselves of the bites of poison spiders or tarantulas thus the dance begins in a slow tempo and gradually builds up until the performance reaches a frenzied climax it was believed back in the early days that only music and dancing could cure the bite of a tarantula [Music] for the P grto the men wear kneelength breaches of varied colors veses of contrasting Shades and Brilliant hats the women compete among one another to create magnificent dresses of gold embroidered Fabrics by popular Acclaim the best dressed and handsomest couple is crowned king and queen of the Tarantella the dancing continues for three days and nights while the orchestra plays on using tambourines and castets as in the olden [Music] day at night Naples goes all out crowding every inch of space on the street to see the huge floats each a masterpiece of design depicted on the floats are traditional events in Neapolitan history and Italian folklore it looks for all the world like New York's Times Square on New Year's [Music] Eve one beautiful float after another the children of Naples grow up in the tradition of Tarantella and the F gratto and each year the Esa gives them a chance to parade the streets dressed in paper costumes following the floats with the grown-ups P grto brings out all the glow of Italian pageantry [Music]