Who we are
S' Accabadora Pianalzesa is a young mask, born in 2019 by a group of women and created by president Tata Carboni.
With this mask we wanted to represent in a symbolic way the figure of this woman called accabadora.
History
In the past it had the task of putting an end to the agony of terminally ill people, so when there was no longer the possibility of healing for them.
This disturbing woman has always been shrouded in mystery, so much so that today many people do not even know its existence or do not believe it really existed.
S'Accabadora Pianalzesa wears a leather mask on her face that covers her mouth, nose and forehead, leaving only the eye contour free (designed by Donatella Marras and made by Graziano Viale).
The mask has never been attested by the sources, it was strongly desired by us to distinguish us from other Sardinian masks, if you look carefully you understand what we wanted to depict with it.
It has "folds" that depict a sort of handkerchief that was used by females to avoid being recognized.
The mask:
The dress:
(This too designed by Donatella Marras and then made by the seamstress).
We are all dressed in black. With a long skirt and jacket as was the custom in the past, also used to blend into the darkness of the night when he went to bring the good death, called to end a long and slow agony of a family member.
On the shoulders we wear "sa mantedda" a black orbace cape with
"su cuguddu" a hood that covers the head made from ancient orbace blankets.
In hand we hold the "su mazzuccu" (very heavy hammer made of seasoned olive wood) with the short handle that allowed it to be easily held correctly in order to give a strong / safe blow to the parietal bone of the dying man, in order to ensure a quick and painless death.
We keep a small yoke tied to life “su jualeddu” which was used for the ritual with which he tried for the last time to heal the dying person by putting him under his pillow.
The yoke was the symbol of life because it is closely linked to work in the fields, and therefore to bread, a fundamental food for families.
According to some sources, when the dying man was late in dying, it meant that he had to pay for a serious sin committed during his life.
S'accabau (the dying man) has his face covered with a mask that depicts pain. He carries on his shoulders a true yoke that represents the weight and suffering of his condition from which he is freed once the accabadora it hits him.
The choreography
After a walk, the accabadore arrange themselves in an Indian row near s'accabau, passing around it three times clockwise and counterclockwise.
The three turns symbolize the last days of the dying man's life, when he sat under the pillow on jualeddu to help him heal (or at least he tried).
After the rounds, s'accabau is almost wrapped in the accabadore, then the yoke is removed from the shoulders of the dying, who falls to the ground, helped by an accabadora who at that moment in his arms sings him a sort of "Nenia" (lullaby) that he will have heard sung by his mother as a child. Once she is on the ground with the dying man, she beckons to another accabadora to be able to give the final blow.
Once dead, the accabadore reposition themselves in an Indian row, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of the jualeddi hanging at the waist, as if to remember the touch of the bells rung to death.