Re-inventing the Thanksgiving Festival of Voghera: The intersection of festivals, food heritage, and territory.

AbstractThis chapter examines the relationship between festivals and cultural heritage by approaching the festival not merely as a reflection of community identity, but as a generative “dispositive” (dispositif) capable of creating new heritage and fostering local development. Grounded in committed and applied anthropological fieldwork conducted between 2021 and 2023, the study documents the revival and transformation of the traditional Thanksgiving Festival (Festa del Ringraziamento) in Voghera, a post-industrial town in the Oltrepò Pavese region of Northern Italy. Originally established in the 1950s by Coldiretti as an agrarian and political manifestation centered on St. Martin’s Day, the festival had gradually declined into an insular socio-religious gathering. Through an applied research-action initiative that brought together local schools, third-sector associations, food artisans, and civic institutions, the festival was reimagined across the civic-religious hub of Piazza Duomo and the educational setting of the Istituto Gallini agricultural school. By integrating scholarly conferences, blessings of machinery, and communal foodways showcasing local staples—such as the peperone di Voghera, wild hops, Varzi beef ravioli, and schita—the event repositioned agrarian heritage in the urban public sphere. The chapter demonstrates how engaging diverse community actors in this “game of tradition” allows a community to re-signify forgotten practices, strengthen intergenerational cohesion, and deploy tangible and intangible food heritage as an effective tool for social and economic revitalisation.