Holy Week 2027 runs from Palm Sunday, March 21, to Easter Sunday, March 28. Caltanissetta holds its big processions on Wednesday and Holy Thursday. On Good Friday the Misteri set out in Trapani and return only on Saturday, and the confraternities walk in Enna. On Easter Sunday Scicli celebrates the risen Christ as the Uomo Vivo, and in Modica the Madonna Vasa Vasa meets her son. Towns and confraternities publish the times in the weeks before Easter.
Wednesday and Holy Thursday in Caltanissetta
On the morning of March 24 the Real Maestranza walks in a penitential procession to the cathedral, led by its captain. The craftsmen's guild was once a city militia and today represents the town at civic and church occasions. In the evening come the Varicedde, small copies of Thursday's processional groups. The large groups themselves, the 16 Vare, go out on the evening of Holy Thursday: scenes of the Passion from the 19th and 20th centuries, cared for by the town's guilds and families and accompanied by bands. On Good Friday the Cristo Nero follows. Caltanissetta's Holy Week has been listed in Sicily's register of intangible heritage since 2006.
The Misteri in Trapani on Good Friday
In the early afternoon of March 26 the Misteri leave the Chiesa del Purgatorio: 18 sculpted groups and two statues of wood, glue and canvas, made in the 17th and 18th centuries. Guild members and volunteers carry them through the city for about 24 hours without a break, through the old town at night and past the fishermen's quarter by the harbor at dawn, while bands play funeral marches. On Holy Saturday, before the groups go back into the church, the bearers sway them in the annacata, a movement like rocking a cradle.
Good Friday in Enna and Scicli
In Enna the confraternities walk in the main procession of Holy Week on Good Friday. In Scicli the statue of the Madonna Addolorata "dell'Ospedale" leaves the church of San Giovanni in the evening; at Santa Maria la Nova the Cristo Morto joins the procession.
The Uomo Vivo in Scicli on Easter Sunday
At midnight between Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, the bells of Scicli ring again after their silence since Holy Thursday. In the packed church people greet the risen Christ with cries of "Gioia"; the statue is called 'U Gioia or Uomo Vivo. The celebration resumes early on Easter morning: young men carry the statue through the town, lifting it up and down amid firecrackers and falling petals. If it rains, the statue stays inside. The Regione Siciliana counts Scicli's Holy Week among its Grandi Eventi and has entered it in its register of intangible heritage.
The Madonna Vasa Vasa in Modica on Easter Sunday
Around noon on Corso Umberto in Modica, the Madonna, dressed in black, meets the risen Christ. She drops her mourning veil, opens her arms and "kisses" her son, which gives the rite its name, Vasa Vasa, and doves are released. Since 2016 a second meeting has taken place in the evening. Modica is 6 miles from Scicli.
Easter in Piana degli Albanesi
In Piana degli Albanesi, south of Palermo, the Arbëreshë community celebrates Easter in the Byzantine rite. On Easter Sunday the women wear their festive costumes, and red eggs are handed out.
Planning your stay
For Easter in Scicli and Modica, there are holiday homes in Scicli itself and in Pozzallo on the coast, 9 miles away. For the Misteri in Trapani, holiday homes are in Marsala and San Vito lo Capo, each about 16 miles away. The weather and climate page shows what late March is like.
