Chapter 16 The pedagogy of joy and festivity

Chapter 16

29. The pedagogy of joy and festivity

In a summation of the most recent scholarly research work done on Don Bosco and his ‘modernity’, Pietro Stella remarks that some studies have highlighted the intuitions, rather than the wording of the Preventive System (1877) which governs the role of free time and games in Don Bosco’s educational experience.

This holds true both in reference to the spontaneous gathering of boys at the Oratory and the rather uninhibited gatherings of boys in a Salesian boarding school where the playground games were an important moment in the life of the young, besides being a healthy release valve (though not without some constricting and even repressive elements)¹¹⁶²

1. 1. Joy

A year earlier, in 1862, Fr John Bonetti, then a student of theology, jotted down the following remarks in one of his diaries:

Don Bosco usually tells the Oratory boys that he wants only three things from them: cheerfulness, work and piety. He often repeats a saying of St Philip Neri: at the proper time run, jump, have as much fun as you want but, for goodness sake, don’t commit sin.¹¹⁶⁴

The fatherly and brotherly contact of the educator with his pupils would have neither value nor effect on the spirit of the young without the effectiveness of a joyful, cheerful existence. It is thanks to these that the boy are open to what is good.¹¹⁶⁵

At a time when education in the family context was generally austere, Don Bosco understood more than anyone else that a boy is a boy and wants to be treated as a boy; he knows that his deepest need is for joy, freedom, play, the ‘Society for a Good Time’. Since he is a believer and priest, Don Bosco is convinced that Christianity is the most reliable and lasting source of happiness because it is the announcement of glad tidings, the Gospel: from the religion of love, salvation, grace, nothing else can spring up but joy and optimism. Therefore there is a singular affinity, almost a mutual appeal between the young and Christian life. The boy who feels he is in a state of grace naturally feels the impact of joy; he is sure of possessing a good which is entirely in his power, and his delightful state of mind is translated into cheerfulness.¹¹⁶⁶

But in practice joy takes on a religious meaning in Don Bosco’s educational experience and correlated reflection on it. The boys themselves are aware of this as it appears from the encounter between Dominic Savio and Camillo Gavio when, as we have remarked, cheerfulness is equated with holiness.¹¹⁶⁷This seems crystal clear in this and other ‘Lives’ written by Don Bosco or in the real life in his ‘house’. Fr Caviglia tells us that

Don Bosco knew the role played by joy in the formation process and the way to holiness, and always wanted joy and good humour to prevail amongst his boys. Serve the Lord with gladness: this invitation could easily have been called the 11th commandment in Don Bosco’s home.¹¹⁶⁸

No book written by Don Bosco offers better testimony to this balanced mix of devotions and games as The Memoirs of the Oratory. The term ‘oratory’ etymologically speaking means ‘a place of prayer’ but it stands also for a ‘recreation park’. Don Bosco makes that explicit when he writes: “Emotionally attached to this mixture of devotions, games and outings, everyone was becoming attached to me, to the point that they were not only very obedient to my orders, but they were eagerly waiting for me to get them to do some task”.¹¹⁶⁹

Secondly, Don Bosco considers joy as a fundamental life-need, as the law of youth which, by definition an age where they are outgoing and happy. This is why Don Bosco is enthusiastic about it, as shown in a beautiful page of the Life of Michael Magone. He writes with real pleasure of his fiery and lively temperament, the way he would look back at the games at the end of recreation, and how he seemed to shoot out like a cannon ball when he rushed out of the classroom or study hall into the playground.¹¹⁷⁰

Don Bosco saw in Michael Magone the archetype of a great many youngsters. This understanding of youth psychology led him to accept the military stirrings of 1848 and be tuned in to the demands of the times, as long as there was no offence to religion and good morals. He did not hesitate to allow the boys to play at military manoeuvres at the Oratory and even gave them sticks for ‘rifles’ (without a barrel).¹¹⁷¹

Those who knew Don Bosco were familiar with the exploits of Bersagliere (a crack corps of soldiers) Joseph Brosio (1829-1883) who reminisced about them in a belated memoir.¹¹⁷²

Recreation time was filled with games, tricks, riddles, very pleasant conversations mingled with serious ones – all educationally valuable. The Memoirs of the Oratory have an abundance of words describing movement and cheerfulness: much noise, shouts, songs, applauding, blurt out with loud cheers, raising an uproar, singing, “tired from laughing, having fun and singing and, I would say, also from shouting”.¹¹⁷³ recreation with bocce balls, stilts, rifles, wooden swords, the first gymnastics equipment, most of the boys spent their recreation time jumping around, running, having a good time, playing various games... “all the tricks of jumping, running, bowling, playing with ropes and sticks, under my supervision”.¹¹⁷⁴

Cheerfulness displayed in all kinds of recreation and especially in the outside games, becomes a diagnostic and pedagogical means of the first order for teachers; for the boys an area where they can show their goodness.

As Fr Caviglia remarks: “After the Sacrament of confession, in Don Bosco’s system, no other more vital and active centre can be indicated than joy. The spontaneity and joyful, familiar style of life of the young person is not only one of the key ways of getting to know souls is not only, but it also turns out to be a way of, an opportunity to approach young people without fear and prejudice, and whisper an appropriate word in confidence”. Here again we have the vital principle of pedagogy or, better still, the vital principle of a true and proper education carried out one-on-one even though it is happening within a group setting.¹¹⁷⁵

Fr Caviglia digresses about life in the playground in a study on the Life of Michael Magone. T

If we remember that Don Bosco, when it was possible, used to let go of everything to be in the playground with his children, we will have understood the importance this has in his eyes, as an educator and father of the souls of his children.¹¹⁷⁶

So, cheerfulness for Don Bosco is recreation, amusements but it is also an authentic and irreplaceable pedagogical reality. Justifiably, as we have seen earlier on, ‘familiarity’ with the young, especially at recreation time is one of the key points he stresses in his letter to teachers in May 1884.¹¹⁷⁹

2. 2. Feast days

Don Bosco gave special educational import to some Marian celebrations, for individuals and the ‘cleaning up’ process in the community: Mary’s birthday in September; the Immaculate Conception in December; Mary Help of Christians on May 24 (this feast was the most important celebration of all because it reminded everyone about the beginning of the oratory work) and the feast of the Assumption.

May 24 was not only the feast of the oratory but soon became a popular and pilgrim feast with additional extraordinary manifestations, both sacred and profane, involving the organisation of various activities which to the Salesians and the young people working with them.¹¹⁸²

Some festivities in honour of particular special saints were celebrated with greater intensity: St Francis de Sales, St Joseph, St Aloysius Gonzaga, St John The Baptist (This feast also marked the date of the annual meeting for pupils and past pupils around Don Bosco), the feast of St Peter which was also the feast of the Pope, All Saints Day, St Cecilia patroness of musicians, and finally the patron saint of each educational institution. The June 24 feast was quite special: it began on the vigil and became the model for all the Feast Days of Gratitude celebrated at different times in the Salesian houses and oratories. The Salesian Bulletin from 1879 on gave us plenty of information about this feast at Valdocco and also reminisced on the meetings Don Bosco had with the past pupils of the oratory, priest and lay, in July.¹¹⁸³

Many of the feast days were characterised by an extraordinary display of music, singing and splendid religious services. Triduums and novenas also preceded them. Some months were livened up and given educational value by encouraging the youngsters to take part as fully as they could: the Marian month of May; March in honour of St Joseph, very close to the almost corporate interests of the working boys, October’s Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Fr Ceria writes that

Don Bosco was constantly concerned with offering young minds and imagination a varied pasture to graze on which might turn them away from thinking about less good things.

So he steered theatrical performances towards the same aim as feast days in and out of church. He made sure that the feasts would be celebrated with pomp and cheerfulness but also at such intervals that as soon as the excitement caused by one feast day was fading away, the expectation of another feast day was aroused¹¹⁸⁴

Every festivity had a twofold aspect: the religious and the profane. Don Bosco always wanted the explicit educational nature of these events to be brought out. He started doing this at the general gatherings held on Sundays at the oratory. As far as possible these gatherings had novelty, joy, edification as their feature.¹¹⁸⁶

Teachers were invited to remind their students about the upcoming festivities.¹¹⁸⁷

Solemn festivities reflected the religious rhythm of Sundays, strongly enhanced by music, singing, and possibly by the appearance of a bishop, with better food at the dining table and with the harmonious sounds of the band playing in the playground. In late afternoon, the feast days was always concluded with a theatrical performance. The climax of the feast day was Eucharistic communion, possibly a general communion during the early morning Mass.

Don Bosco wrote to Fr Michael Rua in February 1870. At the end of the letter he addressed the boys at the Oratory directly:

The evening of the 25th I shall be with you and I will be all yours. But, please, don’t try to have any festivity on my behalf. The greatest feast that you can offer to me is to see you all in good health and well behaved. I will try my best to make you cheerful. The Sunday following my arrival, I hope we will celebrate the great feast day in honour of St Francis de Sales. Make that feast day the best feast I could ever want to have. I would like you all, on that day, to receive Holy Communion. When you celebrate feast days like this all the rest means nothing.¹¹⁸⁸

3. 3. Theatre

Two years later Charles Tomatis, a very clever and versatile artist who lived at the Oratory from 1849-1861 one Saturday evening, when Don Bosco was busy hearing confessions, took the initiative of entertaining the young boarders with mimes, puppet shows, farces and comedies.¹¹⁹⁰

For 1847-1852 another type of theatrical activity is recorded. It consisted of dialogues and performances with didactic intent: on Bible History, The metrical decimal system, etc. Generally these performances were connected with the activities of the evening and Sunday schools and, occasionally, outstanding personalities were present like Ferrante Aporti and Charles Boncompagni.¹¹⁹¹

In the 1850s a true theatrical tradition had its beginnings at the home in Valdocco. This tradition would be enriched during the 1860s with a variety of theatrical fare: comedies and popular farces in dialect and Italian; Latin comedies performed before an audience which included illustrious personalities from the city of Turin; historical and sacred dramas; various kinds of musical performances: operetta, melodrama, anthologies of musical numbers taken from theatre and musical romances.¹¹⁹² In April 1861 the Oratory saw the first performance of the Latin comedy Minerval written by Fr Palumbo, a Jesuit. On June 2, 1864, there was a performance of the Phasmatonices (Larvarum victor = victory over ghosts), a comedy which had already been performed on May 12. It had been written by Bishop C.M. Rosini and adapted by Fr Palumbo.¹¹⁹³ In June 1865 it was again performed at Mirabello Monferrato.¹¹⁹⁴

Latin theatrical performances and academic entertainments made up a remarkable portion of the extracurricular activities of a school.¹¹⁹⁵ Theatre, then, in its various expressions, was gradually inserted with full rights into Don Bosco’s educational system and considered to be an element which was integrating, helped build up an atmosphere of cheerfulness and was given a didactic purpose. The immediate objective Don Bosco had for theatre performances was, naturally, a recreational one. However, they also had a higher goal, a cultural and an educational goal.¹¹⁹⁶

Don Bosco addressed the rectors regarding this with a lively address during the conferences of St Francis de Sales in June 1871.

I see that things are no more the way they should be with us; they are not like in the early days. We no longer have teatrino (little theatre) but real theatre. At any rate, my intention is that the theatre performances should have this basic objective: to entertain and instruct. Let there be no scenes which might harden the hearts of the boys or make a bad impression on them. Let there be comedies, but of the simple type, with a moral message added to them. Let there be singing, for singing, besides entertaining, is also part of instruction and therefore a much needed tool these days.¹¹⁹⁷

Theatre performances, staged according to the rules of Christian morality, can be greatly advantageous to youth when their objective is nothing but to cheer up, educate and instruct the young as much as possible within a moral perspective. To be able to achieve this the following need to be established: 1. subject matter should be suited to the young; 2. things which might create bad habits in the young should be excluded.¹¹⁹⁹

1. Theatre performances if well-chosen are a school of holiness... 2. They provide excellent intellectual instruction or the kind that teaches the practical prudence needed in life; 3. They develop the mind of the one who is performing; 4. They help us get to see human existence and society from within; 5. They are great entertainment for the boys who think about them several days before and several days after; 6. Last year (and this may have happened a thousand times before and after) a seminarian told me that he decided to join our Congregation when he was attracted by the cheerfulness he gained from theatre performances; 7. They get rid of bad thoughts and talk – everything focuses on the performances; 8. They draw lots of youngsters to our schools because even during vacation time, the oratory boys tell their classmates and friends and many others about the cheerfulness at the oratory and about the theatrical performances they saw.¹²⁰⁰

It has been noticed that especially comedies, if not strictly morally correct, leave such awful impressions on young minds that they still remain in old age. We have thought it best to gather and publish a series of dramatic readings to overcome this; besides being entertaining and attractive, they can be educational and morally correct. Some priests, experts in drama, asked and guided by Don Bosco, are setting in place the following program: the dramatic readings will aim at entertaining, instructing and educating the masses and especially Italian youth, with a series of booklets containing dramas, comedies, farces, tragedies and also simple dialogues and entertaining poems.¹²⁰¹

4. 4. Music and singing

In 1859, Don Bosco had a biblical quotation inscribed on the door of the classroom for vocal music, adjusting its original meaning: Ne impedias musicam! (Don’t obstruct music)¹²⁰² Don Bosco’s views on music can be neatly summed up in his “An oratory without music is like a body without a soul”, ¹²⁰³ a line he employed on many occasions.¹²⁰⁴ It was the theoretical expression of a conviction which had been a practised reality from the very beginning of his educational activity.

Reminiscing about his very early collaborators when he began gathering young people (1842), Don Bosco wrote in the Memoirs of the Oratory:

These helped me maintain order and they read and sang hymns. From the very beginning I realised that without songbooks and suitable reading matter, these festive gatherings would have been like a body without a soul.¹²⁰⁵

The classes were animated by plain chant and vocal music which we always cultivated¹²⁰⁶

An extraordinary number of people joined music classes. Vocal and instrumental music was taught to draw the young away from the religious and moral dangers to which they were exposed.

We thought best to add piano and organ classes and also instrumental music to the night and day classes.¹²⁰⁷

It was Don Bosco’s desire and aim that the young, when they returned to their native towns, would be able to help the pastor by singing at sacred functions.¹²⁰⁸

Finally, we also ought to keep in mind the particular ‘pedagogical’ value given to music.

In the first volume of the Salesian Annals, Fr Ceria dedicates an entire chapter to summarising what Salesian music is all about: “The main reason (for music) can be found in the healthy effects which music has on the hearts and imagination of the young, according to Don Bosco, as it aims primarily at refining, uplifting the young and making them better”.¹²¹⁰

5. 5. Outings and walks

It was a way to put into practice the principle of “love what the young love” so that they will love what the educator loves. These outings also contributed to building up an atmosphere of Christian joy which constitutes an integral and essential part of the formation of the young. They had a fundamental educational value then.

At the weekend oratory at Valdocco, these excursions or outings flourished ever since its beginnings, together with pilgrimages. They were absolutely necessary during the time-span between 1844-1846, when the oratory had no fixed abode or did not have at its disposal places of its own for worship. The Memoirs of the Oratory recall outings to Sassi, Madonna di Campagna, Stupinigi, our Lady of Consolation, Monte dei Capuccini.¹²¹¹

The autumn walks were classic. We have an account of a varied series of these outings which go back to 1847 and continued until 1864.¹²¹² Even when the outings were over, the choir members and award winners would enjoy a short stay at Becchi in autumn.

The outings between 1859 and 1864 saw a particular development: they lasted almost two weeks. They were well organised and an ever-growing number of boys took part in them. They would enter the town with the band right up front; the parish priest or personalities of the place would offer them an improvised shelter and daily food, and along with the people would welcome them. There were visits to outstanding personalities, morning and evening religious services, recreational activities, exhibitions by the band, theatrical performances on an improvised stage in the town square. They included songs and skits in Piedmontese dialect, short comedies, gianduja, the classical Piedmontese marionette could never be left out.

The outing to Genoa during the October fortnight of 1864, is an historic one. On the way back to Turin, between Lerma and Mornese, Don Bosco was able to draw two outstanding personalities into the Congregation: Francis Bodrato and Fr John Baptist Lemoyne.

The excursions or outings aimed at achieving a truly educational objective as they guaranteed first of all that the young would be looked after during vacation time and their feelings would be enriched:

Have the young experience first-hand that to serve God can really be part of having a good time.¹²¹³

These excursions or outings were effectively the prelude that led to the wording of the Preventive System: “Let them have ample freedom to jump, run, shout as they wish”, to which was also added: “The walks are very effective means of obtaining discipline; they are useful for the upkeep of morality and good health.¹²¹⁴

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