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Dante Day

• Do you know what is celebrated on March 25, in Italy?

We give you a little clue:

    “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
    Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura…”

Certainly you understand, we are talking about a figure of Italian literature that everyone knows: Dante Alighieri.
March 25 is the Dante Day, the national day dedicated to Dante Alighieri.

• Why on March 25?
March 25, it is not accidental, is the date that scholars recognize as the beginning of the journey into the afterlife of the Divine Comedy. 2021 edition is the most significant because it takes place on the 700th anniversary of the death of the poet.

• But who is Dante Alighieri?
Dante is the Italian poet for excellence, who after centuries has transmitted vital inspiration to people. For generations of poets, artists and politicians of the Risorgimento who built the Unification of Italy, Dante is the father and an essential pillar. He is considered the father of the Italian language; his fame is due to the famous work “the Divine Comedy” and universally considered the greatest work written in Italian language and one of the greatest masterpieces of world literature.

The Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini: Dante is undoubtedly the most universal and transversal, capable as he is of striking the creative imagination in multiple forms: from theater to music, from figurative art to writing, from cinema to dance, all the arts have interpreted or reinterpreted Dante and his work, as evidenced by the various initiatives chosen by the Committee from the hundreds of proposals received. The commitment of RAI is important, with an extraordinary Monday, and of the three cities of Florence, Ravenna and Verona, which have given life to a program of events of absolute importance “.

Celebrating Dante seven hundred years after his death means not only paying due homage to a great Italian who has reached, by almost unanimous opinion, the highest peaks of literature of all time. It also means continuing to question oneself deeply about the demanding and demanding heritage delivered to us by this extraordinary intellectual who is complete in every respect who made civil, moral and religious commitment the very reason for his incomparable artistic production. Dante is not only a milestone of world literature. It is also a touchstone, which reveals and distinguishes authentic gold from fake gold. And also, if you like, a stone of scandal. The scandal of the story, without veils or pretenses, of a fragile humanity, on a perennial and tiring journey in search of meaning and happiness.

We of the Mentorship Committee of the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, wanted to pay homage to the memory of the great poet with one of the most famous verses, because they are the words known all over the world, also known by our international students!

    “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
    mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
    ché la diritta via era smarrita.
    Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
    esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
    che nel pensier rinova la paura!”

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