Snake stories.

In Italy there is a town named Cocullo, where they annually celebrate the festival of snakes.

In that town there are some people who are in charge of looking for the snakes; these people are named “serparios”. They look for as many snakes as they can and on the day of the festival they are in charge of placing them in the image of a saint.

The saint of the population is “San Domenico”, and his peculiar characteristic is a series of snakes around his neck and chest. The meaning behind those snakes is the fight between good and evil.

The Serparios find and classify the snakes they will use at the festival. They only use snakes that are not poisonous and docile, many of which are snakes with the name of Aesculapius.

On the day of the festival, the priest and the parishioners take the image of San Domenico out of the temple for the procession. Being outside, they lower the image to the ground so that the serparios, who are on the side of the crowd, can wrap the snakes around the neck of the patron saint. By doing this, they raise the image again and go on a pilgrimage with their saint and the snakes.

At the end of their pilgrimage celebration, they take the snakes and each one puts them back in the field so that they can return to their lives until next year.

Serpents through the ages have represented an enigma. In the bible, in ancient Egypt, in Greek and Roman mythology, the serpent is represented with ambivalent symbolism; it represents cunning, wickedness, sagacity, betrayal and, in the bible, was considered the enemy of God and man. It was also considered a symbol of fertility. In ancient medicine it was considered an antidote to some diseases.

For the Hindus the cobra is important. They show their respect and admiration in some traditional rituals on some regions of India.

In many places, snakes are a delicious dish and in many traditions the organs of the snake are considered for some medicinal practices, the skin of the snake, once shed, is considered medicinal in some places.

They even appear in the symbol of the doctors; there you can see a rod with a snake coiled in it. The serpent is involved in a healing chapter for an ancient Greek physician named Aesculapius.

There are many stories around snakes, be them of intrigue, fun, or healing stories.