Gl’Cierv / The Ritual of the Deer Man

I have had the enormous pleasure of being shown around the headquarters of the Association ‘The Ritual of the Deer Man’, or rather ‘Gl’Cierv’, by its President, Ernest Carracillo.

This pre-Christian ritual has been repeated on the last Sunday of carnival since time immemorial, in Castelnuovo al Volturno, a small village near Collemacchia where The Museum of Loss and Renewal residencies are hosted.

After sunset the town’s single square, framed by the Marrone and Castelnuovo mountains that form part of the Mainarde chain, is activated as the stage for a striking audio-visual performance that includes multiple local inhabitants who play the key characters, protagonists, opponents and extras.

The ‘Gl’Cierv’ ritual paraphrases the primordial meaning of carnival, the ancient Dionysian myth in which the passage of the seasons is symbolised in a bloody, visceral way. For the rebirth of nature to happen, a sacrificial death is necessary.

What is played out in the ritual are elements that frustrate the human soul: deep-rooted fears of the unreasonable, the incomprehensible, and nature’s inherent violence that can frequently dominate and overwhelm.

The origin of the ritual is obscure, and supposition is based around the genesis of the main characters: the Deer, the Martin and the Hunter.