If there’s one thing Italians hold dear, it’s their local traditions. Whether you live in a tiny village or a major city, there are customs, rituals, and habits that feel impossible to give up. Secularization has, in many cases, erased the large crowds and mass participation that once defined these events.

Yet unless a community has vanished due to emigration, depopulation, or a declining birth rate, local folklore rarely disappears. The traditions of a region, town, or social group – expressed through legends, beliefs, customs, religious practices, and oral storytelling – function, first and foremost, as rites of passage. They are the symbols of belonging passed from one generation to the next.