Log book

Syusy moves away from the coast and sets out for Bajardo to participate in a very particular festival. Bajardo is a mountain village, a thousand metres above sea level. Here we can find the druids at the height of their Celtic feast, and Syusy is given rosemary, a sacred plant and a lucky charm.

A Celtic feast in the Ligurian hinterland surely arouses some curiosity. How come the inhabitants of Bajardo prefer to identify with a Celtic ceremony, rather than with a Christian one kindred to nearer traditions? Syusy looks for the answer snooping and talking with the participants in the event.

During the feast some things are noticed that are truer, others less true, yet others a bit like a comic strip. And among the various characters, you can meet the person that everyone recognizes as the “true druid of Bajardo”, who talks of the magic of this place and accompanies Syusy to admire his works: representations that symbolize the human psyche, a sort of tribute to Jung, the father of psychoanalysis.

Bajardo holds a lot of surprises in store. For instance we discover that it is the highest commune in Liguria, the “little Tibet” of Liguria. The peak of the church is 1000 metres high. But the height is not the only thing worthy of note in this church. On its capitals you can see some faces like those of the Luni that Syusy has seen in Lunigiana, and on an external column you can still the signs of the pre-Christian temple that stood there in antiquity. Even a Mongol face can be recognized with the two-circle headgear, a distinctive element of a caste of Mongolia.

The feast of the druids continues and, as in any self-respecting event, there is food and dancing. But the druid feast also holds another surprise in store: the rite of change, which consists in a theatrical game involving throwing away a part of yourself that you do not want, then using fire as a purifying element.