Each year, the feast of the Madonna del Fiore (every third Sunday of May) represents the most important day in the territory of Acquapendente. The event is not limited to the celebration of that specific day but is a festivity whose effects and expectations are cast on the whole year.
Preparation starts over one month before the grand day when, with a lot of vitality, the young people of 15 local groups begin to realize their works in the laboratories where the artists have previously created their new sketches. On the feast morning, while groups face each other in a cheerful atmosphere of competition, the Pugnaloni are exhibited in dedicated spaces along the streets of town and a jury of experts examines each of them to estimate originality, artistic value and quality of execution. In the afternoon, works are carried to the Cathedral square while the Historical Parade and the Flag-wavers pass along the centre streets. Later, the procession with the Madonna del Fiore is followed by all the Pugnaloni. Finally at night, at the apex of festivities and enthusiasm, the order of awarding of the six first price-winners is announced in public on the Girolamo Fabrizio square. Meantime, the Pugnaloni have been located among the aisles of the Cathedral, where they can be admired for many months to come. At the beginning of next springtime each group will take his work back, will destroy the old one and the board will be ready to host a new mosaic of vegetal elements, attractive but, “naturally”, ephemeral.
