L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano Ceres or Saturn, the tradi- tional patron deity of the city, and became a curved strip of land on which Trapani was l a t e r f o u n d e d . F r o m t h i s c o m e s i t s a n c i e n t G r e e k name, Drepanon (sickle). In Virgil's Aeneid, Anchises, the father of Aeneas, dies at Drepanum, and the Trojan hero later returns there after fleeing from Dido, queen of Carthage, to hold the ludi novendiales, the nine-day funeral games. Beyond myth, the earliest settlers are thought to have been the Elymians, a people who inhabited western Sicily in protohistoric times, with their main center at Eryx (modern Erice). The city's foundation likely predates the f a l l o f T r o y i n 1 1 8 4 B C . Thanks to its geographical position, Trapani served not only as the port of Eryx but s o o n d e v e l o p e d i n t o a n i m p o r t a n t t r a d i n g h u b . When, between the ninth and e i g h t h c e n t u r i e s B C , t h e P h o e n i c i a n s f o u n d t h e m - selves at war with Syracuse and the Greek cities, Trapani remained firmly allied with Carthage. Easter has always been the most deeply felt religious cel- ebration among the people of Sicily. Each year, the remem- brance of the Virgin Mary's sorrow and the suffering of rale, the leader of the Mas- sari, uses the ciaccola to give commands: to raise and lower the group, to position the bearers beneath the poles, a n d t o s i g n a l m o v e m e n t . Another custom is the vutata (turn), when the Massari rotate the group toward a par- ticular individual, as a gesture of greeting or thanks for an offering (picaccia). Such a performance, which i s a l m o s t t h e a t r i c a l i n i t s structure, could not be con- tained within a single day. With a pause for rest during the night, both the guilds and the public remain engaged over two days, Friday and Saturday. When the proces- sion finally returns to the C h u r c h o f P u r g a t o r y , t h e arrival of the Madonna Addo- lorata is met with applause, music, and tears, marking the close of the Good Friday pro- cession. In the days leading up to it, t h e P r o c e s s i o n i d e l l e Pietà take place, forming a collective expression of faith, local identity, and artistic tra- dition. Taken together, the Easter celebrations in Tra- p a n i c a n b e s e e n a s a n expression of collective mem- ory and the very soul of the city, whose history, in turn, reaches back into myth. A c c o r d i n g t o l e g e n d , a sickle fell from the hands of Jesus Christ becomes, espe- cially during the Good Friday procession, a moment of pro- found emotion for those who take part with a true Christian spirit. It is an experience of shared identification: with the path to Calvary, with Mary's immense grief at the death of her son, and ultimately, with the great and almost unimag- inable joy of the Resurrection. Yet the symbolism of East- er also speaks to the natural world, to renewal, to flower- ing, and to the passage out of winter. With Christ's resur- rection, nature too seems to rise again: life awakens after its winter rest. The symbols associated with this rebirth are those of grain, bread, and flowers, and it is no coinci- dence that Easter is celebrat- ed in spring. As with any religious feast in Sicily, the pleasures of the table are an essential part of the celebration. Marzipan lambs, decorated chocolate eggs, and a wide range of local specialties appear on every table, each town and village preserving its own traditions and distinctive recipes. The joy of the Resurrection finds expression not only in ritual and devotion, but also in the s h a r e d p l e a s u r e o f f o o d , through the rich and varied sweets for which the island is renowned. Trapani's guilds date back to 1772. Following the merger of the two confraternities in 1646, a new ceremonial attire was introduced: a red canvas t u n i c , a c c o m p a n i e d b y a white cloak and hood. T h e M a s s a r i , w h o s t i l l carry the sculptural groups on their shoulders today, move in a distinctive way known as annacata (from naca, meaning cradle). They sway from side to side, not only to ease the weight, but also to follow the rhythm of the funeral marches: because of it, the sculptures appear almost to move on their own. The structure that sup- ports each group is called the vara, a term that also refers t o t h e e n t i r e s c u l p t u r a l ensemble. The procession advances slowly, in a mea- sured pattern: three steps for- ward and two back. As the groups return to the church, the annacata becomes more p r o n o u n c e d , b u i l d i n g i n intensity and heightening the sense of emotion and strain. The ciaccola, a percussion i n s t r u m e n t , m a r k s t h e rhythm of the procession. Similar to the Spanish cas- tañuela, it produces a sound reminiscent of castanets and, for the people of Trapani, reflects the lasting influence of Spanish rule. The capo- E aster, rooted in t h e d e a t h o f Jesus Christ, also calls to mind the m y s t e r y o f H i s resurrection. There is no cor- ner of Sicily _ and, we are cer- tain, of the entire Christian world – that does not cele- brate what is undoubtedly the most important moment for the Church of Peter. One of the most evocative representations on our island takes place in Trapani. Eighteen sculptural groups a n d t w o s i m u l a c r a , a l l made of wood, canvas, and glue between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, depict the stages of Christ's Passion. The two simulacra represent, respectively, the dead Christ laid in the tomb and Our Lady of Sorrows. The Processione dei Misteri is an intense and ancient ritual of Sicilian religious tradition that involves the entire com- munity, and one of the key moments, perhaps the most important, of the Easter cele- brations. Each of these sculptural groups is entrusted to a local guild, whose members carry it on their shoulders through the streets of the city. These bearers, known as Massari, shoulder the weight, accom- panied by the solemnity of f u n e r a l m a r c h e s a n d t h e rhythmic sound of the ciac- cole. This procession, which has a history of four hundred y e a r s a n d i s k n o w n w e l l beyond the island, has Span- ish origins and clear parallels with Easter celebrations in Andalusia. I t b e g i n s a t 2 p . m . o n Good Friday and concludes more than twenty-four hours later, after a pause during the night. Setting out from the Church of the Souls in Purga- tory, it winds through the city's main streets, symboli- cally retracing the Via Crucis along its route. During the period of Span- ish rule in Sicily, the Confra- ternity of the Most Pre- cious Blood of Christ – today the Confraternity of Saint Michael the Archangel – oversaw the creation of the sculptural groups, commis- sioning local artists from Tra- pani. By a deed of concession d a t e d A p r i l 2 0 , 1 6 1 2 , t h e group depicting the Ascent to Calvary was entrusted to day laborers, known as jurnaleri. The last groups assigned to E a s t e r : a s y m b o l o f r e s u r r e c t i o n a n d mystery TERESA DI FRESCO The Massari of Trapani's Processione dei Misteri, ready for their 36-hour-long ritual of tradition and faith (Photo: Bruno D'Andrea/Dreamstime) LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE

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