In Scanno, in the heart of the Abruzzo mountains in Italy, the night of the Glorie is a ritual, a passage, a living memory. Huge logs gathered by the village youth are carried on their shoulders, raised toward the sky, and set ablaze in a fire that illuminates the entire community.

The festival has its roots in the capetiembe, the ancient “peasant New Year” that marked the end and beginning of the life cycle, long before the liturgical calendar. It was a time to give thanks for the harvest and to call upon the ancestors, in a profound dialogue with nature and the beyond. Similar to Halloween in its pre-Christian origins, here the ritual takes tangible form: stone, smoke, and the silence of the mountains.

For the young people who build the pyres, the act is also an initiation: carrying the logs, lifting them, watching them transform into flames signifies taking responsibility, becoming a living part of the community, and intertwining one’s destiny with that of the land.

The fire of the Glorie purifies, protects, and renews. When the pyres burn and the crackle of flames mixes with the night’s silence, the village gathers around the glow. The Glorie are not a spectacle, but an archaic language: a sacred act that renews identity, preserves the bond with roots, and speaks the language of myth, where earth, fire, and memory intertwine in a single life cycle.