Ceremony for the liberation of the swallowtails at the Butterfly Station of Villa Angeletti
On 30 June 2021, the Butterfly Station of Villa Angeletti in Bologna welcomed three new inhabitants of the park. We have been looking forward to them, our swallowtail butterflies, from the day we built this station for them.
The Voluntary Ecological Guard (VEG) Luigi Toschi, who looked after the caterpillars until they metamorphosed into an adult swallowtail, came to the butterfly station of Villa Angeletti to free them. He brought them to us in a vase, wrapped in his own sweatshirt, so that the darkness would make the journey they made with him to get to Bologna from Ferrara less traumatic.
It is time for liberation. With slow and precise movements, VEG Toschi opened and gently turned the vase upside down.
The most active swallowtail of the three flew away immediately. The other two, in this photo, are exploring the new spaces available to them: the edge of the open vase, and the veil that GEV Toschi has put on hishand to avoid damaging their wings with contact.
The swallowtails walk on the veil and become familiar with the new environment. For the first time ever, we can admire the harmony of their wings, the refinement of the clavate antennae, the perfect circularity of the retracted proboscis, called spirotromba.
One of the two remaining swallowtails, step by step, has reached the edge of the veil, but is continuing to linger.
The VEG Toschi offers it a finger of his free hand, the swallowtail confidently climbs on it with a timid flutter of wings. It seems that the insect knows that he can be trusted. It moves its wings slowly, controlling them gracefully, then soars into the sky, and we lose sight of it in the canopy of the trees in the park.
The last butterfly that has remained with us it is still in the palm of the hand of VEG Toschi, who tries to move the veil and his hand to stimulate the swallowtail to leave.
GEV Toschi brings one finger of his free hand close to the swallowtail. This gesture not only offers a platform on which to climb to leave, as has already happened with the previous swallowtails, but, in its simplicity, it communicates a universal message of care and interconnection between living beings.
"I'm here, it's okay, fly!" This is what VEG Toschi's finger seems to try to tell it.
The swallowtail lingers a little longer, and then takes off too, like the others who have preceded it.
Luigi Toschi, who has been committed to defending and protecting the environment for years now, has successfully completed again another delicate undertaking today, but his thoughtful expression reveals hide a hint of concern for the future of such a fragile species.
Prof. Magagnoli, coordinator of the Systemic English project of which this ceremony is part, points out to her students the last swallowtail while flying away.
The swallowtails all seem to have gone their own way when Luigi Toschi sees, out of the corner of his eye, one of them on an artichoke flower in the adjacent municipal garden.
"There it is!" VEG Toschi tells us, and we can see it again in the space of an instant , as it disappears behind a lavender bush.
By now our swallowtails have integrated into the park and no longer need us. It is we who continue to need them and their role in the ecosystem, their sophisticated co-evolutionary relationship with plants, and their beauty.
Conclusion of the liberation ceremony:
reading and understanding of "The Butterfly is ...." with shared reflection
To reflect on the responsibility we have towards the swallowtails and the significance of this liberation ceremony, we read a short story all together. It's called “The Butterfly is…” and was written by Susan Norman and Jane Revell. Prof. Magagnoli gives out the one-page handout with the story.
Today's is a meeting whose date was not in Open Schools program of our institute , because it depended on the variable metamorphosis times of our swallowtail caterpillars and they turned into butterflies long after the 'OpenSchools' week activities had ended. As a result, not all students who had enrolled in the course were able to attend this morning.
The composition of the small group that carried out today's activity is as follows: from the right, the two students of the Aldini Valeriani who also participated in this last meeting of the entire systemic English course : Mattia and Celeste, the contact person for Open Schools and Interculture of the Aldini-Valeriani Institute Prof. Sara Pisani, Prof. Sabina Magagnoli, English teacher at the Aldini-Valeriani Institute and creator of Systemic English , VEG Antonella Lodi , promoter of the Butterfly station of Villa Angeletti and presenter of environmental awareness courses for schools, and VEG Luigi Toschi, creator of Stations for butterflies for schools and environmental educator.
The group reads and tries to interpret the story, each sharing their language skills with the others, helping each other to understand the expressions or concepts that are not clear. Mattia and Celeste, accustomed to a scholastic activity also of an analytical-textual type, help the GEV Lodi and Toschi to interpret the English lexicon. Meanwhile, Prof. Pisani ensures that everyone's skills are integrated in creating new accessible horizons of meaning.
The GEV Lodi and Toschi contribute to making hypotheses on global meanings, enriching the conversation with Celeste and Mattia with their systemic perspective.
Prof. Magagnoli favors dialogue and intervenes only when the group fails to reach an agreement on the meanings, while with her responses she stimulates negotiation and generative investigation of the contents.
The result of this synergy of skills and perspectives is a systemic language education, which strengthens the ecology of relationships and the planet.
Summary of " The Butterfly is ..." ("The Butterfly is ...")
The story tells of two very curious girls who asked their widowed father many questions about the world and about life. The father, to satisfy their increasingly complex questions as they grew up, sent them to live with a wise old hermit. The sage answered all their questions, and the sisters were happy at first, but then over time they found it irritating and looked for a way to put it in chestnut. The strategy they devised was to go to the sage holding a live butterfly closed in his hand, and to ask the sage whether the butterfly in his opinion was alive or dead. Their plan was that if the sage said she was alive, the girl holding the butterfly would squeeze her hands together to kill her before showing it to him, and if he said she was dead instead. he would free and prove him, even in that case, that he was wrong.
But the old sage, in addition to an answer, that time also gave them a lesson that is the meaning of our systemic English path, concluded here for now ... ..
If you want to know the answer of the old essay write an email to:
The following took part and contributed to the realization of the project:
Sabina Magagnoli Creator and host of the Systemic English course - Aldini-Valeriani Institute Bologna
Sara Pisani Contact person for Open Schools and Interculture - Aldini-Valeriani Institute Bologna
Luigi Toschi GEV Voluntary Ecological Guard
Antonella Lodi GEV Voluntary Ecological Guard, Coordinator "A Wood for the City"
Celeste Ramponi Student of the Aldini-Valeriani Institute of Bologna, two-year technical period
Mattia Calzolari Student of the Aldini-Valeriani Institute of Bologna, two-year technical course
Salvatore Grillo Director of the Aldini-Valeriani Institute of Bologna
Teresa Madonna Administrative office Aldini-Valeriani Institute Bologna
Stefano Bianconi Education, Education and New Generations Area of the Municipality of Bologna
Giandomenico Fortino Referent for Environment, Social, Rights in the Navile District
Gianni Marmocci Head of the Gardens Area of the Villa Angeletti Park
Daniele Ara President of the Navile District
Sara Pisani Contact person for Open Schools and Interculture - Aldini-Valeriani Institute Bologna
Marialuisa Pezzulli Referent for the axis of languages - Aldini-Valeriani Institute Bologna
Donna Charsley English teacher - Confindustria Aldini-Valeriani project
Mirco Zanchetta Graphics and Printing Sector - Aldini-Valeriani Institute Bologna
Marco Benni Mechanics Sector - Aldini-Valeriani Institute Bologna
Design and text of the Station for Butterflies sign by Sabina Magagnoli
They contributed to the realization of the Station sign for Butterflies:
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Photo shoot by Mariagrazia De Siena
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