In Abbadia San Salvatore (Monte Amiata - Siena) Christmas is a unique combination of tradition, magic and ancestral rites thanks to the Torchlight Festival, one of the oldest Italian fire festivals which arises from a singular, intimately felt and shared millenary custom which city of Monte Amiata renews every 24 December.

An event that is already prepared for the end of summer when the "torch makers" begin to look for the material with which to build the "torches", typical pyramid-shaped piles of wood up to seven meters high which, built in every corner of the small medieval village, rise to the sky awaiting the eve when they will then be set on fire. A demanding process that involves the entire community that comes together to create these unique rural monuments. For days and days, logs are smoothed and intertwined, defying gravity thanks to secret techniques that are handed down from generation to generation here, to celebrate a fire ritual that involves everyone, marrying symbolic pagan and religious meanings.

In fact, the inhabitants of Amiata are "children of fire", a mother mountain of volcanic origin which in its bowels hid the incandescent lava which generated a generous land which has always offered food and well-being to the community. From those bowels, until recently, cinnabar was extracted and processed to obtain mercury in the large mine which has now become a museum. A complex story that sees man and nature inextricably linked, in a dialogue that is sometimes difficult but always full of love. It is in fact that mountain loved and felt as a mother, as a sacred presence that the Badenghi also celebrate through the tradition of the Torchlight.

We do not yet have confirmed information about the next edition. You can look for updates using the references below (website for more details or Facebook page).