{"id":7099,"date":"2021-08-20T00:04:20","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T22:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/the-vara-of-messina\/"},"modified":"2021-11-23T15:28:34","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T14:28:34","slug":"the-vara-of-messina","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/themes\/festivals\/the-vare-in-sicily\/the-vara-of-the-assumption-of-messina\/the-vara-of-messina\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vara of Messina"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>The Vara of Messina <\/h1>\n<div class=\"testo\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The <em>Vara<\/em> of Messina consist of three platforms placed on a base driven by two iron sleds. In the first there are the depictions of the bloodless Virgin surrounded by the Apostles; in the second the seven heavens that the Alma Maria is getting ready to cross to reach the Empyrean are represented (the heavens are represented with a curtain of clouds that rise surrounded by the sun and the moon, placed according to the Ptolemaic theory); last, however, is a celestial globe with fixed stars. At the top of the <em>Vara<\/em>, after yet another curtain of clouds dotted with hosts of angels, we find the image of Jesus Christ on the right hand holding the Virgin assumed into heaven. Inside the &#8220;machine&#8221;, a series of manually operated gears determine the rotational movement, horizontally and vertically, of all the characters (once living, now replaced by papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 puppets). Dense crowds of men and women, often barefoot on account of promises or devotion, cling to ropes that are over a hundred yards long, pulling the &#8220;machine&#8221; to the cry of &#8220;Viva Maria!&#8221;. Currently, the procession starts from Piazza Castronovo and continues on to Via Garibaldi, until it reaches the intersection with Via I Settembre. At this point, after a complex maneuver, called the <em>girata<\/em> or <em>virata<\/em>, &#8220;the spin or turn&#8221;, the <em>Vara<\/em> takes up the short distance that leads to Piazza Duomo. In order to facilitate the transport of the <em>Vara<\/em> and to decrease the friction with the road, the entire route is sprinkled with water.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Vara of Messina The Vara of Messina consist of three platforms placed on a base driven by two iron sleds. In the first there are the depictions of the bloodless Virgin surrounded by the Apostles; in the second the seven heavens that the Alma&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":6310,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7099","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7099"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11744,"href":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7099\/revisions\/11744"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalhistory.unite.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}