The Riccia Grape Festival

The "Sagra dell'Uva" (Grape Festival) of Riccia has its origins in the early 1930s as a testament to the commitment and sacrifice of many people of Riccia who, thanks to it, have told of this pleasant land and its people. Riccia is in fact the only town in our region that still preserves intact the evocative tradition of the Grape Festival, also organized in the past in other towns in Molise. The celebration of the grape harvest, held for several decades now on the second Sunday of September, falls in conjunction with the feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary. The long procession is opened by folkloric groups, flag-wavers, majorettes, and, in some years, pistonieri. The dances following the floats involve most of the people, who come from all over the region and even neighboring ones, especially young men and women who are gladly carried away by the ancient folk traditions; the songs then, those that used to be made in the fields and echoed in the town quarters at harvest time, are performed today with the instruments of the time, the accordion and the accordion.