SECRET TO be HAPPY: Use your experiences and inject a bit of humour into them to get on with your life.

TRADITION: Festa del Cornuto ( festival of horns)

DATE: November

CELEBRATED IN: Rocca Canterano, Italy

Life doesn’t just stay on one long continuum of unchanging feelings and events. Inevitability there are going to be  times when like  sucks. Maybe you get cheated on by your partner and the relationship breaks up.  The exposure of this treachery is heart breaking , you feel  shocked- where did you miss the signs that all was not well?  You may feel vexed and melancholic- completely spiritless.

When you are in  that moment of your life when you are caught up in the depths of misery, it looks like there is no way possible you can move on. You may ask yourself:

HOW THE HELL AM I GOING TO GET OVER THIS BETRAYAL AND MOVE ON?

This festival celebrated in Rome is a unique take on helping people move on from a relationship of trust and betrayal from the one they loved the most. Actors go parading around the streets – quoting satirical  poems and enacting  stories about love and betrayal. They do it in a warped fashion. This is not about being nostalgic. It is an eccentric take on the weakness of the fragile human heart.

On the second Saturday in November the town of Rocca Canterano near Rome holds its annual Festa del Cornuto (or Festival of Horns, Feast of the Cuckold) where any unfortunate individual, who has been betrayed by a fickle partner, can be consoled by a parade in their honour. In Italy “horns” are a metaphor for having been cheated on by a partner. It is thought that the term dates from the Roman empire, when heroic soldiers returning from battle were given horns as a prize, but may have come back to find defeat in their own beds. The gesture of the horned hand is meant to convey that a person is being cheated on by his other half. – See more at: http://www.somewhereintheworldtoday.com/festivals/festa-del-cornuto/#sthash.D8bbHQFP.dpuf

The participants wear baby horns  on top of their heads to show people that humour can be found in a love relationship. This high spirited approach to a broken down relationship seeks out to comfort those who have been betrayed. They come and seek support from others like them and are encouraged to ‘fare le corna’ with other festival goers- in other words to ‘make horns’ with each other and  two time  with another. It’s  bizarre but comforting and can be a cathartic experience.

Love can be bitter sweet and we should acknowledge this fact. A person may not leave the festival suddenly repaired and ready to get on with the next part of his/her  life, but if a person can look at this festival as a double edge sword. It can help  a person to look at the betrayal of their relationship from a different perspective. Life is one series of  ‘up’s and down’s and by acknowledging this fact, it can help an individual move on quicker and bounce back.

They say laughter is medicine – this is a powerful approach to repairing a broken heart, shrug it off and perhaps do some ‘horn making’  of your own.