Returns starting May 1, 2024 the Festin des Maione of the traditional festivals to which the people of Nice are most attached and which is lost in the mists of time.
In May the gardens of Cimiez will come alive for the whole month, offering parties, dances, entertainment, gastronomy and crafts in the splendid setting of a park which is among the most beautiful in the city, amidst the history and archaeological finds of what was the Roman city of Cemenelum.
Already in Roman times, in Nice, the renewal of Nature was celebrated by planting a “mai” (a large pine felled in the forest) in a temple and decorating it with garlands of flowers and laurels.
Over the centuries, the custom has become “vira lou mai”: dancing around a “mai”, erected in symbolic places of Old Nice, eating specialties, playing “pilou” or “vitou” and electing a “Reine des mai” “.
An event which, in the month of May, has been repeated for generations and which mainly involves families, who do not disdain organizing picnics which contribute even more to coloring and cheering up the environment.
The Festin des Mai will take place in the Cimiez gardens on Wednesday 1st May and on the following Sundays (5, 12, 19 and 26 May).
A bit of history
In Catholic lands, the month of May was traditionally the time of Marian processions and village festivals.
The “festival” is a set of secular and religious occasions that brings together the community of the town, often on the occasion of the patronal feast: the visit of the “abades” by a group of musicians; the mass, often accompanied by a procession during which the statue of the patron saint is carried through the streets; the party itself; the games and finally the ball.
In Nice the celebration begins at the end of March or beginning of April with the “cougourdon festival” (Lou Festin dai cougourdon) in Cimiez, whose long tradition still persists at the end of the 19th century. Also known as the “blame party”, it was an opportunity to make public the grievances that couples had accumulated during their long winter cohabitation.
This is the program of the Festin des Mai of Wednesday 1 May 2024
Inside the gardens
- From 10am to 7pm – stands and catering
Scène de l’Oliveraie
- Presentation – Aurélie Basso and Gilles Roche
- Folkloric dances – La Ciamada Nissarda
- Fanfare – La jeunesse niçoise
- Election of the Queen of the Mai
- Danses folkloriques – Lou Caireu Nissart
- Balèti – Mai Qu’Aco
- Danses folkloriques – Nice la Belle
- Musette – Thierry Noll TrioDans les jardins
Petite scene
- From 2pm to 5pm
- Conte « La route des neiges » – Cie Hidraïssa
- Fanfare – La jeunesse niçoise
- Concert – Lu Troubadours doù souleù
- Conte musical « Lou Pichoun de la Gordolasque » – Mar and Mountagnos
In the gardens
From 11am to 5pm
- Atelier « Les galets de Nice »
- Jeux traditions du « Baron Jeux Vol »
- Makeup stand and hairline creation workshop (payable)
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