The celebrations in honor of Sant'Antonio Abate (January 17). Li fochərə, the procession, the fair and the country players

The feast of Sant'Antonio Abate was deeply felt because in a country with an agricultural vocation like Controguerra the animals, protected by the Egyptian saint, had considerable social and economic importance, like family members. Even today in country farmhouses you can come across niches containing statuettes of the saint.
The night before the anniversary, i.e. on January 16, the ritual of the fochera was renewed: the peasants prepared piles of brushwood and burned them. During the night, the countryside was dotted with many bonfires in honor of the saint and the witnesses remember with emotion the spectacle of the fires scattered throughout the Tronto valley. The rite had a deeply religious connotation and prayers were recited around the fire. In the village a large pyre was prepared in the square and the villagers gathered around it, praying and singing St. Anthony's songs.
Until the end of the century. XX, on the occasion of the anniversary of Sant'Antonio Abate, on January 17, a solemn mass and a procession were celebrated. When the statue of the saint arrived at the Cona church, the first shot was fired and the inhabitants of the western side of the town "celebrated", then when the saint arrived near the church of San Rocco (or at the school building, according to other versions) he left a second shot and those on the eastern side "celebrated".
In addition to the religious celebrations, a large fair was held. The stalls were arranged in Piazza del Commercio and along Via Giovanni Amadio and Via Guglielmo Marconi. In the center of the square was Palmarì, which sold sandwiches with porchetta. The "deliciousness" was prepared at home and brought to the site with a wheelbarrow. The animals were exhibited and sold at the cattle farm. During the twentieth century, for this purpose, first the land where the municipal sports field was built, then the square where the war memorial stands today and, lastly, the stretch of the southern ring road near the current station of service. In recent editions of the fair there were also more modern agricultural tools and tractors. The mountaineers traveled around the villages who played the songs dedicated to the saint with organs, trumpets and ddu bbottə. These were very characteristic, dressed in knickerbockers, a sheepskin gilet and a hat with a feather. The peasants let them into the stables, where they sang some songs both for the family present and for the animals. As a reward for their service, the mountaineers obtained products from the land, seasonal fruit, eggs, pieces of cheese, etc. In those days, an elderly man or woman for each district dressed "like the saint", that is, wore a sort of brown habit, and went from house to house, cheering the children with stories, songs and folk songs, and distributing delicacies , such as sausage bits and treats. Another custom concerned those who, during the year, had made a vow to Saint Anthony: to dissolve it, they had to prepare bread to be distributed free of charge to the needy.