Cocullo All Events
• A WorldWeb.com Travel Guide to All Events in Cocullo, AQ, Abruzzo.
Festival of the Snakes, Cocullo (Processione dei Serpari)
TBA
Every year the hamlet of Cocullo holds the curious celebration, the Festival of the Snakes, a two-month-long observance where the ancient foe of the farmer, the snake, is "tamed". In 700 BC the town was seething with snakes, and Apollo is said to have advised villagers to catch as many of the reptiles as they could, and tame them by draping them over his statue before releasing them. This seemed to work and on March 19 of every year since, locals begin to gather snakes until the first Thursday of May, when Apollo's statue is carried through the streets for villagers to adorn with their capture.
Every year the hamlet of Cocullo holds the curious celebration, the Festival of the Snakes, a two-month-long observance where the ancient foe of the farmer, the snake, is "tamed". In 700 BC the town was seething with snakes, and Apollo is said to have advised villagers to catch as many of the reptiles as they could, and tame them by draping them over his statue before releasing them. This seemed to work and on March 19 of every year since, locals begin to gather snakes until the first Thursday of May, when Apollo's statue is carried through the streets for villagers to adorn with their capture.
