PhD Program in Historical studies
The Holy Week of Taranto
On Holy Thursday, in Taranto, you can witness a storied and evocative penitential scene: in pairs (la posta), members of the Confraternity of the Carmine set out on a pilgrimage among the churches in the city to adore the Blessed Sacrament (or, according to an inaccurate tradition, the Tomb). In the local dialect they are called Perdùne. They are the devotees who go through the streets of the city to a slow pace (the famous nazzecàte), dressed in the distinctive white sackcloth, barefoot and hooded, and with the mazza (staff) in hand which is typical of pilgrims. At midnight the ritual is suspended, only to resume the next morning. In the meantime, there is the intense procession with the beautiful seventeenth-century statue of the Addolorata, Our Lady of Sorrows (conducted by the confraternity of the same name), which will last until lunchtime. With only time for a short rest the procession of the Misteri will take place on Good Friday (eighteenth-century), which will run until dawn the next day and that is the responsibility of the confrati of the Carmine Church. The procession is opened with the troccola, a rudimentary tool in wood and metal (traditionally used in lieu of bells during Holy Week), which dictates the time of the procession and introduces the statuary groups of the Passion: Christ in the garden, Christ at the column, the Ecce Homo, the flow of water, the Crucified One, the Holy Shroud, the Dead Christ and Our Lady of Sorrows.
A distinctive feature of Holy Week in Taranto is the famous competition that the confraternities take part in during Palm Sunday. This is an auction where members of the Addolorata and Carmine confraternities vie for the honour and the burden of carrying in procession the Misteri and other symbols of the Passion. It is a tradition that reminds us of how the rituals of Holy Week are, at the same time, an act of unconditional faith and the moment when the town showcases and renegotiates its social equilibrium.