WITH THE FREE PATRONAGE OF
CARNEVALE DI PUTIGNANO
CHURCH OF SAN PIETRO APOSTOLO
Propaggini, the offshoot of the vine
"Propagginare" means to plant grape shoots with a cuttings
The offshoot of the vine, the description desired by the Treccani Italian dictionary, is "In agriculture, p. A branch, make an offshoot; for a plant, multiply it by means of an offshoot.An offshoot or already propagation with a single "p", according to the definition of the community encyclopedia Wikipedia is: "Offshoots are lateral shoots that are produced on the main stem of a plant. They may be known colloquially as "suckers". In agriculture, the term offshoot indicates the branch that is bent and buried for the multiplication by propagation, also called propagation, of a plant It is also used as a synonym for this activity, for example, in phrases such as: "make the offshoot", "multiply by offshoot".
The propagation of the vine, in the vernacular "Chiandà u Ceppon", was nothing more than the work carried out by our peasant ancestors at the end of December each year, when some of the branches, now devoid of leaves, are buried to multiply their number and rejuvenate the vineyards. This was the preparatory phase for the overall pruning of each plant, which served to make it rest for the whole winter period.
The offshoot technique is no longer used since the early 1900s for the arrival and multiplication of the phyllosera of the vine, a phytophagous associated with the species of the genus Vitis that attacks the roots of the vines making them rot, today it is preferred to multiply the plants by cuttings. From the metaphor of the act of penetrating the ground for the vine shoot, the opening event of the Carnival is born on December 26 of each year.
Symbolically, the metaphor of the vine is contained in the "Chiandà u C'ppon", that is, in penetrating with the sarcastic word the laudable or wrong conduct of the prominent person targeted. In the declamation of the ironic verses we note the continuous reference of all the offshoots to the work of the vineyard barbatell (barbatella), c'ppon (vine stock), ciucc'nat (clay amphora for the conservation of wine), buttiglion (Bottiglione).
More suggestive and folkloric were the wagons decorated with branches that carried the offshoots from Porta Barsento to the entrance of the ancient village off the coast of Santa Maria and finally on the Corso, the offshoots themselves dressed as peasants and massai. These traditions are not written in any text, but evidently have been preserved over time as in the case of all the stories and legends that have come down to the present day with the oral tradition.
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