Sa Coia Maurreddina, the Mauritanian Wedding

Every year, on the first Sunday of August, in Santadi, in the heart of the Sulcis, a couple marries in front of thousands of people. It is not a performance: the couple is real and the wedding is real. But everything, from the clothes to the gestures, from the procession to the feast, follows the rites of the past. This is sa Coia Maurreddina, the Mauritanian Wedding, one of Sardinia's most original festivals.

Why Mauritanian

The name recalls one of the many peoples who have passed through Sardinia. According to tradition, in the early Middle Ages, in the Vandal period, groups of Mauri from North Africa settled in the lower Sulcis and left their mark on local customs and even on the name of the area's inhabitants, still called maurreddus. Whether the descent is real or legendary, the people of Santadi preserved very old wedding rites, which in the 1960s and 1970s were revived and turned into a collective festival. Today the people of Nuxis, Villaperuccio and other villages of the lower Sulcis, which once formed a single community, also take part.

The dressing

The day begins at dawn. The bride and her family get ready in the Sa Domu Antiga ethnographic museum, a traditional Sulcis house, while the groom dresses in another house in the village. The clothes are those of the festive costume: brocade and silk for the bride, with shawl, filigree jewellery and gold necklaces; black orbace wool and fine linen for the groom. The dressing is long and meticulous, helped by the older women, who know the order of every garment.

The procession

In mid-morning the couple meet and the wedding procession sets off. At the front come the riders, then launeddas players, folk groups in costume and the traccas, ox-drawn carts decorated with flowers, rugs, branches and household objects. One of them carries the bride's trousseau, with woven blankets, baskets and crockery: the sign of the new home about to be born. The couple climb onto another ox-drawn cart, which moves over a carpet of red petals and twigs, sa ramadura, to the village square.

In Piazza Marconi the procession is welcomed by the mayors of Santadi, Nuxis and Villaperuccio, then the couple enter the church for the wedding ceremony.

Sa 'razia and su cumbidu

As they leave the church comes the most awaited rite, sa 'razia, the grace. The parents bless the couple with water, then a plate filled with rice, wheat, salt, coins and rose petals is broken and its contents scattered over the couple's heads: wheat and rice wish for plenty and children, salt for wisdom, coins for prosperity, petals for love.

In the evening, in the square, comes su cumbidu, the feast: the couple offers traditional sweets, drinks and the wedding cake to everyone present. Then there is round dancing late into the night to launeddas and button accordion, with the folk groups and the public.

In the preceding days the village organises the presentation of the couple, music evenings, workshops on old crafts and exhibitions on the traditional costumes of the Sulcis at the Sa Domu Antiga museum.

The Old Wedding of Selargius

A similar festival takes place in Selargius, on the edge of Cagliari, in September: s'Antigu Sposalitziu Selargino, also born in the 1960s from the revival of 18th- and 19th-century rites. Here the festival lasts several days. First comes sa cantada, the serenade in which young men in costume accompany the groom beneath the bride's window; then the trousseau is carried on ox carts to the new home; finally, on Sunday, the couple cross the town in procession to the parish church of the Assunta. After the exchange of rings, the couple's hands are joined by sa cadena, a silver chain, and doves are released as they leave. Here too there is the water blessing and sa 'razia.

Tips

The Mauritanian Wedding takes place on the first weekend of August, with the main day on Sunday. The programme is published by the town council and Pro Loco of Santadi. Arrive early in the village to see the procession well; it is very hot at midday, so bring water and a hat. Santadi is an hour from Cagliari and close to some of the finest sights of the Sulcis: the Is Zuddas caves, the Phoenician fortress of Pani Loriga, the Montessu necropolis at Villaperuccio and the beaches of Porto Pino and Chia, half an hour away.