Beliefs and faith
The first Sardinian archaeological remains testify to the presence of pagan cults. Statuettes of divinities, funerary circles, cult steles and sacred fountains are found all over the island and show the strength of deeply rooted popular beliefs. At the end of the Council of Nicaea in 325, Rome concedes the freedom of worship. Sardinia became Christian without abandoning certain beliefs. Their remains have been the subject of numerous scientific studies, particularly in the 20th century in the immediate post-war period. Communist Italy looks at the popular traditions of its poorest regions, where the Church's dogma does not seem to have succeeded in completely taking control of souls. The Sardinian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, co-founder of the Communist Party, theorized that the lower classes escaped the "systematically elaborated and politically organized conceptions" of the Church aimed at the upper classes. The result was a charter of beliefs mixing magic, pagan and Christian, better able to meet their needs than the official doctrine. In his novel Christ Stopped at Eboli (1948), the anti-fascist writer Carlo Levi describes these miserable rural classes, who mix magic and mercantile relationships with the expression of their faith: "In front of all the doors, the peasants waited for the procession, with a basket of wheat in their hands, and they threw a handful of wheat at the Madonna so that she would think of the crops and bring them good luck. ...] In front of the doors of some houses, at the widening of the road, tables covered with white tablecloths were set up, like small rustic altars. The procession would stop in front of them [...] and the peasants and women would come and carry the offerings.
Long parties
Patronal feasts, pilgrimages and traditional festivals still play an important role in the Sardinian calendar. It is a question of thanking the patron saint, of commemorating a miracle, but also of begging for good auspices for a good harvest and a better life. It is also about breaking the circle of misery and bringing in abundance, as on the occasion of the "long festivals". For nine days, the social hierarchy is abolished and the inhabitants meet in a room set aside for this purpose, bringing plenty of provisions that they will be busy consuming. These singular pilgrimages have been studied by the anthropologist Carla Gallini in her book La Consommation du sacré. Fêtes longues en Sardaigne. She notes, however, that "emigration, the transition of many peasants to the tertiary sector, and the growth of the middle classes are, if not uprooting, at least radically transforming religious content and traditional festivals". She confirms that economic improvement is leading to the disappearance of pagan traditions, as was the case with the argia dance, a form of exorcism that died out in the 1970s.
