December 8th is a holy day here: it's the Festa della Madonna, which celebrates the Immaculate Conception. People gathered around the Madonna dello Stellario, via del Fosso, and the Archbishop of Lucca gave a brief speech.

Then the Compagnia Balestrieri di Lucca, a historical group that keeps the crossbow tradition alive in Lucca, gave us a quite impressive demonstration of flag throwing and of sword fighting.

Web site of Compagnia Balestrieri di Lucca (in Italian).

posted by michel, 2006-12-17