SAN GENNARO 

Few people know that was the real name of Ianuario S.Gennaro. He came, in fact, the noble family Gens Januaria sacred to the two-faced god Janus. Then we go Gennaro (transformation Neapolitan Ianuario) was not his name but his surname. Unofficial sources say that his name was Proculus.

San Gennaro is, without doubt, one of the most famous scene in Naples and one can safely state that is known and revered throughout the world.
THE MIRACLE OF THE BLOOD

It is believed that a pious woman had collected in two phials of San Gennaro's blood and then to deliver the precious relic to the bishop of Naples.
The blood contained in glass jars of old-fashioned is still the object of deep veneration with other relics preserved in the Cathedral of Naples.
The dark, solid lumps coagulated spontaneously dissolve. The blood seethes and takes on the color red.








POPULAR BELIEFS


San Gennaro is not just religious devotion against a holy prestigious.
It also represents a landmark for folk beliefs, superstitions, many of them well.

The lottery

The Procession

The lottery

Naples is the city's folklore and the game has always had endless legions of followers from all social classes. Just think of the fortune of the lot, the game century Genoese, who had moved to Naples has created around himself a real mythology, a true philosophy.
The people of Naples believe so blindly that everything had a reference in the lot that the government was forced to suspend betting on current events played too much not to risk the failure of the State coffers.

Game based on the book's Grimace (probably by Morpheus, the god of dreams) explains that dreams and that means all the numbers that correspond to characters and events of everyday life. All Neapolitans know that the face is a key to translate dreams or events into numbers from the lottery, and that Grimace is also a book to consult to know the key.
Perhaps not everyone knows however that the apparent banality of this volume summarizes the different traditions converged in the game: the oral, which links the numbers to the facts of daily life, and "educated" elitist and esoteric, to guess the numbers, uses the cabal.


The numbers of San Gennaro: 9 - 15 - 18 - 53 - 55

The procession

The procession is held the first Sunday in May and is an ancient tradition that recalls the first transfer of the relics of the saint dall'agro Marciano to the catacombs of Naples. This procession, also called "procession of the statues," is both a show of faith and folklore. This event is part three of the other two fixed dates of the recurring miracle of the liquefaction of the blood: December 16, the anniversary of the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631, and September 19, the date of the martyrdom of San Gennaro.

The event that saw involving Gennaro, occurred in the first half of the third century, during the persecution of Christians by Diocletian.

At that time, Gennaro, bishop of Benevento went to Pozzuoli to visit the faithful here and found the anti-Christian martyrdom by order of the court Dragonzio.
The liquefaction is usually accompanied by fervent prayers and invocations to the Holy insistent. The manner in which the dissolution takes time, intensity of blood are considered a good omen for the city if they take place without delay, otherwise quotation is unfavorable. The miracle is regularly repeated two more times in the year: in May and December and in particularly relevant for Naples such as the visit of some important personage, the threat of natural disasters, etc.. For the first time it was noted the liquefaction of the blood of San Gennaro in 1389 in the pages of the "Chronicon Siculum". From that moment on, scholars, scientists and researchers have indulged in writing about this unusual fact. Up to now nobody has been able to find the solution of the mystery. Therefore around the blood of San Gennaro grew many legends and superstitions.