The tradition of planting the “Tree of May” in the center of the town square on the start of the month of May as a symbol and hope of fertility and propitiation of a good agricultural vintage dates back to the pre-Christian period and can be counted among the many rites related to worship for the trees and spirits of the vegetation, present in Europe since the times of the Greeks and the Romans. In the days when superstition dominated the beliefs of the peoples, the spring awakening of nature was not considered a logical consequence of the seasonal cycle, but it was proper and invoked as the will of a God hidden among the roots of the vegetation. Hence the almost universal flourishing of the calendimaggio holidays, to celebrate the advent of the new season.
The country hamlets of San Rocco di Montaldo Roero and San Giuseppe of Sommariva Perno have maintained the arboreal rite of the plantè Magg up to the present day, perhaps thanks to a lush nature in which the woods still be the master. The trunk of the “pess-pra” is peeled with the branches and left with the tima green decorated with ribbons, flowers and, in the case of the hamlet of San Rocco, with the puppet of a dog, symbol of the patron saint who supervises the village. In the latter detail, an attempt to Christianization of the rite considered “paying” by the religious authorities can be seen, which symbolically dedicating the raising of Pess-pra to the patron saint, would have tolerated this sort of goliardic game. Raised by the men of the town in the main square, at night or during the day, the trunk remains to protect and benefit of the villages, to then be symbolically put at auction among the inhabitants of the town
. The “enchantment” made it possible to collect offers for the community, and the winner of the auction had the right to bring down the trunk of May to re -establish it as a bearing beam for the vaults of its home or as a head pole for the vineyard. The plantè Magg was and is the prerogative of the men of the villages, but for this custom, so to speak, “male”, once alongside the spring beggar of the Cantè MaGG, a female tradition that fell in disuse already at the dawn of the last century, reported in vogue by the spontaneous group of Magliano Alfieri in the 1970s. Groups of Rbambine decorated with flowers started on the Sunday morning of the early May towards the farmhouses outside the country. They brought the “Martlet” or “Erburin” in procession, a bossing frond from which flowers, colored ribbons and a fabric doll that represented the personification of the God of the vegetation hanging.
The girls entering the aie intoned the stanzas of the Cantè Magg, going the magical spirit of the spring awakening in exchange for food offers. Some stanzas conceal the intent of courtship towards the youngsters and the will to show off to apply future brides: one of them is in fact dressed as a bridal and flaunted valuable objects as a symbolic dowry.
