Easter Rites

I love coming to Taranto at Easter.  It's super festive and they have a unique tradition, apparently dating back to the time of the Spanish Dominion of this area.  The Easter Rites are, I'll admit, a little strange, but the people here love them, and it makes it fun to be out with the crowds, experiencing a local tradition.

Posters all over the city advertise the Holy Week festivities:

At 3pm on Thursday, the "perdoni" or sinners (I like to call them the KKK men for obvious reasons), come out of the church.  I don't know how many there are, maybe 40?  They wander through the city, sometimes in an orderly fashion, sometimes randomly, visiting different churches.  Perhaps searching for Jesus?  Not really sure.  Kind of cool, but also kind of creepy.

That night, the Madonna (Virgin Mary) leaves another church, looking for Jesus.  She is carried on the backs of some very wealthy and "generous" men, who apparently pay tens of thousands of dollars for the honor.  She also parades through the streets, at an excruciatingly slow pace all night, until she retires back into the church the next morning.  This year was unique because it rained all night and into the morning, so they had to spend much of the night scurrying into nearby buildings and then emerging when the rain stopped.  When we caught up to her on Friday morning, she was emerging from a residential building. 

Matteo was surely interested in the procession.  La Nonna took him to get a front row view.  He hasn't been that captivated/stunned, maybe ever.  He just looked at all the passing perdoni with a confused look on his face.  Several of them stopped to grab his hand (which he promptly withdrew) or to allow a photo op. 

 

 

 



 

Friday night is the final procession.  It lasts about 15 hours (again, they move at an excruciatingly slow pace) and starts out of this church.  Fabio and I arrived as the procession was emerging.  It consists of seven (I think) statues of the passion of Christ, along with dozens of perdoni. Apparently, the statues are really old, some dating back to the 17th century. This is a huge affair, with TV cameras, reporters and thousands of bystanders present.    

After fighting the crowds for a while, we noticed a cafe on the second story of an adjacent building to the piazza.  It had a full window with empty tables next to it.  We decided to go up and get some snacks and drinks and enjoy a warmer, more relaxed view.  Next time we come, I'm going straight there!  Awesome view and awesome food.  This is the view from our table.  Why no one else was there is still puzzling me!

 

This final procession finished in the same church this morning.  When we woke up around 8, we watched it end on TV.  Those guys had been out all night, walking about 1/10 of a mile an hour for 15 hours carrying that heavy statue on their soldiers.  They looked pretty exhausted.  I hope it was worth their $20,000 (or so).  The Rites are over now and tomorrow is the big day of the Resurrection, which seems to be less of a focus here than his death and suffering, but perhaps it is because I don't understand what is said at Mass.  We are going to Mass tomorrow, and I'm going to have Fabio do some translating.  Happy Easter, everyone!