Suggestion and emotion in 10 unmissable Easter rites

Procession of the Vattienti of Nocera Terinese

Sacred, spectacular, moving, participatory but also impressive rites. Like the procession of the Vattienti of Nocera Terinese, in the province of Catanzaro: a nocturnal parade that takes place between Thursday and Good Friday, in which the participants, dressed in white tunics and rope belts, flagellate themselves for the forgiveness of sins. A scandalous and recently banned practice. “The shedding of blood in the city streets, combined with the affixing of the same on the walls of the buildings – the administrators had written a few months ago in the ordinance with which they had imposed the ban – is in absolute contrast with the primary health protection needs public health and the health of the environment”. The municipality is a police station for the ‘Ndrangheta and the prefectural commission that governs it in the meantime has partially backtracked in the face of popular protest. “Each fuck you must use strictly personal tools, suitably sanitized before and after each use, and must maintain a distance of at least five meters from any other practitioner of the ritual. The soiling of walls and gates of public and private buildings with blood and other bodily fluids will not be allowed” reads the latest ordinance, which moves this bloody, fascinating, ancestral rite to Saturday. Tradition that is lost in the past centuries up to the Middle Ages to leave a thousand questions about its obscure origin.

Procession of the hooded in Taranto (Perdoni)

Like the hooded procession in Taranto (Perdoni): it is one of the oldest and most evocative rituals of Holy Week in Puglia. In the early afternoon of Holy Thursday, the pilgrimage of the Confratelli del Carmine begins to the “Sepolcri”, or rather the altars set up in every church in the city. They go out in pairs or “posts”, barefoot and hooded, and walk through the city streets, stopping at every sepulcher along their route. They are the pardons, in Tarantino “perdune”, and symbolize the pilgrims who went to Rome in search of God’s forgiveness. The “poste” take several hours to complete the designated journey because they advance with a slow and exasperating rocking that the people of Taranto call “a nazzecate”. In ancient times, the procession included entering seven churches in the city, as many as there were entrances to the city of Jerusalem. The numerous faithful, due to the small size of the local churches, were often forced to crowd outside them patiently waiting their turn and therefore, both to warm up and to rebalance the weight of the body, they let themselves go to that rocking which has since become their typical pace. The city is invaded by a veritable crowd of tourists and devotees. The procession winds its way through the streets of the historic center, through the historic “stairways”, up to the cathedral of San Cataldo and is not only a moment of popular religiosity, but also an opportunity to admire the beauty of the city of two seas , never praised enough.

The explosion of the cart in Florence

Inevitable in a list of unmissable Italian Easter traditions, the explosion of the cart which takes place in Florence on Easter Sunday, at the end of the Holy Mass. The cathedral of Florence is reached by a cart pulled by two oxen. On this chariot stands a turret, which is called Brindellone. The party reaches its climax when a pyrotechnic dove takes off from the altar of the cathedral and quickly reaches the cart, causing it to explode. If the dove returns unharmed after the explosion, there is no doubt: what lies ahead is a future of prosperity. Thanks to Pazzino’s flints, the “sacred fire” burns inside the cathedral from Saturday, used to light the fuse that will make a small rocket in the shape of a dove dart along a rope connected to the chariot. The dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, darts out amidst the sparks and will in turn generate a series of repeating discharges from the chariot’s firecrackers, culminating in an explosion of fireworks and bangs. The jamming of the dove and the failure to complete its trajectory is considered a bad omen for the current year which will therefore be disastrous. And in fact the Florentines remember that the last time the “colombina” failed in its mission was in 1966 or the year of the last terrible flood that hit the city of Florence. Finally, the origin of the term “grullo” should be noted, used by the Florentines to designate a foolish person who is precisely linked to this celebration: the grulli were in fact the peasants who accompanied the oxen of the cart and their humble, slow and Their sleepy air made them rather ridiculous when compared to the glitz of the sophisticated audience.

Holy Week in Portoscuso

During Holy Week in Portoscuso, in Sulcis, Sardinia, the references, atmospheres of Iberian culture and influences are very evident, as demonstrated by the whole community in their assiduous participation in all the rites of Holy Week. Another feature that is based on the authenticity of these rites are is Goccius or religious poems in the Sardinian language. According to historian Giovanni Dore, is Goccius sung in Sardinia originate from Byzantine models, in fact they are identical to the Greek hymns in structure, meter and verses with a refrain at the end. Already in ancient medieval sources there are reports of Sardinians invited to Constantinople to sing hymns in Greek in honor of the emperor. In the seventeenth century in Sardinia the phenomenon of religious drama exploded and is goccius were an integral part of those rituals. In 1649 the theater was forbidden by Philip IV, however the tradition continued and from the 18th century the diffusion of handwritten collections of the is Goccius in Sardinian and in the following century the manuscripts were present in all communities. In the following decades – and until 1924 – however, the chants were subject to episcopal censorship, in favor of a more severe style in the liturgy. Today they are making a comeback in all their acoustic glory.

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In Sordevolo in the province of Biella, an entire town is staged every five years in a rare form of popular choral theatre. A tradition that has been renewed for over two centuries, in the form of ancient collective dramaturgy, which sees the participation of the entire community. Interpreted by amateur actors, this event is set up in collaboration with the Popular Theater Association of Sordevolo and consists of a prologue and 29 scenes in which a total of 400 people are present. The text on which it is based is linked to a work from the end of the 15th century, elaborated in verse by the Florentine Giuliano Dati, chaplain of the Church of the Santi Martiri in Trastevere in Rome. The text could have reached Sordevolo thanks to contacts between the Roman brotherhood and the affiliated one in the Biella area or for commercial relations between the different localities.