Feast of San Biagio in Salemi

On 3 February in Salemi the traditional Bread Festival takes place on the occasion of the celebrations of San Biagio, co-patron of the city together with San Nicola. To pay homage to the Saint or to dissolve the vow, the faithful prepare traditional votive loaves, "Cuddureddi" and "Cavadduzzi" of "San 'mBrasi", made of unleavened dough and baked in the oven. The "Cuddureddi" symbolize the gorge of which San Biagio is the protector, according to tradition the saint saved the life of a boy who was dying suffocated by a fishbone. The "Cavaduzzi" commemorate the liberation of the Salemi countryside from swarms of locusts, through the intercession of the Saint, which happened during the reign of Charles V in 1542. Since then the people promised to thank the saint on every occasion by reproducing the grasshoppers in the artistic loaves. The "Cavadduzzi" often take the form of a grasshopper or other animals, of the arm or hand of the saint, or of a stick decorated on one side with flowers, symbol of fertility.

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