83 OI magazine e Gardenese costumes are very similar throughout Val Gardena, with some small di erences for the children’s costume and for a male costume called “ciampac” which is worn by some men in Santa Cristina and Selva. e rules and teachings on how to wear the Gardenese costumes are passed down orally from generation to generation. Wearing these costumes takes time, patience and precision, especially for female costumes, which take about an hour. For big occasions, the “Wedding Parade” is represented to show how people got married in Val Gardena. is parade consists of more than 20 di erent costumes and represents the great variety of costumes existing in Val Gardena. From the church to the restaurant, guests formed a parade with a certain sequence, which re ected each guest’s relationship with the bride and groom. e parade was preceded by the “invitor” (in the photo below), a character once widespread in di erent states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose job was to invite relatives and friends to the wedding. He carries a long, carved and decorated stick with owers and ribbons. e “invitor” and his daughter e younger sisters of the bride and groom and the ower girl are particularly lovely and wear the costume, which in Ladino is called “gherlanda spiza” (in the photo below). e name comes from the golden wreath, which the girls wear on their head. e traditional Gardenese costumes are highly admired for their elegance and sophistication. ey are particularly interesting because they re ect the history of Val Gardena. ey contain clothing items typical of the Tyrolean and Bavarian traditions (as South Tyrol, and thus Val Gardena, was Austrian territory until 1919), but are distinguishable from those in neighbouring valleys due to the fabrics, colours, tailoring, and jewellery that accompany the costumes. Hundreds of years ago, inhabitants of the Alpine valleys exclusively wore clothes from their own valley: during the week they wore “work clothes,” and on holidays or Sundays, they wore “holiday clothes.” One could tell where a person was from by their clothing: Val Gardena, Val Sarentino, or another Alpine valley. e “holiday clothes” of the past eventually became the typical costumes of each valley. In the past, holiday clothes were simpler, due to the fact that Val Gardena’s inhabitants mainly lived on farms and led a rural life. ey soon started to create wooden household items and toys, and produced “Loden” fabric and made lace on the bobbin. ese items were sold throughout Tyrol and in regional markets. e wood-carving cra then developed. By the 1700s, Gardenese merchants visited major European cities to sell toys, sculptures, and wooden altars made in Val Gardena. ey brought gi s of precious jewels, fabrics, or lace back to their wives, brides, or daughters to decorate their holiday clothes. Over time, they opened shops in many European cities where their children or grandchildren sold the wooden items made in Val Gardena. e Biedermeier period (1815-1848) had a signi cant in uence on both male and female Gardenese costumes. e horn combs and colourful underskirts, however, are of Spanish origin. In the past, Val Gardena people wore traditional costumes for all holidays, including weddings, baptisms, and family celebrations. Today, these traditional costumes are worn on special occasions, such as religious processions, festivals in Val Gardena’s towns (Ortisei, Santa Cristina, Selva, Roncadizza, and Bulla), inaugurations, and costume parades (to see more photos, visit the website of the Gardenese Costume Association in Ortisei http://www.trachtenverein.it/it/ ). People in Val Gardena costume in a photo from the 1920s
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