Easter in Burgio

Holy Week

A rich program of religious events is organized in Burgio for Easter.
The Friday before Palm Sunday takes place the procession of the simulacrum of Maria SS. Sorrows. The procession starts from the church of San Giuseppe and ends in the Mother Church, where the simulacrum will remain until the following day.
On Palm Sunday the blessing of the olive and palm branches takes place , which after the reading of an evangelical passage, are distributed to the faithful.
During Good Friday, singular traditional popular demonstrations take place which recall the crucifixion and death of Jesus. They take place well four processions marked by a precise chronometric succession. The day opens with a meditation on the Seven Words spoken by Jesus on the cross before he died. This is followed by the processions of the Littichedda, that is, of the small urn in which the Dead Christ is placed. A first procession, the Littichedda dei Fratelli sees the members of the confraternities carry the simulacrum of the Dead Christ on their shoulders. The second procession is the Littichedda dei Parrini, where the fercolo of the dead Christ is carried on the shoulders of local priests. To close the morning is a third procession with the main fercolo of the dead Christ which is carried on the shoulders of the faithful towards the Calvary which stands at the foot of the Saracen castle, where the Crucifixion will take place. A peculiarity of this procession is the annacata, that is, an undulatory movement that is given to the fercolo that wants to symbolize the human pain of the crucified Christ. In the evening the deposition of Christ takes place accompanied by the singing of Occhi mirate and Lu magnum by the biblical characters Joseph and Nicodemus, with the choral participation of the faithful. Finally, the evening procession takes place with the urn of the dead Christ followed by Our Lady of Sorrows and preceded by the faithful carrying the paramiti, i.e. the paramenti, wooden candles and colored tissue paper reproducing stars and crosses.
At the end of the ceremonies of Good Friday in Burgio there is the carcucciuliata, a large table set up in the town square where you can taste artichokes, boiled potatoes, fried sardines , cod, hard-boiled eggs and other specialties of the local tradition. This tradition is probably related to the banquets that were once held in Sicily after a funeral ceremony.
On the morning of Easter Sunday the traditional Ncontru takes place, encounter, between the Risen Christ and the Virgin Mary. In the afternoon, another ancient popular tradition takes place: the statues of San Vito and San Luca are made to dance around the town.

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