At Pentecost two trees are married at Accettura. A big turkey oak is cut in the wood, stripped of its branches and dragged all the way to the square; a smaller tree is grafted onto its top. The festival that comes out of it is called the Maggio, is dedicated to San Giuliano and is the staging of an arboreal cult, propitiatory and nuptial.
The town has a museum of arboreal cults, with the photographs and the tools of the feast, and on the walls eight murals made between 2015 and 2020 tell the stages of the rite: l'alzata, il trasporto della cima, il ballo delle cente. Half the territory is wood and pasture. There are 1,980 residents.
Croccia-Cognato · chiesa dell'Annunziata · chiesa di San Nicola and 2 more
Pane di Matera
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Next up: Saint Julian and the Maggio, the marriage of the trees, Wednesday 27 January
Nearest airport: Bari Palese, 88 km away
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📅 Every year, on 27 January
Accettura celebrates Saint Julian on 27 January, but its most famous feast is the Maggio, an ancient arboreal and propitiatory rite held on Pentecost Sunday that brings into town the trunk of a Turkey oak grafted with the top of a holly tree.
Croccia-Cognato Two Oscan-Samnite circuits on Monte Croccia: 1340 metres outside, 679 around the acropolis. 
chiesa dell'Annunziata A fourteenth-century mullioned window is the oldest piece of this Baroque rebuild. 
chiesa di San Nicola The bell was cast in 1611 by Gaspare di Missanello; the wooden crucifix is 15th-century. 
Museo dei culti arborei The museum that explains why Accettura marries two trees at Pentecost. Complesso megalitico Monte Croccia Oscan-Samnite walls of the eighth century BC and a rock used as a solar calendar. Durum wheat semolina, thick crust, shaped as a horn or a tall loaf: Pane di Matera has held Protected Geographical Indication status since 2008.
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Outside Accettura, but an easy day trip away.
