PhD Program in Historical studies
The Holy Week in Sicily
The ceremonies of Holy Week in Sicily are, by far, the most heartfelt and solemn in Italy. For a long time the Sicilian Easter was characterized by the living representations of the Passion of Christ: the famous Casazze, in vogue in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Over time, however, they gave way to the processions with statue groups or with symbols of the Passion (both referred to as the Misteri). The name Casazza, however, is still used to refer broadly as the typical expressions of religiosity of Sicilian Easter although it should be noted that a typical Casazza such as in Marsala, whose origins date back to the seventeenth century, is now counted among the procession of the Misteri. Today, apart from the latter, there remain few other examples of processions with living participants.
The crystallization of the events of the Passion in the statuary groups (who replace the actors) seems to have been favored by the will of the Church of the Counter-Reformation to mitigate excesses and extra-liturgical blurring. Today in Sicily 66 processions of the Misteri are held in 64 cities. The Passion of Christ is depicted in scenes composed by assembling beautiful polychrome statues (made of wood, paper, canvas and glue), placed on wooden supports known as precious Vare or varette. The vara is the name by which the Sicilians call the artistic pageants used to transport relics and statues: the term is translated as the word “coffin”, even if it indicates, by extension, the entire processional “machine” on which the holy bodies are transported (Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints). In the Sicilian processions the bearers of the Misteri proceed with a slow and suffering pace (called the annacata), that symbolically mimics the ordeal of the Passion. The faithful who oversee the Easter rites belong to confraternities or city working associations, and don a tunic (in white, red, purple or black) and wear a hood and cape of various colors to distinguish one from the other.
One of the characteristics of the Holy Week in Sicily is the mingling of Easter rituals and the theme of the giants. In Sicily, in fact, on the day of Easter you can watch the huge papier-mâché and wood puppets depicting the Apostles in the act of announcing the Resurrection of Christ to the Virgin Mary. Among the most important there are: the Santoni of Modica, Aidone and Barrafranca, the San Pietro of Caltagirone and the Sampauluna of San Cataldo.