Page 63 - The Rough Guide of Sicily
P. 63
every year since the seventeenth century, the city’s “Misteri” figures, portraying life-
sized scenes from the Passion, are paraded through the streets on Good Friday. There
are more curious events at Adrano, where the Diavolata is a symbolic display
showing the Archangel Michael defeating the Devil; while in Modica, the Easter
Sunday celebration known as Vasa Vasa sees a statue of the Madonna in mourning
carried through the Baroque streets as if searching for her lost Son; when she meets the
resurrected Christ she kisses him (“vasa” means kiss in Sicilian) and sheds her black
veil). Meanwhile, at the Albanian village of Piana degli Albanesi, near Palermo, the
villagers retain their ancient Orthodox traditions and costumes. Other, less
conventional, parades take place at Prizzi in the western interior, and at San Fratello
above the Tyrrhenian coast, where masked and hooded devils taunt the processions.
Ferragosto
The biggest island-wide celebration, bar none, is high summer’s ferragosto, the Feast
of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The day is actually August 15, but anywhere
with a celebration of any size makes a meal of it, perhaps starting with services and
parties a few days earlier before culminating, like all ferragosto celebrations, with
spectacular fireworks on the night of the 15th. This is a particularly good time to be in
Messina, where the procession of the city’s enormous patron giants is followed by a
mad scramble when the elaborate carriage on iron skis, known as the Vara, is pulled
by the faithful through the streets, with water thrown down before it to ease the way.
As the night wears on, flowers are thrown to the crowds before fireworks light up the
Straits of Messina late at night.
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
January 1 Primo dell’anno, New Year’s Day
January 6 Epifania, Epiphany
Good Friday Venerdì Santo
Easter Monday Pasquetta
April 25 Giorno della Liberazione, Liberation Day
May 1 Festa dei Lavoratori, Labour Day
May 15 Festa Autonomia Regione Sicilia
June 2 Festa della Repubblica, Republic Day
August 15 Ferragosto, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
November 1 Ognissanti, All Saints’ Day
