Casa Emigranti Italiani

" To Remember and Understand"

Le Feste

Religious holidays were the center of social life as well as of religious life.

Our town, like many others nearby and in all of Sicily, has passed down customs and rituals from generation to generation that to some extent survive to this day. Easter Sunday was the time to wear that new suit or outfit, as we went to see the traditional Paci a Paci, the re-creation of the meeting between the Risen Christ and Mary, which in our case were two statues each resting on top of a platform with long handles, carried by ten to twelve men. At each church there would be a meeting of the two groups carrying the statues and approaching from different sides. When they were close enough, the two groups ran toward each other, yelling ”a paci a paci”. We would repeat this ritual three times then move on to the next church.

A Paci Paci was preceded by the Good Friday celebration of the Santissimu Cristu, a life-sized statue of Jesus wearing a red mantle, carrying a cross with a wreath full of thorns on his head. This statue was carried across every street of our town with a throng of faithful followers. The procession was lead by the Nuri, barefooted individuals dressed in white pants and red shirts, who had promised to walk on bare feet if granted a miracle.

The Nuri intoned chants dating back hundreds of years and dealing with Jesus’s suffering. The statue made many stops along the way to collect cash donations from the residents, funds that would be used to cover expenses and to support some of the Church’s causes.

Easter was followed by Pasquetta, little Easter, which was celebrated the Monday following Easter Sunday and consisted of families and friends going away to the countryside for a picnic, most of the time to eat freshly made ricotta. Traditional foods have always been associated with specific holidays: u panarieddo, Easter Basket, was a basket-shaped bread containing couple of boiled eggs; also for Easter we made cassate, ricotta-filled pastry, and all kinds of cookies. I would eat some cookie dough raw, before my grandmother had a chance to bake them!

We ate cuccia for St Lucia, whole grain cooked without being ground and, as I recall, served with honey or sugar. For Christmas we had cruspedde, dough deep fried in oil and served with sugar or honey, and torrone, made with almonds and honey or the jujullena, sesame seeds and honey. A lot of these traditions reflected the agricultural times of the day and unfortunately are disappearing.

The feast of our patron Saint Michael, celebrated the 29thday of September, was also very important.

Preceded by a thunderous display of fireworks, the statue of St.Michael, depicted as standing over Satan with a sword pointing at the evil one ready to kill him, would exit the main door of the cathedral and begin a voyage through the streets of our town, much to the delight of all who followed it or saw it going by their houses.

Christmas was a special time but not for the gifts which back then was not a custom!

I loved i presepi, the nativity scenes re-created with much skill and imagination by the locals, not only at church but in their private homes. And the midnight mass was always filled with a special spirit of love and compassion.

I Muorti,All Souls Day, saw a procession of townspeople walking to the cemeteryto visit their departed loved ones to bring fresh flowers to the graves. Until sometime in the mid-60s it was also a great time for kids, because the dead relatives came back and brought toys to children! We never got toys for Christmas, as is done now, only for i Muorti.

And I also vividly remember the practice of veiling to mourn the dead,whose body normally stayed in the house for three days, a practice no doubt due to the Muslim influence on our island. While the body sat in the casket inside the house, we would hear the women, led by the mother or wife,screaming at the top of their lungs, recalling some characteristic of the dead or complaining at how could he die so young, and declaiming what a good a husband or father was he in life. One particular such event I recall clearly because it happened to fall on Good Friday, adding an aura of additional mystery, and the wake was right next door to where I lived. I can still see the women, all dressed in black with black veils covering the mirrors, pulling their hair and crying out loud, recalling the deceased! Looking back, I realize that we had a lot more Muslim influence on our customs than Iunderstood then. For example, it was not unusual, especially in the 50s, to see women dressed all in black walking around, even in the middle of summer, with their faces covered much like Muslim women do today.

The other celebration that is stuck in my mind is the Ascensione, which I believe was celebrated forty days after Jesus’ resurrection and celebrated His ascendancy to the Heavens. I remember this celebration because it was our custom, at least until it was stopped probably for safety reasons, for different sections of town to set up bonfires to light up the way for Jesus return to the heavens.

Some of the best festas were out of town: Melilli was well known for its celebrations of Patron St. Sebastian, with people coming from all surrounding towns to pay homage or to make a vow. St. Paul in Palazzolo was also a huge feast, as was St. Lucia in Siracusa.

Carnevale was one of those nonreligious holidays and celebrations that attracted a lot of interest. Please don’t confuse our carnival with Rio’s! No, ours was much tamer. Our town’s celebration were nothing to write home about: a few floats and sparse celebrations. One year my friends and I went to Acireale, near Catania, more than 60 km away, to watch their celebrations. It was a tremendous spectacle. To this day the Acireale Carnevale,impressive for the variety and skillfulness of their floats, is one of the more important in all of Italy.

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