This antique religious rite roots in prehistoric times and involves today the entire population of the village.

Over 100 quintals of wood are burnt without interruption around a great tree called the “stanga”  from the dusk of Christmas eve to New Year's eve.  

• The story

Traditionally, each one of the families of the village supplied the wood that would be burnt on this occasion (today it is provided by a citizen's committee).

Even if today the origins of this festivity are uncertain, nevertheless it is particularly relevant for the entire population for whom it is traditionally linked to “New Year's celebrations” and represents a rite for periodic regeneration of the cycle of life as well as of the bounds that link the existence of men within this historically grown community.

To burn trees has always been an rite of regeneration and a commemoration of the New Year. It also expresses the desire of man to abolish the profane time that has gone by and to introduce “the new time”. For the town of Nerito this great “eve” fire is part of the rites dedicated to introducing a propitious season and to warding off calamitous times.

It is linked to solstitial rites performed to purify and propitiate through the act of burning, a representation of the sun which is at the same time destructive and life giving.