- Muzzuni Feast: an ancient pagan ryths (Meryluna)
- Custonaci: Christmas 2007: Living Crib (Meryluna)
- Easter Arcs at San Biagio Platani (AG) - Macalube Desert at Aragona (AG) (written by Fantastici 4)
- Enna: Good Friday Procession - 21 marzo 2008 (written by Meryluna)
- Eurochocolate (Modica): Walking trough Modica Alta & Modica Bassa
- Etna: wonderful world (written by M. L. Trovato)
- Fiumefreddo Natural Reserve
- Marinello Lakes Natural Reserve (written by Simmy Pierotti)
Other voyage around the Italy:
- Unscheduled 2007: Casentinesi Forest National Park
- Guya Trekking 2008: From Liguria to Sicily in Trekking - Visit the Link
Muzzuni: Rite of passage - Alcara (ME) - June 24th
Every year in Alcara on June 24th unfolds an holy pagan event: "Muzzuni Feast",
an ancient rite, that dates back to many centuries, or better,
milleniums
ago. According a sicilian historian, G. Stazzone, it's the most ancient
Italian pagan feast, with a great and magical anthropological meaning. Since '70
years the feast took place according an ancient rite, yet in the memory of old
Alcara citizens. In the morning there was the religious ceremony, in the
afternoon, when the
Saint
went back in, began the secretely preparation of Muzzuni. The Muzzuni is a
bottle with the truncated neck, from whom leaked off carnations, ear of wheats,
lavender, branches of rosemarine, and aromatic grasses. Ancients rites in
honour of
"Demetra" and
"Kore", thanking the first to have teached people the
cultivation of the land, and the second to garantee the back of seasons on the
earth. The feast is dedicated also to "Dioniso" (in which name
today exist still Bacco District) and "Adone", sun's god.
Ancient rites to honour the pagan goddes, a way to celebrate the life-death-life
nature cycle praising for people and earth fertility. Round the Muzzuni people
exchanged love and friendly promises: love or depises "Motti" and the
"comparatico" a promise of friendship that could never be broken.
Nowaday is different. During '80
years Muzzuni Event risked to exstinguish, fortunatly it didn't happen. Today
the feast lasts three days, since June 22nd on June 24th. People don't stop
anymore the work in the fields to make the Muzzuni and don't dance anymore
around the fire since dawn, but there 
is
a competition beteween the different districts about what's the most beauty
Muzzuni prepared in great secret.
Religious ceremony begins in the afternoon, after the summer heat. At 19.00 Battista's head and Jesus statue are taken in procession in Alcara narrow streets. At the end about at 9.00 pm begins the "pagan rite". Two girls, such as old priestess, put the Muzzuni on the little altar. The pot and the altar are tricked out with foulards and family gold. It become a phallic symbol offered at the goddess. Most important part of this decoration are the "lavureddi", (meaning: little work) that are wheat seeds seeded in the dark with tipycal white-gold colour. They remember "Adone Gardens", manifactured during the Adonie in ancient Greek, symbolizing death and rebirth of the god. The night is enriched with the exposition of peasant world objects and folkloristic group exhibitions. "Meryluna"
On 21st March 2008,
Good Friday, we are in Enna for a discovery journey inside an old and
mysterious procession. The rites of Holy Week go back to XV-XVII century to the
Spanish Domination, when the existing Con
fraternities,
of miners, farmers, ... were authorized to promote the Faith, supporting
poor, invalids, or condamned. In the early afternoon of Good Friday all
the confraternities arrive at the Cathedral and arrange themselves for the
solemn procession. There are 15 confraternities, with different dress and tasks.
-
Confraternity of the SS. Passione: red mantle. It has acquired regal privileges such as leading the other Confraternities in the Procession, escorting the Dead Christ, and carrying the 25 passion misteries.
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Confraternity of Pergusa SS. Crucifix (is the youngest, founded in 1973): bordeaux scapular, without mantle. long white Spanish pointed hood.
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Confraternity of Valverde Maria SS.: green cloths. It brought back the ancient secret society of the Tower's Knight.
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Confraternity of the Sacramento: cream coloured mantle with red satin rim.
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Confraternity of Maria SS. delle Grazie: pale pink silk mantle.
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Confraternity of S. Joseph: olive green damasc mantle. It has the privilege to carry the Madonna, in the Easter Day during the "Paci ", and the "Spartenza" 7 days later.
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Confraternity of Maria del Rosario: cream mantle with black trims, and black rosary. It's the 1st Congregation starting the Adoration Hour (l'URa)
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Confraternity
of Seven Sorrows Mary:
violet mantle with a heart pierced by a sword. It carries the "Madonna of seven
sorrows" on their shoulders. The statue has got true hair and teeth given by a
woman at her death. -
Confraternity of Maria SS della Visitazione: azure mantle.
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Confraternity of Jesus Holy Heart: red damasc mantle.
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Confraternity of Holy Spirit: amaranth mantle, with the effige of the Holy Spirit. It takes part at the Spartenza la domenica dopo Sunday after Easter.
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Confraternity of Maria SS. Immacolata: azure cloth, It unites the Confraternity of Cordigeri and that of S. Orsola.
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Confraternity of the Purgatory's Holy Souls (or of the Good Death): black mantle with crux and a skull. In ancient time it was formed by noble people, which could be present at death sentencing and liberating 3 convicts every year on 2nd November.
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Confraternity of New SS. Mary: azure mantle, It cared people who were struck by the plague. For this reason the brothers had received privileges during till today.
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Confraternity of SS. Salvatore: founde in 1261 is the oldest in the town. Yellow mantle with a red Maltese cross. Descendant of Malta's Cavalier. Their ancestor took the Thorn of the Holy Crown takes in procession under the canopy. The brothers carry on their shoulder the Urn of Dead Christ till the Cemetery and take part at "Paci " and "Spartenza " Ceremony.
First part
of the Procession starts in the early afternoon in front of S. Lorenzo Church
and finishes in Cathedral. The first confraternity is the Passion. Its brothers
bring on 25 Misteries in an established order, the symbols of Christ's Martyrdom:
the cross, the bag with 30 coins, the nails and the tools, a live cock,
anaesthetize with wine, the goblet, the dice, ... At 7 p.m. from the Duomo
starts the solemn Procession, in which the 15 confraternities escort dead Christ
and Seven Sorrows Mary to the Cemetery. The whole ceremony seems a funeral march,
in which the Mother takes the Son to his last home. The band too plays funeral
music, and atmospheare is full of a sad and respectful silence. The
confraternities who take the stautes of Christ (SS. Salvatore) and the Mother
(Addolorata) seem to dance a religious silent valzer. At the Cemetery above the
arch of ex Cappuccini Church the brothers lift their hoods, showing their faces.
This is an old borbonic law. During the XIX century spies mingled to the
brothers to arrive in high noble town, so borbonic imposed that the return
should be made at bare face. Just the SS. Salvatore Confraternity made gone and
return at bare face, ... cause the patriots hid themselves above the Urn
of Dead Christ ... !!! 
After the Benediction the procession starts again going to the Duomo for the last part. All the confraternities take again their place in the row, and begin again their silent funeral march to the Cathedral. That's the end of the Good Friday Procession. Now peole prepare for the ceremony of the Resurrection Day: Paci (the peace) and Spartenza (the departure). "Meryluna"
17th March, White Night, doesn't sleep till the sunrise ... that's the Eurochocolate. We arrive in Modica in the morning and stay in a B&B at Modica Alta. In an our we decide to go to Donnalucata, where there is San Giuseppe Town Festival, with the Riding Horses and the Seppia Tasting. There are many horses decorated with flowers, ... it's a feast for eyes and hearts! Came back to Modica we make a little break before the night party, and then ... it begins !!! The town is completely transformed: stands, touristic guides, chocolate tastings, fountains and chocolate sculptures, and then music, shows, and tv, ... till the sunrise. It's magical walking trough the narrow streets listennig the chatter and music soaring till us. We taste that magicl atmosphere dipped in a dreaming world ... It's just the sunrise, we keeping dreaming lost in magic ...
Agrigento: walking trough Bread Arcs and Macalube Desert - Excursion Diary
Monday Easter 2007 - San Biagio Platani - Easter Arcs.
Every year in this period in San
Biagio, nearby Agrigento, are made decorative arcs of... bread !!!, which
adorning main street in historical centre. It's a feast for eyes and heart, as
far as you can see you look at the
outlines of cathedrals or arabic domes. It's
a way to celebrate the only plentiful thing in the country, earth products, and
also a fertility festivity. We continue our trip in the afternoon with a trek to
Macalube Desert, in
the nearby Aragona. We've found it out in journey diaries of
foreign travellers, who
visited Sicily in XVVIII century. It's a natural show: a vulcan-like activity
without been it. The two mud-water lakes are called
"Macalube
Eyes". The Legend
tells that in ancient times here rose Cartagine Village. A night during a
religious cerimony, a dog in procession outraged the divinity, who buried the
village. Every 7 years the village reappear at midnight . If you buy something
in the stalls it will change in gold, but going away don't look back at the
village, or it will disappear and there will be just the Macalube Eyes.
"I Fantastici Quattro"
"Born in Catania,
I climbed on Etna since I was a child. When I was 16, the first real trek on
Etna mountain took me in Bove Valley. I've imagined it like a big cauldron
totally deserted. What's my surprise when I saw it isn't. There was trees and
vegetation between the rock and the lava. Green and yellow alternated at the
black, and a smal refuge in that paradise. We came down the valley from
Philosopher's Tower above sapienza Refuge, and we went up again from
Acquarocca above Zafferana town. Today the
sight is totally changed, because of the eruption of 1998, and you walk abov a
black lava sea, but it's still more suggestive".
"M. L. Trovato"
A charmed Oasis: Fiumefreddo Reserve
An
amazement place: Sea, sun and a private river, that's Fiumefreddo. A long peeble
beach and a fresh
thicket crossed by the river. This summer the stream cuts across the beach
changing the landscape. You can go up the stream for a brief piece and leave
behind you people and reach a paradise. It seems like an oasis in the desert, a
fantastic place, surrounded by papyruses and reeds, smelling sea flavour and
trees smell. Two different worlds become one, ... a great extraordinary feeling. Have a good trip !!
"Meryluna"
Under Tindari Sanctuary there is an enchanted and solitary beach, the Reserve of Marinello Lakes. Following the indications for Oliveri you can reach the beach. Begin to walk in an extraordinary landscape, deeped in uncountaminated nature you can have birdwatching, or hearing just the sound of sea, that tells you charmed stories ... The entrance at the Reserve is from Marinello Camping, or from the little path on your right before the end of the main street (ending at the Camping). Half an hour and you'll reach a little bay on your right. In a quarter you'll be on the 1st lake, and going on to walk reach the others.
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Last Christmas Holiday week, when the Magi arrive at the cave to visit Jesus we went to Custonaci to see the Living Crib. It's an incredible experience, it seems to do a voyage in the past in XIXth century. The crib is in the prehistorical Scurati (or Mangiapane) Cave. In '800 Mangiapane family built the "Baglio" in front of the cave, formed by cluster of rough stone houses. In 1982 for the first time here took place the Living Crib. Jesus' Birth is inserted in the rural context as it was in nineteen century. The ancient Baglio lives again thanks to men, women, kids and animals. The old equipments turn back to their work and also the spectators are part of this old tradition, deeped in holy atmosphere full of past smells, voices and unforgettable flavours.
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Casentinesi Forest National Park
I can't resist to insert some photos of our summer trip, even if this places isn't in Sicily. That's a tribute to my granny, born and lived here, when she was a child. Casentinesi Forest National Park is in Emilia Romagna and Toscana. It's a bewitched place, in which seems to live elfs, goblins and enchanted creatures, looking after and watching over the woods and its inhabitants, and every one joins the forest, even if just for a second, takes this magical protection going back at home too.
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