Italians under lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak crisis have inspired people around the world by singing and creating music together from balconies despite not being able to leave their homes.
A montage video showing Italians serenading one another in high rise apartment buildings and playing music together was "a kind of triumph of spirit," as one Italy-centric Twitter account put it on Friday.
This is why so many people through many centuries fall in love with Italy
A video montage of Italians all over Italia from north to south to central to the islands — all signing together during the Italy Lockdown is a kind of triumph of spirit, a love in the time of coronavirus pic.twitter.com/XqoLsGMoIV
— (self isolating) romepix (@romepix) March 14, 2020
Videos have poured in from across Italy:
A whole Roman neighborhood singing a popular Italian song “Volare” from their balconies and waving at each other. An amazing flash mob to lift the spirit in these crazy times #Italy #coronavirus #forzaitalia #roma #flashmob #love pic.twitter.com/xjeZTeO0GO
— Jenna Vehviläinen (@jennavehvi) March 13, 2020
Similar displays took place in Lebanon:
People here in the Dahye singing and playing music on their balconies just like they did in China and Italy pic.twitter.com/vxKfKrI0CT
— ᴊᴀʏina lmot (@SupYouFoundJay) March 15, 2020
And in Spain, people took to balconies to clap and sing together:
Me llega este vídeo, desconozco el autor.
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Sevillanas en la calle Cristo del Buen Fin. Esto sólo puede pasar en Sevilla.
¡Grandeza de ciudad! pic.twitter.com/ttObaqvCdh
— Manuel Jesús Rodríguez Rechi (@manueljrrechi) March 14, 2020
In January in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak is believed to have begun, residents chanted "jiāyóu," or "keep up the fight," for the city and its people.
Spanish people under lockdown have also taken time every day to celebrate the efforts of health professionals in the country, as Chef José Andrés shared on social media:
From a friend in Spain: “So, there was a call on social media today in Spain to go out to balconies and windows at 22:00 to give a huge ovation to thank and support hospital workers. It’s 22:05 and I can hear the roar from the other side of the closed double glass windows.” pic.twitter.com/PkODSOyVue
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) March 14, 2020
The unprecedented nature and threat of the coronavirus outbreak has led to "social distancing," or a self-imposed quarantine, in most countries in the world in order to slow the rate of infection. But such radical changes to everyday life can come with consequences to one's mental health and immune system, as the University of Washington's Center for the Science of Social Connection director Jonathan Kanter and university PhD psychology student Adam Kuczynski noted on Monday in an article for The Conversation.
"In times of stress and illness, being deprived of social connection can create more stress and illness," Kanter and Kucynski wrote.
By reaching out to one another with song and music, Italians—and others around the world—are seeking out human connection.
