by Paolo Loriga
From all over Italy and Albania to Loppiano for the traditional event, rich in music and content. Seventeen workshops allowed everyone to get involved, following the five themes that the young people had set themselves in order to get out of themselves and build social relationships.
There was nothing accommodating about this May Day in Loppiano. No comfort zone was offered to the young people who arrived. The bar was set high right from the start. Almost too high. And it was Fiorella who set it, with some details of her personal story. She was full of fears and had a very rigid mind on many issues. She was good at her studies and at work, but she had no sense of purpose. “Then I heard about the Economy of Communion,” says Fiorella, “and I said to myself,‘ Is there really something where love is at the centre of the economy?’ Sophia, the university in Loppiano, could teach me the principles of this new economic vision.” She applied and was accepted. On August 30, 2023, she left Peru and, after taking three planes and four trains, arrived in the little town. She had struggled with doubts and overcome various obstacles. She would be away from her family and friends for two years. But every time, it seemed as if God was saying to her, “Come on, get up!” And she did, without fail. “So a little flower blossomed inside me.. That’s why I call myself Fiorella.”
How many flowers will bloom today among the thousand young people who have come from all over Italy and Albania to experience this edition of May Day in Loppiano? The title is a clear invitation – “The courage to blossom” – especially since, after ten years, this festival (which has been held since 1973) is finally bathed in sunshine and nature is dressed in the colours of spring. Michela, tall and blonde, comes from Brescia and is attending her fifth May Day. She is unable to come to Loppiano at other times, “but I never miss May Day.” Three students arrive from Calabria, with raven hair and bright eyes. They are effervescent with excitement and hurry to enter the Auditorium to get the best seats. The long-time admirers of May Day move more quietly. With greying hair and a few extra pounds, they are respected professionals and committed parents. They represent the adults who return to May Day with the loyalty of those who, once in their twenties, discovered the meaning of their existence.
Generations change, but the May Day event remains deeply felt. At 10 a.m., everyone gathers in the Auditorium, Giovani per un Mondo Unito (Youth for a United World) and not only them. “We want to live every day according to the ideal of unity and universal brotherhood, keeping in mind the golden rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you,’” explains Emily, 22, who came from Syria and is a pharmacy student. Meanwhile, Marco, 26, a statistics graduate from Rome , introduces the meaning of this event: “We want to reflect on our inner conflicts, on what torments our thoughts, what makes our fears grow, why it becomes difficult to reach out to others, to support them in their difficulties, to be vigilant about the fractures in the world, when the first unresolved wounds are within us.”
Clear ideas, clear goals. The result of reflections on how much they themselves suffer and live in the midst of this global pandemic of ‘singularism’. But also with the intention of opening up to others in order to initiate constructive relationships and generous bonds. In short, with the courage to blossom and the commitment to dare to break free from the logic of the frantic search for individual happiness. And this is the peculiarity of May Day. The themes, content, and various stages of the program are designed and implemented by the young people themselves, with a few adult specialists accompanying them on their journey and helping them identify experts for the workshops. Five themes are addressed: self-acceptance and self-criticism, fear of failure and the need for control, independence and the search for belonging, fear of judgment by others and the need for authenticity, acceptance of the past and building a better future. These themes ran through the entire program, starting with the 17 workshops that filled the entire morning. The distribution was significant: one on the sensory relationship with nature, one on new technologies, two on the phenomenon of migration, seven on self-knowledge, wounds, and the search for identity, and six on the artistic side of giving oneself to others.
The lunch break was an opportunity to socialize, perhaps sitting in the sun on the lawns, visiting the stands, browsing the exhibitions, enjoying homemade ice cream, and then diving into the afternoon program. The musical theatre was a real surprise for the young audience. Samuele, the protagonist, is very unlucky. Everything happens to him, and he expresses the wounds, anxieties, fears, and crises of Italian and Western youth. He has lost his diary, almost his very self, and is afraid that someone will find it and get to know his true personality. His traveling companion, a blonde girl, eventually reveals herself to be his soul, his inner self, with whom he engages in constant dialogue.
The journey is enriched by the contributions of groups who, in the morning art workshops, have prepared a song, a dance, music with percussion on plastic buckets, and a theatrical performance recounting emblematic episodes of everyday life. The contribution of the artists of Gen Verde is particularly effective. As were the much-appreciated contributions of As One (Come uno, in Italian), a musical group formed by young adults from Verona, and Martina Nicosia, aka Martinico, a 20-year-old with an excellent voice who has already been part of the cast of the musical “Bernadette de Lourdes.” And then there was the elegance of the dancers of the LAD (Laboratorio Accademico Danza), a dance school in Montecatini Terme, and the skill of the two young actors in the leading roles: Marta Fornari and Edoardo Bartalesi, from the Compagnia Teatrale Aletheia.
The stage thus allowed the spotlight to shine on many young people who, having come only as spectators, found themselves protagonists, overcoming their fears and limitations, sharing the apparent “little” that each one had to offer, amazed to have done something beautiful and constructive for everyone, together with others. And those sitting in the audience—as some of the young people later confided—experienced nothing less, discovering and rediscovering how a small gesture of love can develop ever wider social relationships.
To flourish, you need courage and daring. This year’s May Day seems to have helped them. Perhaps a clue lies in the joy that the thousand young people exploded in that sort of open-air disco set up on the steps of the Theotokos church. The large transparent balloons constantly thrown up into the air from one side of the square to the other seemed to express exuberant gratitude. This was then expressed with reverence at 6.30 p.m. during Mass in a crowded sanctuary.
The workshops held by Gen Verde were part of the project “M.E.D.I.T.erraNEW: Mediation, Emotions, Dialogue, Interculturality, Talents to foster youth social inclusion in the Mare Nostrum,” Erasmus Plus – Youth – cooperation partnership.“You are born to bloom, the courage to flourish” was also made possible thanks to the contribution of Fondazione CR Firenze.