Puglian Pleasures

​’The smallest village with the biggest party’.  Diso ready to pay homage to the ‘Santi nosci’ Filippo and Giacomo

After a year of fervent preparations, Diso is preparing to honor its Patron Saints Filippo and Giacomo, once again confirming itself as ‘the smallest town with the biggest party’.

In Diso the preparations for the festival dedicated to Saints Philip and James lasted a year.  For over a century, the town in the Salento hinterland has been staging a civil and religious event in which the sacred and the profane, devotion and entertainment, prayer and music embrace each other to strengthen the bond between the town and its Protectors.  One hundred and more years have passed, but the veneration of the community for “li santi nosci” has remained intact and it will be possible to breathe, as tradition dictates, from 30 April to 4 May.

The impressive lights up to 30 meters high and installed in the streets and squares of the small town, the fireworks festival which sees the most important companies in the sector compete, the bands, concerts, the procession, the interweaving of lights and colours, will transform Diso into a large open-air stage which, every year, attracts thousands of visitors from all over Italy and abroad.  A big celebration in a village that has just over a thousand souls.  It is no coincidence that the definition coined by the organizers, which has become the tagline of the patronal festival that opens the dances of the summer, is “the smallest town with the biggest party”.

The date to be marked in red on the calendar is 30^th April, the day before.  At 20.00, the spectacular switching on of the lights will officially kick off the celebrations.  1^st May at 9am, is the day of the religious procession with the participation of thousands of faithful, followed, at around 10.45, by the Fireworks Festival and Mass.  Thursday 4^th May is the final day of the festival.

The presentation

The patronal festival is no longer “of the village”.  Year after year, they have also managed to conquer tourists on holiday in Salento who have come to know the traditions that this land of many faces puts on stage.  In the program of appointments that make summer unique, religious anniversaries represent an important chapter, testifying to the attachment of the people to their patron saints, of the devotion that goes beyond gratitude for a grace received.  Diso had the merit of enriching the panorama with a party scheduled in May, when Salento is still warming up its engines.

The event, organized by the Saints Filippo and Giacomo Committee and by the Municipality of Diso, with the patronage of the Province of Lecce, was presented at Palazzo Adorno by the vice president of the Province of Lecce Antonio Leo, by the Councilor for Tourism of the Municipality of Diso Giandomenico Letizia, by the parish priest don Adelino Martella, by the presidents of the Committee for the festival of the Holy Apostles Filippo and Giacomo, Angelo Cerfeda and Renato Monosi, with the veteran member Antonio Cerfeda, known as Uccio and the younger Lorenzo Paiano.

 “In addition to the profound religious value of this event, its chronological importance should also be highlighted, because with this patronal festival, which welcomes devotees and visitors from all over Puglia and beyond, the great celebrations of the Salento summer begin”, declared the Vice-President of the Province of Lecce Antonio Leo, thanking the Municipality, the Party Committee and the parish priest, Don Adelino Martella who focused on the human and religious aspects of the event: «When you celebrate, it is always an expression of joy, both individually and group, is the set of several communities, near and far, which get to know each other, it is the commitment and sacrifice on a personal and community level of all those who work for its success.  Living the festival expresses the true meaning of the Church as a community”.

 “Diso is an open-air exhibition of new lighting technologies, elements that enrich all the traditional civil and religious aspects of the prestigious event, made possible thanks to the tireless voluntary commitment of the Committee and all citizens” concluded the Councilor for Tourism of the Municipality of Diso Giandomenico Letizia.