Festival of St. Julian, also known under its Italian names Maggio di Accettura and Maggio di San Giuliano, or in short "Maggio", is an annual festival celebrated around Pentecost by the people of Accettura, a village in Basilicata, Italy.
The festival encompasses a ritual cycle marked by extensive preparations and various side events, such as processions featuring figures of the village's patron saint, St. Julian, as well as paintings of St. John and St. Paul. The festival reaches its peak with the raising of a large oak tree in the village square. This event garners widespread participation from the village populace and draws visitors from beyond its borders.
The festival, described as "one of the most important arboreal rites in Italy",[1] combines agricultural pagan customs with Catholic elements, and may have Lombard origins.
- ^ Corbella, M. (2013). I suoni dell’albero. Il Maggio di S. Giuliano di Accettura. Visual Ethnography, 2(2).