Feast of the Bimartire San Sebastiano

The long feast in honor of San Sebastiano begins on January 10 with the sound of the bell and the exposure of the saint to the city. The event represents a concentration of ritual practices, traditions and manifestations of popular religiosity: prayers, evocative and purifying fires, processions, firecrackers, creation of sacred spaces bordered by magical trees, processions of laurel and hawthorn trees, devotees who by vow they dress in white and lead the Saint barefoot, even through the icy waters of all the streets of the town, until late in the evening; devotees who make the Saint run to the sound of the fanfare; devotees who eat and drink wine along the way to face the cold and fatigue. During this period of celebration, the blessing and distribution of loaves also takes place, "panitti the Sammastianus"; the function of forgiveness takes place, "u pirdunu”, As if to apologize for the excesses committed on feast days, with the distribution to the faithful of cotton fragments considered relics of the Saint. Historical episodes are recalled, "in fuiutina da vara”, The attempt to steal the vara by a community devoted to San Sebastiano, perhaps that of Melilli itself.

The program of the celebrations includes several main phases spread over several days: the "party of bura”, Which consists of a night torchlight procession through the streets of the town, during which the faithful carrying bright bundles of ampelodesm inflorescences, a plant sacred to the dead, which are distributed to all present on the portal of the Chiesa della Matrice. The procession, accompanied by the sound of a drum, recalls the search and discovery, by Christians, of the body of the saint still alive, after having suffered the torture of arrows. Both the elders of the village participate in the torchlight procession, who carry torches every year by vote, and the young people, who at the end of the path jump and challenge a large purifying bonfire, which is lit and fed by the remains of the bundles carried in procession and collected in the churchyard. of the church. Even today, the elders of Tortorici, men and women, lead a torch in procession by vote.

On the Sunday before the Feast, in the morning, upon returning from the procession of Sant'Antonio Abate, the devotees begin the Parade of the Laurel along the streets of the city to the Church of Santa Maria Assunta, where the laurel or holly lead, thus creating an improvised magical wood. The laurel recalls the sacred wood in Adonis where Saint Sebastian, tied naked to a tree, was shot at by the arrows of the ferocious Mauritanian archers.

The feast always falls on January 20 and the devotees who have a vow to dissolve, go "naked" to the Saint and as a penitential sign they dress in white with shirt and trousers, a handkerchief folded like a triangle around the waist and bare feet. The women, barefoot, wear white shirts and skirts, the handkerchief covers the head and precede and follow, in the procession or in the quest, the Saint.

The religious rite is celebrated in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta, with the participation of the local authorities, preceded by dealers who go to the church delivering the keys to the city as a sign of homage to the saint. At noon the procession begins through the streets of the city which is opened by three altar boys dressed in white and red tunic leading a processional cross; follows the parish priest, the "launch" supported by at least sixteen pruners, and all the other men, members of the "nuri", Dressed in white, barefoot, about a hundred. They are followed by women and children all dressed in white. The musical band awaits the procession outside the church and precedes it for the first parts of the procession. The whole procession of faithful follows in disorder. At the sound of the Bell and the cry "thanks San Bastiano, thanks!”The long procession starts. The artistic "Items"Is carried only by"nuri”, As a sign of privilege and penitential obligation. During the long journey, the bearers of the vara alternate steps with dances, causing the fercolo dance in the crowd. For this reason the replacement of the carriers takes place continuously, as their function is particularly tiring given the weight of the entire ferculum. The first stage of the Procession is in Calagni River where the devotees stop the vara invoking grace. After the break, the "begging”, That is the offering and the Saint is carried through the streets of the city returning to the Church of San Nicolò where it remains until the eighth.

The feast in honor of the patron saint is repeated on the Sunday closest to 9 May.