Bear Hunt
Bear Hunt
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The band
The band
The Chained Bear
The Chained Bear
The Chained Bear
The Chained Bear
The Chained Bear
The Chained Bear
The Chained Bear
The Chained Bear
The Bear gets drunk
The Bear gets drunk
The Tamed Bear Dances with the Most Beautiful Girl in the Village
The Tamed Bear Dances with the Most Beautiful Girl in the Village
Frazione Urbiano, None Mompantero
The “Bear Dance” that takes place in Mompantero, a small municipality in the Susa Valley, is an ancient alpine folk tradition imbued with rich rituality. The festival is held during the period of Candlemas, the first weekend of February, and is tied to the celebration of the Christian feast of Saint Brigid, to whom the hamlet's little church is dedicated. On the evening before the festival, the ritual mingia e beiva (eat and drink) takes place, which includes a food and wine route that winds through the streets of the village so that the hunters, well-fed, can start their bear hunt.
On Sunday afternoon, to the sound of the marching band, the bear makes its appearance. This character, who has been sewn into a costume made of goatskins, is escorted through the village, held in chains by the hunters. During the procession, the character disguised as the bear lets out powerful roars, amplified by a funnel used to force-feed him wine, which serves to weaken him. In the end, subdued by the hunters’ beatings and mellowed by the wine given to him, the bear is sufficiently tamed to dance with the most beautiful girl in the village before being allowed to return to the mountains. The true identity of the person dressed as the bear is kept secret: only the hunters know, and among the villagers participating in the festival, the recurring topic of discussion is the identity of the bear.
There are many interpretations regarding the origins of the festival: some see the bear as the personification of Carnival, with the symbolic structure of the festival following the characteristic path where the mask is hunted, killed, and then resurrected. According to another interpretation, the festival represents a metaphorical victory of spring (the most beautiful girl in the village) over winter (the bear). Finally, a local tradition holds that the bear was a “barbarian” who got lost in the woods of the valley, engaged in raiding, and was captured by the valley dwellers.
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