Pages of "a midsummer night" !
The summer solstice is one of the cosmic events on which the traditional lifestyle
was based; the sunlight was at it's maximum intensity, strength and length (the time
of daylight is much superior to that of darkness), even though whoever lives in direct
contact with nature feels that it is a particular time of crisis: because from this
moment onwards, slowly but surely, the time the light lasts begins to lessen ; it seems
that the sun starts to race towards it's death, refusing in this way to supply it's vital
and beneficial contribution of light and heat.It was, for the men of the ancient past, a
reality to be afraid of, for us though it has no importance whatsoever and
has no reason to exist, but all the same it has left traces in the images of our collective
unconciousness that will never be erased. The festa of St.John the Baptist is
celebrated near the time of the summer solstice (the "midsummer night's dream" by
William Shakespeare), it has a corresponding symbolic date at the end of the winter
solstice with the festa of St.John the Evangelist.
This is now the third issue, a prophetic number, that, without us specifically
organizing the coincidence, has been presented at the same time as this extraordinary
moment of cosmic crisis. Pay close attention to the word "crisis", that in the present
day is often semantically used, giving a negative meaning, while it's original
significance iscompletely the opposite i.e. strongly positive : in fact the Greek word
"krisis" means"opinion", "choice", "decision", therefore we can say that
etymologicallyspeaking, the "crisis" is the moment to verify and to make a choice:
the decisive moment that marks the maturity gained through the necessity of making
a choice.
With the satisfaction of the positive reaction to our publication, received through our
our telematic pages, for us, this third issue represents a moment of maturity: already
we have prospects of collaboration with foreign scholars and experts whose works we
will be more than happy to present during the next three months. In the meantime we
are also enlargening our outlook: keeping the promise given in the first issue, "not
only Christmas Cribs", we intend publishing articles that give information regarding
the topography of Naples, it's most important buildings, it's artists, both famous and
the not so famous, always starting from a connection to the Christmas Crib, the crib
figures, the artisan shops.
Someone wisely observed that the prize for research is not so much in reaching your
aim as perhaps in the actual research itself: we shall continue searching, though it is
most probable that not everybody will have the possibility of finding the Holy Graal.
We would like to wish our readers a happy summer and give them an appointment
for our next publication which is planned for the equinox of autumn.
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