Word: trasteverini
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Enter the Communists. Once a year, Trasteverini hold a Procession of the Madonna del Carmine; they have added to it an additional celebration called the Festa de Nojantri (The Feast of Us Others). Together the two occasions are good for at least two weeks of sports, drinking, feasting, beauty and wine-tippling contests, and a lively spate of knife fights...
...Feast of Us Others had been managed by the Trasteverini themselves until 1917, when the Fascist Dopolavoro (workers' recreation society) tried to turn it into an organized political celebration. "One year," recalls Housewife Felicetta Gaudenzi, "they brought a Negro all the way from Abyssinia to stand at the entrance to the bridge. You paid so much, and you punched him. Then, unless you paid extra, he punched you back...
Last week, under a huge canopy of festive lights paid for by the Giornale, Trasteverini thronged happily to the feast. The sponsors had discarded an original plan to crown as "Miss Vino" the Trastevere girl who could drink the most wine, thought it would be even more imprudent to hold a regular beauty contest. "The first," explained a committeeman, "would not be dignified in these times; the second would be too dangerous, because there are too many girls in Trastevere who are the most beautiful...
...tradition for almost 100 years. Since World War II, however, Trastevere's regiment had been quartered in Milan. With the opening of this year's feast, the first units of the old Trastevere Bersagliere regiment came home, ran heroically through the twisting streets blowing bugles while exuberant Trasteverini welcomed them with flowers, Frascati and frenzied cheers...
...Trasteverini could remember few finer fiestas. Only the Communists still grumbled dourly that they could have done it better. At Romolo's wineshop, a Communist stronghold, the potbellied Cricket argued sharply with the Poppy, a Red. The Poppy had just remarked snidely: "Someone is getting fat from the festa this year." "Had you your way," said the Cricket, "the walls would have been plastered with newspapers, the Madonna would have been ashamed to show herself in your presence, and the Bersaglieri would have stayed where they were...