The patron saint of Castelsaraceno is Saint Anthony, celebrated during the first three Sundays of June with the «Ndenna» ritual, the most significant and heartfelt moment of the patronal feast.
On the first Sunday, in a high-mountain forest at the Armizzone pass, a pine tree is chosen, cut and carried with the help of trucks and vans; it is then called the «cunocchia» and will represent, at the climax of the feast, the top of the «Ndenna» (mast): carrying the cunocchia through the town's streets on the arms of the faithful is a moment of great popular participation. On the last of the three Sundays, the cunocchia and the Ndenna are assembled and raised, with human strength alone, into a hole dug each year in the square dedicated to the patron saint: this is followed by the gathering of the «tacchetti», small wooden strips tied to the tree's branches, on which the faithful declare their offerings, traditionally the produce of local fields and livestock. The ritual, the subject of numerous studies on the folk traditions of southern Italy, has its roots in the ancient history of this town, founded at the start of the second millennium, and probably derives from older peasant festivals tied to the relationship between man and the land.
