Sicily’s Holy Week Celebrations
The rites of Holy Week in Sicily are ancient representations of the most significant moments of the Passion of Jesus Christ, described in the Gospels, from his arrest by the Romans to the Resurrection. They are part of the religious events organized in the various towns and cities of Sicily even if many of these are carried out by local brotherhoods without the support of the official church. Virtually every Sicilian town and city has different celebrations that represent the complexity of contents and symbols that over the centuries have seen the influences of the various cultures that have coexisted and followed each other on the island between to which the traditions due to the Spanish culture, dominant between the 16th and 17th centuries, have particular importance. In any case, in these traditions you can find common aspects but also diversities that reflect elements that date back to traditions prior to the Spanish domination, such as the Diavolate of medieval origin, and often referable to an area larger than that of Sicily alone. Many of these events are registered in the Intangible Heritage Register of Sicily defined by Unesco.
