Per a Cimbrian the title of Grand Massaro of the Cimbrians it is the highest honor. An honor that this year fell to major Andrea Oxilia, commander of the Carabinieri Company of Imola.
Veronese by birth, Oxilia boasts roots that date back to Folgariaa municipality in which a 2011 survey revealed that 7.9% of the approximately 3 thousand inhabitants knew how to communicate in Cimbrian, a Germanic language historically widespread in some areas of Veneto and, later, also of Trentino.
This honor will be awarded to Major Oxilia next Sunday, during the traveling Cimbrian Festival to be held in Bosco Chiesanuova. «For me it is an honor of very high cultural and moral value» comments Oxilia, adding in Cimbrian «Ta der lebe sempar, Tzimbar (=Long live the Cimbrian)».
Oxilia has received several awards and recognitions in the past for his poems in Cimbrian. In 2021, during a meeting, she explained what the Cimbrian culture means today: «The Cimbrian is like the wick of a candle that has just been extinguished, still smoking. But the term with which you say it can mean “that has lost the fire that animated it” but you can also mean “still smoldering wick, which can start to live again”.
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The honor of Gran Massaro is awarded annually by the Curatorium Cimbricum Veronense to those who have distinguished themselves for having dedicated themselves to Cimbrian history and culture. Historically, this position similar to that of a modern mayor was assigned to people elected within the Vicinìa, that is, the assembly of the Cimbrian town. They had the task of guiding the community, paying taxes and maintaining the parish priest, as well as ensuring public order.
Among the people awarded this honor was also the well-known writer Mario Rigoni Stern.
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