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Atlas NoctisA nocturnal atlas of folklore
A — documented

Badalisc

Lombardy · The Alpine arc
Andrista di Cevo, upper Val Camonica (province of Brescia)

Badalisc — beast with a body «made like a sack», covered in goatskin, two horns, eyes that light up red.

The Badalisc, its sack-like body covered in goatskin and its eyes red, comes down from the woods towards Andrista on a winter night, while the villagers with their lanterns keep their distance.
Variants and dialect names
Badalisc, Badalisch, Badalisco
What is told
Beast with a body «made like a sack», covered in goatskin, two horns, eyes that light up red. It is mute: its speech is read out by an interpreter. It lives in the woods and comes down to the village once a year.
What it was forthe author’s reading
Social control by satire. Having «spied» all year, it reveals in the square the sexual secrets and the shortcomings of the villagers in the 'ntifunada, in dialect and in rhyme. The Church opposed the festival by refusing communion to the women who took part.
Where it is attested
Living, unbroken rite, on the night between 5 and 6 January. Recorded in the Registro delle Eredità Immateriali della Regione Lombardia. Reference study: Luca Giarelli, Il Badalisc di Andrista, 2012.
Caution
There are no early documentary attestations of the Badalisc as such: the tradition is oral. The etymology from the basilisk is declared problematic by the institutional popularisers themselves.

The grade says how well the entry is documented, not how interesting it is. How the grades are assigned.

In the same area

AAnguanethe Veneto, Trentino-South Tyrol, Friuli-Venezia Giulia — Venetian and Trentino Prealps, from Val Camonica to the Slovenian borderAOm salvàrechTrentino-South Tyrol, Lombardy, Piedmont, the Aosta Valley — The whole Alpine arc, greatest density in Trentino and ValtellinaBRegno dei FanesTrentino-South Tyrol — Alpe di Fanes, Marebbe (province of Bolzano), and the Ladin DolomitesAVecia Redosegathe Veneto — Valbelluna, Cadore, Agordino; German-speaking Alpine areaCGigiàtLombardy — Val Masino (province of Sondrio), with extensions into Valchiavenna and BregagliaABordaEmilia-Romagna, Lombardy — The Emilian and Romagnol lowlands, extending into the Lombard plain

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