Unseasonably Warm All Saints’ Day Sparks Celebration and Reflection
“For All Saints, it still feels like summer”! Off with the coats, off with the shearling jackets and heavy clothing, the thousands of faithful who visited the graves of their loved ones yesterday celebrated a November 1st that, in this century, has few precedents.
Meteorologists say that today the arrival of the deep winter is expected, with a sharp drop in temperatures. It will be so, but until 24 hours ago, the warm season was still undisputed, “overturning” the cliché that sees All Saints’ Day as a gray, cold holiday, sometimes snowy.
After the ceremonies at the cemetery, instead of wine and chestnuts with relatives, everyone is out for a walk, perhaps in short sleeves. Clear blue sky, warm sun, and mild wind: only the few yellowed leaves scattered by the föhn remind us that we are already in late autumn.
The response of commercial establishments and tourists
In Riva and Arco, bars and restaurants that had not yet set up outdoor tables and umbrellas had their hands full serving a crowd of residents and tourists, eager to enjoy drinks and dishes basking in the last warm rays of sunlight.
On the beach, the mats and towels of sunbathers and entire families reappeared. Some brave German tourists couldn’t resist even a swim.
It was a pleasing surprise, albeit unexpected, for Vittorio Cattoni, who has been renting paddle boats at Brolio for a lifetime. “I saw that the day was beautiful,” he explains happily while a German father and mother pedal with their children towards the open water, “and I decided to come here for some fresh air.
Just to pass the morning, but I would have never imagined renting paddle boats. No, I can’t recall anything similar in the past.” In front of the Riva hotel, in an almost blinding light, an Irish female choir, dressed in light uniforms, improvises a mini concert (including Celtic dance) that attracts dozens of enthusiastic passersby.
Memories and historical comparisons
Strange November 1st. “I remember one similar only in 1938,” explains Giovanni Ettore Bertozzi, 75. “I remember it well — he recounts — because it was the day my family and I moved to Riva from Lazise to manage the Rosengarten.
I was twelve years old, but that day left a mark on me.” This has nothing to do, then, with past years, when sometimes the first snow already covered the tombs or when, precisely these days, the people in the villages prepared el farlét, the animals’ bedding, by raking leaves in the woods.
Now the leaves are still all on the trees and the grass is green. Yes, it has been a truly strange November 1st.
