On the coat of arms there is a stag turning its head, enclosed in a large gold V: probably the initial of Vaiano, as the town was once called. The name may come from a Roman estate, the praedium Badianum, linked to nearby Abella, today's Avella, on which Baiano long depended: it appears as one of its hamlets in 1129, but by 1210 it was already taxed in its own right. After the Orsini and the barony of Avella it recovered its autonomy at the end of the seventeenth century, and in 1715 it became a municipality under the name Bajano, which it kept until the twentieth century. Until 1923 it was the head of its district, with the magistrate's court and the prison.
At Christmas the Maio is cut here. Between 13 December and Christmas Eve the mess 'e notte are said at five in the morning, so that people can go to work afterwards; at the mass in Santa Croce the carbines and the woodcutters' tools are blessed. Then the town climbs to the wood of Arciano behind the woodcutter who by tradition has held this task since 1965, and the tree is felled, marked beforehand with two big red S's, the initials of the patron saint Stephen. The trunk is blessed, shots are fired with the old muzzle-loading carbines and it is hauled upright with three ropes; then someone climbs it to untie them, and if it goes well the year will be a good one.
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📅 Every year, on 3 August; Christmas brings the Festa del Maio with dawn masses
Baiano celebrates Saint Stephen on 3 August, in the church dedicated to him. At Christmas, the Festa del Maio is held, with masses celebrated at 5 in the morning and the procession of the Baby Jesus.
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Outside Baiano, but an easy day trip away.
