There are lands that seem to ask you to leave and others that challenge you to stay. Irpinia does both: it challenges you, discourages you, falls in love with you and calls you back. Those who choose to stay do so out of stubbornness, out of roots, out of faith in their history. He does it because he feels, inside, that this province of endless valleys and wounds never quite healed still deserves an investment of love.
It is the courageous choice of many young people from Irpinia - such as Francesco Dandolo and the extraordinary team of the Association #Irpiniativogliobene - that transformed belonging into a project, identity into movement, territory into community.
And so it is that again this year, from the Dec. 5 to 8, returns the Irpino Pine, in its 12th edition: a secular rite of fraternity that has the flavor of tradition, the pace of the future and the dogged strength of those who not only love their land, but choose to guard it.
A non-stop journey: 118 municipalities, nearly a thousand kilometers, 60 hours of pure Irpinia
At 8 a.m. Dec. 5, from Monteforte Irpino, a caravan of young people set out again to cross the entire province.
Over 60 hours of travel time, 118 municipalities, 8-minute stops each, stories to hear, faces to meet, dialects to savor, emotions to cherish.
It is a secular pilgrimage to the heart of our identity-a green thread that sews together communities that are often far apart, geographically and otherwise.
This year's slogan is a simple and powerful embrace:
“Irpinia I love you.”
And it is not just a message, it is a statement of responsibility.
The 2024 theme: peace, hope, music, art
This year the Hirpinian Pine puts the focus on. peace and hope, reminding everyone that big changes begin with small gestures.
Through music, performances and performing arts, the squares will be filled with an energy that smacks of rebirth and community.
Solidarity collection: a gift that weighs little, but is worth a great deal
As per tradition, the caravan brings with it a concrete mission: food collection.
Canned foods, canned goods, coffee-simple goods that are increasingly weighing on the budgets of struggling families today.
A small gesture, a big meaning: a reminder that no one should be left behind.
The social initiative: communities that intertwine, nationalities that dialogue
Irpinia knows well the pain of leaving, but also the beauty of welcoming. That is why each committee has been invited to involve citizens of as many nationalities as possible.
The purpose? To show that a community only truly grows when it embraces all its diversity.
And to overcome historic parochial rivalries, each committee will give the next municipality a olive tree, a symbol of peace, roots and continuity.
The contest: 60 seconds of music to tell a collective soul story
In each square, groups, associations and citizens will have one minute To amaze with songs, dances, performances.
A creative and contagious long-distance challenge that transforms the whole province into one big shared stage.
Between games, research and participation
To enrich the journey:
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the board game “Irpinia, crooked goes, deritta veins”.
The publishing house game Demoela, born from the idea of Federica Brogna, illustrated by Gaia Guarino and graphically realized by Shibui Studio, is not just a pastime: it is a true journey into the culture of Irpinia. Between proverbs, idioms, dialectal contingencies and symbolic stages, the board becomes an affective map of the province. Each box tells a piece of tradition, a popular anecdote, a small irony that only those who live (or have lived) Irpinia can fully understand.
During the tour, the game will be taken to the streets as a kind of “blitzkrieg”: a dice throw between the caravan's youth and the welcoming committees, turning each stage into a spectacular and collective micro-game. A light and clever way to share identity, laughter and culture, making tradition not a motionless memory but a living gesture, which is renewed in every square in Irpinia.
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a psychological well-being questionnaire (“Non te ne ncarrecà - o’ cereviello è na sfoglia e cipolla”) to tell how a sense of community affects our lives
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moments of dialogue, listening, confrontation.
The grand finale: the lighting of the Hirpinian Pine in Avellino.
The course will close Dec. 8 at 8:30 p.m. In the garden of the Colletta National Boarding School, Avellino.
As early as 7 p.m., the wait will be an event within an event: drawings, music, the multilingual choir “Voices of Europe,” and the infectious enthusiasm of the students.
And then, the lighting of the Irpinian Pine Tree with all the decorations collected during the journey: a community ritual, the visible sign of the unity of a province that, when it wants to, knows how to be one voice.
A community heritage
The Hibernian Pine is not a simple initiative.
It is a collective act of love.
It is proof that the province of Avellino, often told only for what it loses, can still surprise for what it creates.
And it knows how to do this because of its young people, those who stay, those who return, those who are committed.
Thanks to the energy of those who still believe that this land is home. Of those who, like Francesco Iandolo and all the boys of the caravan, choose each year to repeat a simple and revolutionary gesture:
setting out on the road.
Because Irpinia, when you cross it with your heart, is never really far away.
It is one big community that never stops loving each other.
