The patron saint of Oliveto Lucano is Saint Cyprian, celebrated from 10 to 12 August. Woven into his religious feast, as in other towns of inland Basilicata, is the feast of the Maggio ('a fèstë d'u mašcë), an ancient tree rite of pagan origin: the Maggio is the trunk of a Turkey oak, felled on the first Sunday of August, stripped of branches and dragged into town on 10 August, the day the patronal feast begins, to the sound of bagpipes and accordions. On the same day, in the surrounding woods, a holly treetop is felled and carried into town on shoulders amid songs and dances. The Maggio, the groom, and the Cima, the bride, enter the town at dusk, and on 12 August, the day of Saint Cyprian's procession, the Cima is grafted onto the Maggio: together the two are erected in the town square.
The mother church, dedicated to Mary Most Holy of Graces, stands at the top of the town in Romanesque style with three naves and holds inside three bronze-leaf altars and a painting depicting the Immaculate Conception. From 1150 the fief of Oliveto Lucano passed from family to family, down to the last baron, Gerolamo de Lerma, invested in 1715; by 1735 the village counted around two hundred inhabitants.
