Holy Week holiday
PASSION PLAY | Sicilian town stages Dance of the Devils every Easter as morality tale, pay day for local kids
It's Easter Sunday in the Sicilian town of Prizzi. Devils are dancing. Death is everywhere. "Death" actually is a big Italian guy in an even bigger yellow jumpsuit. He's wearing a macabre mask and toting a wooden crossbow.
His devil buddies are similarly decked out in red costumes with giant heads and Lucifer-like horns.
For centuries, these symbols of evil have spent Easter Sunday running up and down the medieval streets of Prizzi, randomly plucking people out of the crowd to dance with them and thereby "capture" their souls.
No chocolate bunnies or Easter eggs here. This is more like Halloween, and it's fascinating to watch.
Prizzi's Dance of the Devils is just one the many spectacles that engrosses Sicily during Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Seemingly every town on this uber-Catholic island has some kind of festival or procession in honor of Christ's final days on the planet.
I had the chance to check out some of the best of these displays this time last year during my honeymoon in Sicily. Attending religious events isn't your typical honeymoon pastime, but my Sicilian-American husband and I couldn't resist working a couple of these Easter experiences into our itinerary.
From what little I could find about it on the Internet, the Dance of the Devils sounded bizarre enough to justify a visit to out-of-the-way Prizzi, a tiny village close to the even tinier village of Palazzo Adriano, the famous setting for the 1988 Oscar Award-winning film "Cinema Paradiso."
We drove our rental car onto Prizzi's ancient, steep streets early this sunny Easter morning not really knowing what to expect.
I know I didn't expect this: Out of nowhere, a small group of mean-looking kids in red and yellow costumes jumped in front of our car, menacingly rattling chains and blocking our way. One knocked on the driver's side window and held out his hands -- the international gesture for "give me money." It was like "The Sopranos" meets "Sesame Street."
Not about to be extorted by a bunch of third-graders, we repeatedly shook our heads no and held our ground until the hoodlums eventually got bored and let us pass.
"What a bunch of brats," I said to my husband.
We parked the car and started walking to the town center when a few more costumed con artists attempted another shakedown.
"No! No!" we said, shooing them away, annoyed and confused. We just wanted to see some devils dance, not get stuck at the center of a juvenile crime ring.
We eventually figured out that these attempted robberies are all in good fun, thanks to the help of a young, raven-haired Sicilian lady who spoke English. She told us it's tradition for children to get dressed up and roam the streets acting like they're up to no good. You're supposed to play along and throw them some spare change.
Oops.
This same spirit of mischief pervades Prizzi's Dance of the Devils, where grown men dressed in costumes representing Death and devils spend the afternoon wreaking havoc through the packed streets. While a roving band plays music, these comically grotesque mascots pull people from the crowd for a short dance. This means two things: 1.) The devil now has your soul and 2.) You have some excellent footage for your vacation video.
As the town slowly, symbolically gets taken over by evil, rest assured: the forces of good are rallying. On one end of the crowded main street, a shrouded statue of the Virgin Mary waits. On the other end is a statue of Jesus. The statues gradually move toward one another as the festivities rage on.
When the pair of statues eventually come together, Mary's black shroud falls to the ground -- as does Death and his merry band of dancing devils. Good conquers evil, festival's over and people head home or, more likely, back into the bar. It's way more fun than an Easter egg hunt.
Western Sicily also is home to one of the world's most famous Holy Week events, the Procession of the Misteri. It's held two days before Easter on Good Friday in the seaside city of Trapani.
The "Misteri" are a collection of 20 ornate statues that represent scenes from the Passion and death of Christ. These historic carvings are kept in Trapani's Church of the Purgatory except on Good Friday, when they're festooned with extravagant floral arrangements and solemnly paraded through town for hours on end -- a custom that's more than 400 years old.
Bands play a type of funeral march while more than a dozen men hoist wooden platforms on their shoulders to carry each of the statues on a nearly one-mile circuit through town. The men gently sway to the somber music as they balance their heavy cargo into the night and following morning.
Residents perch on their balconies for a view of the show below, and thousands of onlookers line the streets to watch the story of Christ's suffering unfold before their eyes.
The life-sized statues of the Misteri depict in painstaking detail the betrayal, beating and crucifixion of Jesus. Despite the subject material, the procession is anything but depressing. Something this achingly beautiful and historic can't help but be uplifting.
It's well worth going out of your way to see it, even if you're on your honeymoon.