Many centuries before the five-a-side football matches between the bachelors and the married there was the Heifer Hunt (“Sa cassa de s'akkixedda”), an equestrian joust of Spanish origin which saw young people not yet married and on the other married men. The latter also had to supervise compliance with the rules.
An ancient tradition that in Guasila will be revived at dawn on the eve of August 15 following the script that dates back to the times of Spanish domination in Sardinia. The event is made up of different parts, all governed by customs consolidated over time. Today, Sunday 13 August, the population receives the official invitation; tradition wants it proposed by "is obredis" (but today it is often done by the knights themselves) who, traveling the streets of the town on horseback and pronouncing the ancient formula, announce the meeting place and hunting time.
Tomorrow morning (Monday 14 August), the eve of the patronal feast of the Assumption, the heifer is released into the countryside and the unmarried boys, on horseback, challenge each other to be able to catch it with a lasso (“sa soga”), according to strict rules on which respect other knights will watch over, this time married. The heifer must be caught "a corrus limpius" (circling the horns with the lasso) when in motion. The winner will be awarded the symbol of victory, the fresh cane to which a large silk handkerchief is tied which he will then have to give to his fiancée with the hope of getting married soon and entering adulthood. The event continues with the cleaning and harnessing of the heifer: operations that involve the use of myrtle in the cart, lemons in the horns, flowers and a small mirror to be placed on the forehead of the animal with exorcist functions.
