Marsala Holy Thursday Procession

The theme of my work is based on a historical event that takes place in the city of Marsala. It represents one of the most important Italian holidays also known abroad: the Marsala Holy Thursday Procession.

Since 2013, Sacred Representation of the Passion of the Lord of Marsala, by the will of the Bishop of the Diocese of Mazara del Vallo, Domenico Mogavero, is a living representation of the passion and death of Jesus Christ. It is one of the oldest processions in Italy. The procession of Holy Thursday in Marsala dates back to the first half of the seventeenth century, and has its genesis in the sacred representations that, since the Middle Ages, were presented through comedies, poetic compositions or figurative and symbolic processions, mute and spoken. The procession is organized by the Sant'Anna brotherhood.

The XVII volume of the "Library of Sicilian Popular Traditions", by Giuseppe Pitrè [1] (1841-1916), contains numerous quotations and some excerpts from the letter with which Salvatore Struppa, the first municipal librarian of the city, communicated to Pitrè, on February 23, 1877, on the sacred representations of Marsala, and in particular on the Procession of Holy Thursday. From this source, we learn that, under the guidance of the Jesuit fathers, the young students of the college, for the first time in 1620, represented the Tragedy of Saint Simon and that, in 1635, the recitation of the Passion of Jesus Christ began in some churches and City brotherhoods.

"The brotherhood of Sant'Anna, dedicated since the seventeenth century to spiritual exercises and the most rigorous penance, had to visit, dressed in sacking, the churches of the cities in the evening hours of Holy Thursday. A bishop of Marsala, Spinola, having become a member of that society as well, he wanted, after a papal disposition, to wear all the brothers in that visit and in other public appearances, in the process of time, that is, in the last century (XVIII), to the bishop's habit the brotherhood added a uniform wax mask and a shield carried by hand, where the head of one of the evangelical characters who painted or witnessed the death of the Christ was painted. This was called the Mysteries. procession, as it does however in which the passion of Jesus was represented, with characters dressed in the costume of the epoch. Today the procession is divided into eight groups that recognize their center in the pers of the one and only masked Christ”. They are composed as follows:

1.                 A red banner with the initial notes S.P.Q.R. Many characters dressed in a closed hood, a white sack and a mozzetta, each carrying a glove box covered with a silk handkerchief with the taste of food, such as lemons, oranges, green beans, wine, sweets, bread, lettuces: in the previous part of the handkerchief an evangelical motto must be written such as cenaculum magnum, ex hoc omnes drinks, accepit panem, accipiens calicem, caenantibus autem etc. and Christ dressed in the Nazarene who blesses the bread.

2.                 The apostles, including Judas, with the thirty pieces of silver in the bag; Christ captured and bound; many soldiers cum fustibus et lanternino; one who carries Malco's hand; an angel holding a chalice and a cross.

3.                 Christ and Herod with all his court.

4.                 Christ and Caifasso, St. Peter, the maid, one who carries the rooster.

5.                 Christ dressed in the white chlamys.

6.                 Christ "Ecce Homo", Pilate, praetorians and villains armed with scourges, a centurion on horseback; one who carries a mug with the words "lavavit manu", another the column with "flagellavit eum", another one the crown of thorns with "posuerunt super caput eius", and another one that cruelly insists on pulling the rope that binds the hands to the Christ etc.

7.                 Christ carrying the Cross on his shoulders, helped by the Cyrene, is carried away by a manigold; a girl, the Veronica, who carries a white veil in her hand, where the effigy of Christ is, from which occasionally she goes to dry her face

8.                 Finally a repentant and weeping centurion on horseback, Jews carrying ladders with the words "ascendens eum scala", an inkwell with "scripsit titulum", nails, dice, the sacred shroud, ointment jars, hammers, Disma and Cisma paintings, raised on the cross, and the figure also painted of the Crucified Christ; then he follows Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, John, many little boys and girls dressed in the Jewish style who weep next to the body of Jesus deposed and brought by them, and the statue of Mary of Sorrows who defines the procession.

In times not far from us, the Christs were all priests and the other characters were supported by the nobles and the bourgeois of Marsala; then with the passage of time, the procession fell into the hands of the workers and peasants and very often, in the resting stages, inside the sacristy of some church, Cristi and manigoldi were seen coming to the grips and taking well cooked good and cavar of pocket the knife and beat the desperate; now (1875) however that the Catholic fervor is revived in the masses, the priests reverted to the habit of supporting the part of Christ in that procession, which, coming out of the Church of Sant'Anna in the afternoon hours of Holy Thursday, passes through the streets primary of the country, enters and visits almost all the churches and retires late there from where he made the moves.

Many years ago, the characters represented their part very much; they indulged in gesticulations, scenes and actions that were forbidden by an archpriest Morana, because they were very horrible and caused delusions, fainting, disruptions and religious excesses. Now, the procession goes on quietly, and less the fall of Christ with the cross on his shoulders inside the Church of St. Peter, the Veronica that dries the blood of the face of Christ and Pilate than with the right index, armed with a huge ring, points to "Ecce Homo", no further action should be taken". Today, the day of the procession is one of the days that brings together all the people of the country and attracts many tourists.

I thinks it is the fulcrum of an idea based on belief on something that people change the way they think and see religion over time. Every year, thanks to this event, Marsala notes a growth of tourists for the day of the procession.
I think it is a source of pride that these traditions still exist today and that people can admire and, above all, not forget those that are the dawn of our culture.

I think it is an opportunity to honor our traditions and, beyond faith in the religious sphere, it is a way to pass on to the little ones and to remind the greatest important values. Beyond the religious factor, I find it a good opportunity for economic and tourist growth for the city of Marsala.

Marzia Gentile

Bibliografia

Wikipedia.

(Artigo de opinião produzido no âmbito da unidade curricular “Economia do Turismo”, de opção, lecionada a alunos de vários cursos de mestrado da EEG, a funcionar no 2º semestre do ano letivo 2018/2019)