Easter in Melilli

Holy Week in Melilli

The celebrations of Holy Easter in the "Terrazza degli Iblei" are very heartfelt and popular. Numerous visitors are attracted by the wide range of religious and cultural offerings that the area offers. The days of the Easter holidays become an opportunity to visit the Museum of Vintage Motorcycles, the EcoMuseo dei Monti Climiti, the renovated Historical Archive, the Municipal Library, the Pirrera di Sant'Antonio and all the other "places" of attraction that the Borgo degli Iblei offers. The rites begin on Thursday with the Holy Mass in "Coena Domini" and the subsequent visit to the tombs. On Good Friday there is the procession of the dead Christ followed by the Addolorata, which takes place late in the evening along the streets of the historic centre. A tradition that arose recently, in 1983, on the initiative of the pro-loco, is that of the living Via Crucis, which takes place on the evening of Holy Wednesday. The living Via Crucis attracts thousands of people to Melilli, who attend the theatrical retelling of the passion and death of Christ, as it has been handed down to us by the Gospels. On "Easter Sunday" you can witness the meeting between the Risen Christ and the Madonna (u 'ncontru). At ten o'clock, on the corner of Via Madrid, between two wings of anxiously waiting crowd, the Madonna, cloaked in black, carried on her shoulders from the mother church, waits in hiding for the arrival of her son. From the Sanctuary basilica of "San Sebastiano" the Risen Christ, always carried on the shoulder, reaches the opposite corner of the "Salvatore Rizzo" square. At the sound of the bell, the "carriers" of Christ and the Madonna run to the center of the square, where the Mother, to express her joy, drops her black cloak and approaches the resurrected Son. Then the fercoli of the Risen Christ are carried on the shoulders through the streets of the town. The bearers bounce the fercoli as a sign of reverence, which the people of Melille call "li 'ncrinati di Santu Cristu". Then the fercoli of the risen Christ and of the Madonna are carried on the shoulders through the streets of the town. The Easter Sunday meeting concludes the traditional rites of Holy Week.

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