Tangled

On September 7th there is the Festa della Rificolona every year in Piazza Santissima Annunziata which is one of those very Italian festivals and my group was probably most of the only non-native it the square.  The Festa della Rificolona(or festival of lanterns) is a festival created to celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary although according to my information this festival wasn't a big deal until 1555 when Florence defeated Siena.   It was an amazing site, I wish I had brought my camera (it was tucked neatly in my drawer waiting for me to get it, although to be perfectly honest it doesn't take great night photographs so images wouldn't be as impressive as it actually looked).  This is also known as the Festival of lanterns, there was a woman giving what I expect to be a very moving speech, the whole crowd was mesmerized.  There was families with children, and everyone had lanterns.  Some lanterns had an electronic light in them, some had an actual tea light, some were handmade and some were obviously purchased, but all lanterns were on sticks held above the crowd.  There was one very large replica of the Duomo that obviously took someone a very long time.  They were beautiful, especially all held up on over the heads of the crowd.  There was also children running around with spit ball shooters, trying to hit as many lanterns as they could.  This was a strange event to watch, especially because not only were these spit balls hitting lanterns, they were breaking them by puncturing the cray-paper and in some cases knocking them completely off their support stick.  I did a little research and that tradition has something to do with the schism between the rich and poor.   When this festival was first started the rich patrons were be able to afford lanterns, where as the poor would not, so to try and knock the rich down they would try and destroy their lanterns.