Aidone - Aidone

Aidone is a municipality in the province of Enna.

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• Holy week of Aidone. It opens with Palm Sunday and ends with arrived Easter, takes place according to an ancient tradition that has undergone few variations over time. The events celebrated are fully inserted in the wake of the sacred representations used by the Church, following the Counter-Reformation, to restore Christians to the fidelity of the Gospel message.

The protagonists are the seven brotherhoods, the holy men, the lamenters. The latter, usually five or six voices, perform the laments, ancient songs in the Sicilian language, accompanying the processions of the precept, the visit of the tombs and Good Friday. A soloist intones the verse and the choir to which all the brothers are added intervene by reinforcing the final note. The Aidonians defended this tradition, even when it crystallized in hard to understand rites, with nails and teeth. When in 1960, by order of the bishop, the junta was suspended there was a popular uprising of which everyone retains memory: those who were recognized as the instigators did a few days in jail and the junta was suspended for more than ten years 

• Palm Sunday. The first sacred representation of the Easter period is that of Palm Sunday; the saints move from all the churches, in pairs, accompanied by their own brotherhoods; the gathering is in the little church of the Annunziata, just an oratory since the church is in ruins, but strategic for all the functions of the holy week. From here, with the palm trees blessed, the procession, led by the parish priest of the mother church, winds through the streets of the town and ends at the matrix; here an ancient and singular rite takes place.

The doors of the church are locked to symbolize Jerusalem who refuses to welcome the Messiah. The apostles (the holy men) in turn knock without result because the door remains closed; then they try to open it by force, Mattia succeeds but pulls back so that everyone can enter according to a rigid hierarchy: Giovanni, Giacomo Maggiore, Pietro, Mattia, Filippo, Matteo, Giuda Taddeo, Andrea, Giacomo the minor, Bartolomeo, Tommaso, Simone . the saints enter making great bows, lastly the parish priest who symbolizes Jesus and who proceeds to the solemn function enters. Once the attempts to open the door were underlined by jokes in Sicilian pronounced by a priest inside the closed church and by the parish priest who was outside 

• Penitential processions. The first half of Holy Week is characterized by penitential processions in compliance with the Easter precept; after confession, the confreres, accompanied by the band, intoning the laments, go to the church where they will receive communion. Here it also celebrates a moment of conviviality and solidarity: the typical Aidone giamelles and wine biscuits are distributed and in memory of the dead brothers these sweets are also shared with widows. 
• Holy Wednesday. In the evening from the church of the Annunziata a sad and evocative procession starts which accompanies, in the mother church, in a very discreet, almost hidden way, the statue of Christ, which will then be placed on the cross; here he received the homage of the faithful who kissed his feet and side. This last tradition, a bit strange - since it would seem that the Aidonese adore Jesus who died two days in advance - has been a source of contention between the population and the parish priests, even if it seems certain that a parish priest has introduced it. in the fifties.

The tradition, quite rare if not unique, probably dates back to the end of the nineteenth century or the beginning of the twentieth century, at the time of the peasants' claims movements, disappointed in the lack of distribution of the lands promised by Garibaldi and bled to death by the Savoy government. The statue, which is still carried in procession inside a coffin on Fridays, characterized by folding arms, was owned by the confraternity of the Whites, made up of nobles and large landowners; they was the honor of the procession of the dead Christ on the night of Good Friday, an honor that they shared benignly with their sharecroppers and wage earners who belonged to the brotherhood of the Annunziata. Following a revolt, the nobles denied the peasants the statue of Christ for the celebration of Friday, they kidnapped the statue, took it to their church and then to the matrix, from where the procession started. It was a moment of great participation but then we came to milder advice and the statue was returned to the Whites.

But from that moment on, the offspring of the Whites, for fear that it was still stolen, carried the statue from one church to another at night on Wednesdays, making sure there was no witness. People who understood this watched this procession from the cracks in the doors and windows, in the dark. When the brotherhood of the Whites disbanded, the statue was donated to the brotherhood of the Annunziata, but the nunciatari they wanted to continue to commemorate that memorable act of rebellion with the celebration of Wednesday. It is also said that the last noble, who was entrusted with the statue, after having sold off everything he had, also sold Christ, to the nunciatari precisely; hence the saying in Aidone "Christ also sold himself". The Christ placed on a wooden ladder and covered with a sheet, like those poor dead who were transported from the countryside or from the place of an accident, when it was dark was carried by the brothers in the mute to the mother church, and people anxiously awaited the passage of the sad procession turning off the lights of the houses so as not to disturb it. The tradition of kissing the statue, after it was brought to the Mother Church, is more recent, it dates back to the late fifties and was introduced by the parish priest of the time, Father Minasola. In recent years we have returned to our origins: the statue is discreetly taken to the mother church on Wednesday evening, after which the doors are closed. 

• Good Friday. In the mother church, starting in the afternoon, a large part of the Aiden population gathers to attend the Good Friday rites that culminate with the deposition of the cross (a scisa a crusg '). The rites of Good Friday are celebrated in front of the statue of Christ (on Wednesday) which, in the meantime, has been nailed to the cross. When evening comes, the brotherhood of the Annunziata arrives in the church who, to the sad sound of the lamentations and a band performing a very sad repertoire, brings the glass coffin illuminated and decorated with flowers. At this point the rector of the Annunziata and some other confreres, led by the celebrant, remove the statue from the cross and place it in the glass urn, amid general emotion.

This is the starting point for the evocative and very popular nocturnal procession which for some decades has also been enriched by the presence of the statue of the Addolorata carried by some girls, figures representing pious women and two angels. 

• Holy Sunday. Sunday around noon in Piazza Filippo Cordova one of the most evocative sacred representations takes place. The protagonists are: the statues of the Addolorata, covered with a black veil and that of the Risen Christ, worn by young people dressed in white who are positioned on opposite sides of the square, so that they are not seen; the twelve holy men, representatives of all the brotherhoods and some messengers with flowered banners; all together are busy looking for Jesus and bringing news of him to the Mother; we witness the races of St. Peter who for three times (as many as there were denials), accompanied by banners and throngs of children, shuttles between the Madonna and Jesus. At the end of this journey, John goes to meet him to announce that Christ It has risen; the statue of Christ is shown and Peter and John run towards the Madonna who is already approaching the center of the square. At noon precisely, in a riot of bells, firecrackers and "jumps" of the holy men, the meeting takes place, to junta; the black veil is blown off the Madonna and the two statues are made to bow and rise as if they were twigs. The party ends with the procession, the two statues are carried together, the Madonna accompanies Jesus to the Mother Church and then in turn is accompanied to Santa Maria La Cava, all the separations are underlined by the acrobatic bows of the gurus.

The feast today takes place from ten in the morning to about one, but once the saints left in search of Christ already early in the morning around the whole town and often even in the countryside. Everywhere they found refreshment, especially wine and biscuits, and when, especially St. Peter's, they exceeded their libations and went to sleep in some stable, they remained in the square for hours waiting for them; and since it must have been Saint Peter and Saint John who brought the good news to Mary, there was no arrival until he returned or someone came to pick him up. This practice aroused the ire of the Bishop who at the end of the fifties forbade the council, followed by a popular revolt that still today is told with the troublemakers who spent even a few months in jail, with the priests barricaded in the church of Santa Maria La Cava and all the people who by force, taking possession of the statues, still wanted to celebrate the junta. From that moment it was suspended and only almost twenty years later it was resumed, when everyone agreed to do it according to well-defined rules; it has gained in punctuality and respect for the rules but has certainly lost a lot of participation and the color and joy with which it was followed. 

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• Mineo
• Caltagirone
• Morgantina
• 37.382514.45811 Solfara Baccarato.  
• Solfara Feudonovo.  
• Solfara Fennel.  

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Aidone
• Commons contains images or other files on Aidone
• Wikiquote contains quotes from or on Aidone

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