ABSTRACT
Neapolitans go to great lengths to ward off evil and assure themselves good luck, and in the collective life of Naples no effort is spared to ensure the success of the city's soccer team, Napoli. The dead are ubiquitous and hyperactive in Naples. Churches in Naples are deeply intertwined with the lives of their congregants, and the relationship between the faithful and the saints—as the San Gennaro episode no nicely demonstrates—is affectionate, intimate, and relaxed. The parallelism between the dead souls and the denizens of Naples goes even further. The Neapolitans have seen too much of it, and have lived in intimate contact with the dead for too many centuries, to ignore the dead. The Neapolitans' ease with the dead reminds the living that they are part of a continuum, and gives them the faith to believe that their own identity and their own endeavors will continue after they have passed on.
