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Holy Smoke: Lighting Up Religiously

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Anonymous

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BBC News Online: 'Kids celebrate smoky saint's day'
Tuesday, 20 January, 2004

Simone is nine years old. On Saturday, in between playing football, sitting down for a big family lunch and watching a spot of television, he spent the day smoking, like almost all his friends and the rest of the town. He is seven years too young to buy the cigarettes himself, but that is okay.

"My parents bought me some" he explains.

Nearby one mother is encouraging Agostino, her two-year-old, to take his first puff, but he does not seem very convinced.

Welcome to Capena, a small medieval town to the north of Rome which the anti-smoking message does not appear to have reached yet.

Every year, like many towns and villages across Italy, they light a bonfire as part of the festival of St Anthony, which is also celebrated with the blessing of animals to bring prosperity in the year ahead.

But unlike other places, once the fire is burning in the square, the town's inhabitants use it to light cigarettes.

The Italian Government may have fallen into line with many other countries around the world this month, introducing a tough new law banning smoking in bars and restaurants, but that did not stop the people of Capena.

As in previous years, the most eager participants were children, some as young as six.

Even the official brochure about the town talks of how characteristic it is to see everyone, "even the children" smoking throughout the day.

...
By Suzanne Bush, BBC, in Capena
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:confused:
 
Nearby one mother is encouraging Agostino, her two-year-old, to take his first puff, but he does not seem very convinced.
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I'm stunned.

I wonder, instead of stigmata, if devout followers of St Anthony display yellowed fingers and teeth, have oozing cigarette burns and are able to hawk up the contents of their lungs in a way that would make Wilfrid Brambell jealous.

"Go on, have a fag, it's good for you!" :rolleyes:
 
They are very lucky you know. Many underage smokers do not have the encoragement of religion.

(Now will someone please explain the connection between St Antony and fags??)
 
Bump ...

Here's a similar - and similarly mysterious - January tradition from a Portuguese village. I wonder whether there's a common historical or conceptual thread that connects this to the Italian version.

Portuguese town encourages children to smoke at Epiphany
The Epiphany celebrations in the Portuguese village of Vale de Salgueiro feature a tradition that each year causes an outcry among outsiders: Parents encouraging their children, some as young as 5, to smoke cigarettes.

Locals say the practice has been passed down for centuries as part of a celebration of life tied to the Christian Epiphany and the winter solstice — but nobody is sure what it symbolizes or exactly why parents buy the packs of cigarettes for their children and encourage them to take part.

The two-day celebrations, which start Friday and end Saturday with a Mass, include dancing around bonfires, a piper playing music and an elected “king” who distributes plentiful wine and snacks. ...

Jose Ribeirinha, a writer who has published a book on the Vale do Salgueiro festivities, said the roots of the tradition are unknown, but may have to do with celebrating the rebirth of nature and human life. He said the village is in a region that adheres to many traditions dating back to pagan times, and that since Roman times, during the winter solstice period villagers here have taken the liberty to do things that would be out of the norm in the rest of the year.
...
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SOURCE: https://apnews.com/ff0caa897e864970...town-encourages-children-to-smoke-at-Epiphany
 
What does any of this have to do with priests? They aren't even mentioned in either of the stories. :dunno:

(Edit-reference was to do with the thread title, now changed)
 
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Min Bannister said:
What does any of this have to do with priests?
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Mass is mentioned but whether the people light up during it is dubious.

A lot of Catholic priests and Christian Brothers used to smoke like chimneys. Not sure how the latter squared that with vows of poverty but they weren't too hot on chastity either. :bish:
 
Incense is still used in Catholic and High Anglican rites. I think it relates to the way God was thought to inhale the fumes of sacrifices in the Old Testament. :bish:
 
I'm a bit tired right now so I won't go on at length, but I have a vague recollection that various smokes were used by ancient Greek oracles, and that the word 'inspiration' is related.
 
James_H said:
I'm a bit tired right now so I won't go on at length, but I have a vague recollection that various smokes were used by ancient Greek oracles, and that the word 'inspiration' is related.
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There were Oracles who'd inhale volcanic fumes and babble whatever came into their heads, and the cursed one who always spoke the truth but was never believed.

(The novel Pompeii has a great passage about someone who consults and Oracle about the future of the city. He is heartened to hear that two thousand years n the future, people will flock there from all parts of the world, and every language spoken will be heard there!)
 
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