A mix of theater in music, rhyming words and sarcasm in the ancient vernacular in the main square of the historic village. This is what every year on December 26, from the early hours of the afternoon, brings together so many spectators who attend a show that, in the end, is the synthesis of a year of politics, administration, life lived and events in the country.
Throughout the afternoon, challenging the often adverse weather conditions, the offshoots, that is the dialectal poets, tell to the sound of music and rhyming jokes how the politician on duty behaved in fulfilling his commitment to the citizens, a well-known character in city in the work in their professional sector, rather than the spiritual worker in the moral assistance to their community. No one, worthy of mention for acts that are too or too little deserving, escapes the creativity of the lyricists.
We can certainly confirm that the RAP, acronym for Rhythm and Poetry - rhythm and poetry, the musical genre born at the turn of the 70s in America as an expression of protest by young black people, has been practiced here in Putignano since 1394. Certainly different in rhythms , notes and instruments, but close in philosophy.
The recitation of the "Ceppòn", that is of the satirical verses, has always been considered a purifying rite by the community which, "putting in the streets" the misdeeds of the country life of the past year, wants to propitiate an almost better future. From 26 December the official start of the Putignano Carnival, the longest in Italy and the oldest in Europe.