How we celebrate Easter in Italy

We are coming up to Easter, a really important holiday in Italy. Many beautiful celebrations are done almost everywhere in Italy.

In Orte, Lazio, very impressive is the Holy Friday Procession that is also called the Dead Christ Procession. During it the seven confraternity of the city get to the Mother Church of Santa Croce. Fourteen men holds the coffin of the dead Christ and behind them eight persons hold the Lady of Sorrow. I Cirenei follow them with heavy chains tied at their feet and holding wood crosses. Once arrived in the square the confraternities arrange a heart around the coffin and people start singing. At the end of the procession the bread is broke and is given to all the partecipants.

In Nocera Terinese, Calabria, during the Holy Saturday takes place the procession of the Lady of Sorrow and the Dead Christ. In the morning a person of the procession brings a big cross, far from him there is the wood Pity that is carried through the whole city slowly and stopping at the churches. During the procession, in the main street of the city, a group of men is preparing for an ancient ritual. They are the vattienti that for devotion hit their legs causing a blood flow. Then they run at the procession.

Another impressive procession takes place in Radicofani, Tuscany. It all begin the Holy Thursday with a Mass that reminds the Last Supper and the opening of the sepulcher of Christ. It follows the suffering procession called buia in which take part twelve members of the Saint Agata congregation and twelve members of the Mercy confraternity. During the Holy Friday the procession ends in Saint Agata church with the adoration of the Calvary around the altar made by the famous Andrea Della Robbia, lightened by 750 lights.

The procession of Sora, Lazio, is one of the most emotive. The procession starts in Saint Spirit Church, lots of faithful made a parade. The procession is headed by the Apostolic Administrator and all the confraternities of the city take part in it. All the procession is made more emotional by the Symphony Band of Sora City.

A really particular event takes place in Pagani, Campania: the so called Madonna of hens . The event lasts one day and every family sets in his yard a little aisle to the Madonna, the “toselli”, they are the symbol of maternity and the entrance, looking like a womb.

Last but not least we have to remember the procession that takes place in Enna, Sicily. The procession of the Holy Friday is one of the most important event of the year. 2500 confraternity people hooded walk through the city holding the fercoli of the Dead Christ and the Lady of Sorrow.