Rites and social practices
The firing of the saints
Pyrotechnic art in Sant’Eurosia
In Sant’Eurosia, in the countryside of Civitella del Tronto, an unusual craft preserves the trench of an embodied knowledge that brings every celebration dedicated to the patron saints to its close. Its raw material is gunpowder, its setting is the family, its clock follows that of the saints. On the day of the feast, on the slopes of a flowering meadow, a father and his sons spend the hours from dawn to dusk assembling the firing batteries for the evening display. That grassy field, at the edge of the Sanctuary of Holy Mary of the Lights – Santa Maria dei Lumi – becomes the trench of a knowledge learned from childhood, which, feast after feast, draws eyes filled with wonder towards the sky.
“It’s something you carry inside you. Say your grandfather was a cook: when you catch that smell in the air that reminds you of him, you think of him, and maybe as a child, you used to help out. For me, whenever I go to watch a firing, I recognise that smell in the air. It’s happened to me — it goes back to my grandparents. In one way or another, we were born into it”.
Alessandro Di Fabio, 30 March 2025
The pyrotechnic practice carried out by the Di Fabio family in Sant’Eurosia, in the municipality of Civitella del Tronto, is a craft transmitted within the family, whose rhythm is largely determined by the sequence of patronal feasts throughout the year: from Saint Anthony the Abbot and Saint Sebastian in January, to Santa Maria dei Lumi (Holy Mary of the Lights) at the end of April, and the many celebrations of the summer period. The setting up of the firings cyclically involves around seventy towns, mainly between spring and autumn, within the surrounding area and in neighbouring provinces and regions. The professional calendar of the pyrotechnician thus coincides with the religious calendar of the patron saints, superimposing the seasonal trajectory of work onto the devotional geography of cults and practices. Saint Barbara, the patron saint of the craft itself, celebrated on 4 December, symbolically inscribes pyrotechnicians within that same ceremonial horizon in which they operate, becoming both frame and instrument of the rite, a condition for the fulfilment of the feast, and a device of sensory intensity that marks its concluding moment.
The knowledge of pyrotechnics and initiation into the craft are transmitted at an early age, amid the smell of gunpowder and a familiarity with risk, placing this practice within the same semantic horizon as trades handed down within the family: a form of knowledge acquired by staying close, by breathing in a smell before even naming it, in line with the anthropological features typical of Italian pyrotechnic dynasties, of which the Di Fabio family represents a recent variant, developed over the course of a single generation around the figure of the father, Annibale.
Pyrotechnics requires a broad and stratified set of skills: chemical knowledge of powders and charges; the ability to carry out precise manual work; control over timing and the chronography of the display; aesthetic sensitivity for choreographic composition; and strict adherence to safety procedures. It is a craft learned “by immersion”, yet it also demands continuous updating and certified theoretical and technical training at every stage of the process, compliance with a complex regulatory framework, and constant coordination with public safety authorities for each firing event.
At the operational level, the grammar of the firing reveals a temporal syntax of chronometric precision. For the display prepared for the feast of Santa Maria dei Lumi on 27 April 2025, the long phase of preparation was completed only shortly before sunset, after an entire day of work in the field. In the meadow next to the sanctuary, the pyrotechnicians set out longitudinal batteries of mortars in the progressive order of firing, carrying out the loading and connections, driving in vertical support rods, and finally fixing to them the series of cylindrical mortars in galvanised sheet metal. Each mortar, of varying calibre depending on the type of shell it is designed to contain, is numbered externally with adhesive labels that uniquely identify its position in the firing sequence: a traceability procedure that makes it possible to manage timing and overlaps with chronometric precision. The shells are inserted carefully into the mortars from the top, with their lift fuses already fitted and adjusted in the workshop, and with a short tail of fuse ensuring connection to the external ignition system. The most delicate stage of the preparation is the sequential linking of quickmatches and fuses — thin channels of fuse, typically red or yellow — which determine the firing sequence and the interval between one shell and the next; the entire system thus takes the form of a large horizontal circuit of interlaced fuses which, once ignited by the chief pyrotechnician, runs through the whole battery, distributing fire according to the timing of the display. On the day of the firing for Santa Maria dei Lumi, the bad weather and ambient humidity required an additional operation of protective covering of the entire setup, in order to shield fuses and charges from moisture and ensure the correct ignition of the most important firework of the year: the one prepared for the community’s own feast.
The knowledge of pyrotechnics and initiation into the craft are transmitted at an early age, amid the smell of gunpowder and a familiarity with risk, placing this practice within the same semantic horizon as trades handed down within the family: a form of knowledge acquired by staying close, by breathing in a smell before even naming it, in line with the anthropological features typical of Italian pyrotechnic dynasties, of which the Di Fabio family represents a recent variant, developed over the course of a single generation around the figure of the father, Annibale.
Pyrotechnics requires a broad and stratified set of skills: chemical knowledge of powders and charges; the ability to carry out precise manual work; control over timing and the chronography of the display; aesthetic sensitivity for choreographic composition; and strict adherence to safety procedures. It is a craft learned “by immersion”, yet it also demands continuous updating and certified theoretical and technical training at every stage of the process, compliance with a complex regulatory framework, and constant coordination with public safety authorities for each firing event.
At the operational level, the grammar of the firing reveals a temporal syntax of chronometric precision. For the display prepared for the feast of Santa Maria dei Lumi on 27 April 2025, the long phase of preparation was completed only shortly before sunset, after an entire day of work in the field. In the meadow next to the sanctuary, the pyrotechnicians set out longitudinal batteries of mortars in the progressive order of firing, carrying out the loading and connections, driving in vertical support rods, and finally fixing to them the series of cylindrical mortars in galvanised sheet metal. Each mortar, of varying calibre depending on the type of shell it is designed to contain, is numbered externally with adhesive labels that uniquely identify its position in the firing sequence: a traceability procedure that makes it possible to manage timing and overlaps with chronometric precision. The shells are inserted carefully into the mortars from the top, with their lift fuses already fitted and adjusted in the workshop, and with a short tail of fuse ensuring connection to the external ignition system. The most delicate stage of the preparation is the sequential linking of quickmatches and fuses — thin channels of fuse, typically red or yellow — which determine the firing sequence and the interval between one shell and the next; the entire system thus takes the form of a large horizontal circuit of interlaced fuses which, once ignited by the chief pyrotechnician, runs through the whole battery, distributing fire according to the timing of the display. On the day of the firing for Santa Maria dei Lumi, the bad weather and ambient humidity required an additional operation of protective covering of the entire setup, in order to shield fuses and charges from moisture and ensure the correct ignition of the most important firework of the year: the one prepared for the community’s own feast.
Fireworks for saints and festivals
Alessandro Di Fabio, voice.
Sant’Eurosia di Civitella del Tronto (TE), 30 March 2025.
Recording by Emanuele Di Paolo,
Don Nicola Jobbi/Bambun Study Centre Archive.
Sant’Eurosia di Civitella del Tronto (TE), 30 March 2025.
Recording by Emanuele Di Paolo,
Don Nicola Jobbi/Bambun Study Centre Archive.
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Watch the video
Preparing for the firing
Alessandro and Antonio Di Fabio set up the pyrotechnic display for the feast of Santa Maria dei Lumi in the grassy field next to the sanctuary, arranging the mortars, loading spherical and cylindrical shells, connecting timed fuses, securing the setup, and covering it to protect it from moisture.
Civitella del Tronto (TE), 27 April 2025.
Footage by Emanuele Di Paolo,
Don Nicola Jobbi/Bambun Study Centre Archive.
Civitella del Tronto (TE), 27 April 2025.
Footage by Emanuele Di Paolo,
Don Nicola Jobbi/Bambun Study Centre Archive.
Cultural transmission and protection
The transmission of pyrotechnic practice within the Di Fabio family reproduces, in a contemporary form, the characteristic patterns of Italian pyrotechnic dynasties, in which the craft is passed on directly and through early immersion in the working environment. To this is added long-term professional exchange among experienced pyrotechnicians, introducing a horizontal form of transmission that complements the vertical, family-based one, as exemplified by Giovanni Martarello, a third-generation pyrotechnician from Rovigo (Martarello Group), who took part as a guest of the Di Fabio company during the firing of 27 April 2025 for Santa Maria dei Lumi (Holy Mary of the Lights).
The craft is currently undergoing a significant technological transformation in the methods used to ignite displays. Until the post-war period, and for much of the twentieth century, fireworks were lit manually by teams of pyrotechnicians equipped with long igniting poles, positioned along the firing line at a safe distance from the batteries in order to light the quickmatches of each station in sequence. Over the past two decades, the sector has progressively adopted electronic firing systems, which remotely control, through computer programming, the ignition of each firing position. These systems make it possible to multiply firing points across distances of forty to fifty metres, to create complex choreographic overlaps with very tight timing, and to synchronise the bursting of shells with a musical score — the so-called pyromusical displays, in which each shot is programmed in accordance with the temporal structure of the chosen piece. This technological shift has brought a dual benefit: increased safety for operators, who can now manage the firing from a protected distance, and greater precision and choreographic richness, allowing for pyrotechnic compositions of a complexity unimaginable with the manual system.
At the same time, as Giovanni Martarello notes with concern, the sector is currently affected by significant structural challenges. On the one hand, youth culture — particularly in northern Italy and in some Alpine regions — has developed ecological and animal welfare sensibilities that lead to criticism of pyrotechnic displays, despite strict European regulations on CE marking and on noise, light and environmental impact. On the other hand, central and southern Italian areas, where popular adherence to festive fire rituals has remained stronger, have been severely affected by recent earthquakes: the L’Aquila earthquake of 6 April 2009 and the central Italy seismic events (Amatrice–Norcia, August 2016–January 2017) have removed from the calendar an estimated half of the patronal feasts historically active in the affected territories.
In terms of heritage valorisation, the weakening of community participation in patronal feasts converges with a broader trend observed in contemporary ethnographic surveys: the gradual contraction of the festive dimension in central Italian rural communities. From this perspective, pyrotechnics constitutes not only a craft but a cultural device capable of restoring to the feast its sensory and symbolic intensity: its safeguarding therefore extends beyond the protection of technical knowledge in the strict sense and includes the defence of the ritual context in which that knowledge has historically found its meaning.
The craft is currently undergoing a significant technological transformation in the methods used to ignite displays. Until the post-war period, and for much of the twentieth century, fireworks were lit manually by teams of pyrotechnicians equipped with long igniting poles, positioned along the firing line at a safe distance from the batteries in order to light the quickmatches of each station in sequence. Over the past two decades, the sector has progressively adopted electronic firing systems, which remotely control, through computer programming, the ignition of each firing position. These systems make it possible to multiply firing points across distances of forty to fifty metres, to create complex choreographic overlaps with very tight timing, and to synchronise the bursting of shells with a musical score — the so-called pyromusical displays, in which each shot is programmed in accordance with the temporal structure of the chosen piece. This technological shift has brought a dual benefit: increased safety for operators, who can now manage the firing from a protected distance, and greater precision and choreographic richness, allowing for pyrotechnic compositions of a complexity unimaginable with the manual system.
At the same time, as Giovanni Martarello notes with concern, the sector is currently affected by significant structural challenges. On the one hand, youth culture — particularly in northern Italy and in some Alpine regions — has developed ecological and animal welfare sensibilities that lead to criticism of pyrotechnic displays, despite strict European regulations on CE marking and on noise, light and environmental impact. On the other hand, central and southern Italian areas, where popular adherence to festive fire rituals has remained stronger, have been severely affected by recent earthquakes: the L’Aquila earthquake of 6 April 2009 and the central Italy seismic events (Amatrice–Norcia, August 2016–January 2017) have removed from the calendar an estimated half of the patronal feasts historically active in the affected territories.
In terms of heritage valorisation, the weakening of community participation in patronal feasts converges with a broader trend observed in contemporary ethnographic surveys: the gradual contraction of the festive dimension in central Italian rural communities. From this perspective, pyrotechnics constitutes not only a craft but a cultural device capable of restoring to the feast its sensory and symbolic intensity: its safeguarding therefore extends beyond the protection of technical knowledge in the strict sense and includes the defence of the ritual context in which that knowledge has historically found its meaning.
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