Good Friday is a time for processions and among all the rites and events that represent the Passion and death of Jesus Christ, the procession of the Mysteries of Erice is the most evocative, because it is smaller and more intimate than the one in Trapani.
Originally the procession was composed of living characters who paraded along the streets of the medieval village with very beautiful theatrical performances and also with the application of corporal rites such as the flogging of the flesh with crowns of thorns on the head and ropes around the neck, but since these practices they were considered very violent, in 1851 the Church decided to abolish them.
From 1762 the performances also took place with wooden statues; in fact, the procession was defined as mixed, but from 1852 seven vares that we know today entered the scene, even if the living characters remained for some time like St. Joseph and his brothers, but these too were then abolished in 1856 when they replaced exclusively the wooden sculptural groups, whose features were largely inspired by those from Trapani, even if small in size.
Other substantial differences with the Trapani procession concern the movements, because there is no characteristic "ancatacata" due to the slopes of the route, which characterize the streets of the medieval village and then the vares rest on the paving with forks that help the bearers to move with agility along the path.
The procession of the Mysteries of Erice leaves on the afternoon of Good Friday around 2pm from the church of San Giuliano near the Balio garden, accompanied by the sound of the only participating musical band to always end in San Giuliano around 8pm.
There are seven statuary groups and they are Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Flagellation, the Crowning with Thorns, the ascent to Calvary, the Crucifix and the urn in which Jesus is placed. The procession closes with Our Lady of Sorrows with veneration of the faithful following.
(Texts Giuseppe Puglia)
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COMMENT "PROCESSION OF THE MYSTERIES OF ERICE ITINERARY 2024"
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