The Sepulchers of Holy Thursday

Bronte's traditions, together

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THE ANNUNCIATED FEAST  THE SEPULCHERS  THE HOLY FRIDAY  TYPICAL DISHES  TYPICAL SWEETS


Holy week Traditions

The visits to Sepulchers

A centuries-old tradition with a clear symbolic and auspicious content

Among the rituals of the Holy Week, the evening stroll  to the "altarini" (small altars) or to the "sepolcri" (sepulchers) of Holy Thursday in Bronte remains still a  tradition followed also by youngsters.

Is a wandering about principal Churches of Bronte where, in religious silence, one goes to visit and pray in the Sepulchers, a  lateral altar of the church decorated the morning of Thursday with flowers and gifts brought by the parishioners to Christ sepulcher.

The churches, in sign of sorrow, strip all   sacred fittings and the lights, but the floor of a small altar becomes an explosion  of vivid colors with ribbons, flowers and sprouts culti­va­ted on purpose in the families surrounding Christ sepulcher.

Particular and traditional are the floral composi­tions made with wheat sprouts (but also with other cereals) immerged  in damp cotton wool an cultivated at home in darkness so to obtain colors almost unreal (white or yellowish or aqua green).

The visit to "sepulchers" of the churches goes on till late in the night.

 

Traditionally in Bronte, as in other Sicilian countries, "devotions" are represented by ceremonial dishes con­taining sprouted wheat, wine boiled with incense, bread and seasonal flowers. The objects of the Pas­sion packed with biscuit dough (shaped like a cross, ladder, nails, hammer, ...) brought to the church to be blessed and adorn the "Sepolcri", will be used the next day in the Good Friday procession.

The traditional offer of the faithful for the decoration of the altar has a transparent symbolic and auspicious content. It is an explosion of bright colors with ribbons, flowers, cultivated shoots, fruit, baskets of bread and wine that surround the tomb of Christ.

The visit to the "Sepulchers" of the churches lasts until late at night.

 

Let's visit, together, the

The "Plates" of the Sepulchres

Traditionally in Bronte, as in other towns in Sicily, the "devotions" are represented by ceremonial plates containing sprouted wheat, wine boiled with incense, bread in different symbols and shapes and seasonal flowers.

There are all the symbols of the flagellation and crucifixion of Christ: the dice of the Roman soldiers, the scourges, the cross, the ladder, the nails and the hammer of the crucifixion, all symbols of the Passion made with biscuit dough brought to the church to be blessed and to decorate the "Sepulchres", they will be used the next day, carried by children in the Good Friday procession.

The traditional offering of the faithful for the decoration of the altar has a transparent symbolic and auspicious content.

It is an explosion of bright colors with ribbons, flowers, cultivated shoots, fruit, baskets of bread and wine that surround the sepulchre of Christ. The visit to the "sepulchres" of the churches lasts until late at night.
«For the sepulchres, the humblest country people, a month before Easter, sowed wheat in small pots, which were often the large earthenware dishes in which families ate, but made it germinate and grow not in the light where, through the process of chlorophyll photosynthesis, it would become green, but in the darkness of a chest, where it grew yellow; and this (the darkness) to symbolize death and then resurrection.
But the poor women of that time knew nothing of this symbolism, but they did what they had seen their ancestors do and in which they blindly believed.» (N. Lupo)

Processione del Venerdì Santo, Cristo alla colonnaProcessione del Venerdì Santo, Cristo crocifisso

The Good Friday procession with the statues lavishly decorated with bunches of broad bean pods, a clear homage to the divinity with a propitiatory purpose (chiaro omaggio alla divinità con fine propiziatorio). Very particular and traditional are the floral compositions made with the sprouts of wheat seeds (but also of other cereals) grown immersed in a bowl of damp cotton and grown at home in the dark so as to obtain almost unreal colors (white or yellowish or aquamarine). The offering of gifts, wine or symbols of the Passion made with bread and plates for the decoration of the altar has a clear, fundamental auspicious meaning.

Sepolcri nel Santuario dell'Annunziata

 

Translated by Sam Di BellaITALIAN VERSION

    

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