Joseph Brosio (l829-l883) who reminisced about them in a belated memoir.1163

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”.1164 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”.1165

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.1166

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.

1167

“I used this unorganised kind recreation to instill in my pupils' minds ideas about religion and the frequent reception of the Sacraments”, Don Bosco says, speaking about the early Oratory.1168 The last of the 'seven secrets of the oratory' which Don Bosco revealed in June,1875 and which were recorded by Fr Julius Barberis, is: “cheerfulness, singing, music, lots of freedom in amusements”.1169 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, 1884.1170

2. Feast days

Feast days have a pedagogical value too. Joy is most visible and intense on these occasions.1171 They

1163 G. Brosio, 1880 or thereabouts, pp. 3-5, cf MB III 438-440; Storia dell'Oratorio...., BS 5 (1881) no. 3, March,

p.15.

1164 MO (1991) 145

1165 MO (1991) 159.

1166 A. Caviglia, Savio Domenico e Don Bosco, Studio. p. 134.

1167 A. Caviglia, Il «Magone Michele»..., p. 172

1168 MO (1991) 160.

1169 G. Barberis, Cronichetta, quad. 2, p.3. The 5th and 6th are respectively “the superiors give much confidence and

are always amongst the boys”, and, “ giving them a couple of confidential words after prayer” (Ibid).

1170 Due lettere datate da Roma..., in P. Braido (Ed.), Don Bosco educatore...., p. 365, 370, 384. F.X. Eggersdorfer,

Jugenderziehung..., sees in joy and play, generously present in Don Bosco's institutions, a key factor of vitality and

educational activism (pp. 283-287).

1171 Cf. F. Desramaut, la festa salesiana ai tempi di don Bosco, in La festa nell'esperienza giovanile del mondo

salesiano, ed. C. Semerano, Leumann (Turin), LDC 1988, pp. 79-99. in particular Il valore pedagogico delle feste

salesiane (pp. 97-99); R. Alberdi, La festa nell'esperienza salesiana della Spagna (1881-1901), Ibid, pp. 100-129