With the Procession of Mary Mother of Mercy Massari start events of Holy Week in Trapani, which will culminate on Good Friday with the Procession of the Mysteries.
And ´Holy Tuesday and after months of lengthy preparations which were marked by scinnute Lenten, the Madonna of Massari, leaves the Church of Purgatory, the same one that houses the Sacred Groups of the Mysteries, at 16.00 in procession along the streets the old town of Trapani. This procession is so dear to Trapani even if you do not know the exact origin of this rite, as it is not certain the story of the icon of the Madonna. However according to the surveys historiographical framework should go back to 1500 and the author should be a certain Narciso Guidone.
The care and the organization of the procession has always been entrusted to Massari, who are laborers engaged in the carriage of heavy stuff for a fee. In this case the farmers engaged in the carriage of the Madonna not be remunerated, indeed all those who are participating in the costs involved in the organization of the procession. Theirs is a genuine devotion.
After covering the main streets of the historic city center the Madonna arrives in the evening to Lucatelli Square, where a chapel was set up and there will be an object of veneration by all trapanesi overnight.
On the day of Holy Wednesday is the turn of another procession, that of Mary Mother of Mercy of the People, which was released in the early afternoon around 14.30 by Maria SS. Sorrows to cover also the oldest streets of Trapani. Contrary to the procession of the Holy Tuesday, are known the origins of the ritual and are also remote and date back to 1608 when it was founded the Brotherhood of St. Anna, who was in charge of the care of the procession, which formerly took place on Holy Thursday. Disappearance in the late nineteenth century, the Brotherhood of St. Anna, the care of this procession passed to the class of greengrocers who still oversees their construction. As for the origins of the icon venerated in procession documents relate, which can be dated to the second half of the ´600 and the author would be the painter Giovanni Battista De Vita. On the back of the picture, as well as that of Our Lady Mother of Mercy Massari has exposed the image of Christ whose face is depicted on a sheet stretched by an angel.
This ritual has its climax when the icon of the Madonna reaches Lucatelli Square, where the night before the Madonna of Massari and there occurs a rite suggestive, that is the exchange of candles between the consuls of the two classes. At the end towards 22.30 the two Madonnas within their respective churches.
Find Events
