How a Nineteenth-century protest folks tune grew to become the anthem of Italy’s anti-fascist Resistance.
Every 12 months on 25 April, Bella Ciao is sung throughout Italy on the Festa della Liberazione which marks the nation’s liberation from German occupation and fascist rule on the finish of world struggle two.
Dating from the Nineteenth-century, Bella Ciao was initially an Italian protest folks tune, lamenting the cruel working circumstances of the mondina staff within the paddy fields of northern Italy.
Rome marks Festa della Liberazione with Bella Ciao on the Pyramid of Cestius. #25aprile pic.twitter.com/6sWZerhpIQ
— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) April 25, 2024
However the tune’s lyrics had been modified within the Forties to inform the story of a younger man who bids farewell to his love (“goodbye lovely”) to affix the Italian partisans.
“And if I die as a partisan, then you need to bury me / up within the mountain / underneath the shade of a lovely flower / and all those that shall move / will inform me ‘What a lovely flower / that is the flower of the partisan / who died for freedom’”.
The tune was quickly adopted because the anthem of the Italian partisans and right now is sung worldwide as an anti-fascist hymn of freedom and resistance.
However in Italy, just like the annual commemoration on 25 April, Bella Ciao stays divisive and is scorned by these on the correct who refuse to rejoice Liberation Day.
Photo ANPI
