Other examples of vattienti rites in Southern Italy

A ceremony similar to that of Nocera Terinese also takes place in Verbicaro, in the province of Cosenza, at midnight on Holy Thursday, and in mid-August in Guardia Sanframondi, in Campania. The procession of the Battenti or Vattienti in Verbicaro precedes the sacred procession of the Misteri of the Passion (depicted through living pictures and statuary groups). The protagonists of this bloody rite are devotees dressed in red who beat their legs with their hands and with the linnet (a cylinder of cork on which five shards of glass are strung together). The battenti of Verbicaro perform three times around the town (with their arms folded across their chest or pointing downwards), pausing in front of the holy places and the homes of relatives and friends (leaving traces of their blood in the streets and walls).