Welcome back to a brand new post on Sicilian Sayings! Again, a big thanks to everyone that is supporting us with new suggestions and to everyone that is enjoying this new series of blog posts; if you want to suggest our next Sicilian Saying, feel free to drop us an email or leave a comment!
Today’s proverb is used when a person ‘camurrusu’ (someone who annoys too much) or ‘ntriganti’ (someone who doesn’t mind their own business) is kept away, ignored, bridges are cut.
Ci vonnu l’agghi pi vicini
You need garlic for the neighbours
But why the neighbours? It’s a generalisation, but of course you can have neighbours who are sometimes not very nice people, or are very, very intrusive. And why garlic? Popular belief has it that this excellent bulb has a lot of thaumaturgical powers, keeping bacteria away and eliminating worms from children’s bellies. But according to tradition, it would seem that garlic has supernatural powers (Count Dracula and vampires, anyone?).
In fact, it would seem that if hung in front of the door in braids it would protect the house from dark powers, or if kept in the pocket along with salt it would keep away the evil eye, il malocchio!
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