My new blogging friend Nanni kindly invited me to the nearby town of Scicli on Sunday night so that I could witness the remarkable festa there: it is called Gioia [Joy] or L'Uomo Vivo [The Living Man] and, as Nanni says, it is unusual in Sicily in that it truly celebrates life, not death.
The statue of Christ is brought out of its church at 13.00 and again at around 23.00 and young men carry it around the town shouting "Gioia!", hotting up their pace with every turn of the square that they complete and stopping now and then to make the statue spin round at terrifying speed. God help you if you, or your car, happens to get in their way, for they stop for nobody and nothing and, as Nanni, says, should they knock you down, they are not going to get all British and apologise ; they will just keep going!
When Nanni and I first arrived at the church from which the statue was to be carried, at around 11pm., the young men were "revving up" and practising their shouts of "Gioia". Nanni said, "Oh, they are calm at the moment" and I thought , "If that's calm, what happens later?!" I soon found out and, as the statue was carried round, to clamourous movement, fireworks and applause, Nanni kept telling me to stand well back from its path. "I'm frightened of these people", he explained at one point. I thought, "If you're frightened and you're from here, Nanni, I'm right behind you!" [Note that I did not say "beside"!]
This festival really does celebrate new life and part of its purpose is for the young men carrying the statue to be seen by the young women and to be able to demonstrate how strong and virile they are. It also allows them to let off steam and it seems a much better way of doing so to me than going to a football match for the express purpose of having a fight!
As you see from the pictures, everyone in Scicli came out to enjoy the festa and enjoy it they did. Good for them, say I! Nanni has a video of the proceedings over on his site which is much better than anything I could manage, so I urge you to take a look at it. You'll be amazed, as I was! Grazie per la bella serata, Nanni.
