Each town in Puglia has its devotional rites, its procession, its statues, the poignant funeral marches, according to a ritual that has consolidated over the centuries and is repeated on time. By reviewing the rites, it is noted that between the different places there are always identical basic aspects, such as the exchange of olive branches for Palm Sunday or the composition of the Sepulchres.
In Noicattaro, during the whole Lent, a pile of wood accumulates in the churchyard of the Lama. The stack is lit on Holy Thursday, perhaps to warm the participants in the rite of the Sepulchres, the Via Crucis which begins after the announcement of Jesus' death sentence. The Via Crucis is led by the Crociferi, barefoot penitents whose identity remains hidden. behind hoods, which self-flag and carry large red candles, symbol of the blood of Christ. The same candles placed on the balconies and windows of the houses express the participation in pain on the part of the religious community. At the same time, the procession of the dead Christ also starts, that of the Addolorata desperately looking for her son in all the churches of the city and the procession of the ten Mysteries with statues that recall the stations of the Via Crucis.
In Maglie a procession is set up in which the protagonists are boys crowned with thorns pulling a loved one on whom the Calvary is represented. On their way, the boys beat the doors of the richest houses with stones. It is probably a warning to repentance addressed to wealthy families.
Through the streets of Troia , three processions start at the same time: the procession of the chains, so called because of the heavy chains that hooded penitents drag, the procession of the Addolorata and that of Christ on the Cross. The processions travel the streets of the city without ever meeting, thus representing the unbridgeable distance between earthly life and the afterlife.
Among the rites of Holy Week, those that take place in Vico del Gargano stand out for the strangely playful and festive aspect represented by the Crazy Mass. At dawn on Good Friday, the processions of the Sepulchres start, each with its own statue of Our Lady of Sorrows followed by a dense procession of women dressed in mourning singing the Miserere. Each time the processions cross each other, the song becomes louder as if to overwhelm the others.
At the end of the procession, Holy Mass is celebrated and it is during the liturgy that all the devotees begin a ritual of apparent profanation, the youngest shake their troccole producing an infernal noise with screams and songs at the top of their lungs. The rite ends on the height of the Calvary of the Five Crosses where the meeting between the Addolorata and Christ takes place. A voice in the silence shouts "Long live the Cross" and gives way to a series of songs that overlap annoyingly. The resulting chaos represents the upheaval that Christ's death will bring to earth.
In Bitonto on the night of Holy Wednesday, two city bands run through the streets of the city. They symbolize Mary and Jesus and just as the Addolorata cannot find her son, in the same way the two gangs will never have to meet. The Good Friday procession dates back to 1200, starting from the church of Purgatory to the sound of drums and flutes. The procession consists of three statues, that of the Dead Christ decorated in pure gold, of the Addolorata carved in olive wood and illuminated with 111 candles, and of the Holy Wood. The latter is a small temple overflowing with lights and flowers where a reliquary consisting of a splinter of the cross of Christ enclosed in a large cross of silver and crystal finds shelter. The procession takes place in an almost ghostly atmosphere. The public lighting and the lights of the houses are turned off and on the sides of the streets, crossed by the procession, braziers of wood and pitch are lit.
The devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows in Gallipoli is particularly felt and dates back to the 15th century. The Easter rites begin with the commemoration of the Seven Sorrows of Mary on the Friday before Palm Sunday, known as "Friday of the Addolorata" or "Vennardia te la Matonna". The procession kicks off to the dark sound of the drum lined in mourning accompanied by a trumpet blast which is said to evoke the cry of the Madonna in search of her son. After a short journey, the procession stops inside the Cathedral of Sant'Agata, for a long mass that ends with the execution, in alternate years, of either the Stabat Mater or the sacred oratory known as "Le Frottole" composed by the Gallipoli master Francesco Luigi Bianco. The procession continues through the streets of the city until the most evocative and moving moment when the Virgin, from the bastion of the "Bombarda" gives the blessing to the sea. The simulacrum of the Madonna is a wonderful eighteenth-century statue traditionally dressed by a local noble family with a robe quilted with delicate gold embroidery, a long veil covering her shoulders and a silver crown that surmounts her head. On Holy Thursday, the altar of the Reposition, the Sepulcher, is set up with candles, draperies and wheat plates, while the "li mai" processions parade through the streets, the brotherhoods that go to visit the tombs of the other brotherhoods. The visit to the tombs by the brotherhoods is a manifestation of worship, an ancient tradition and an act due by statute. On Good Friday "three hours before sunset", in memory of the hour when Jesus dies, the procession of the "de dell'Urnia" comes out accompanied by the brothers of the Holy Crucifix dressed in a blue mozzetta, a red hood and a symbolic crown of thorns on the head. On Holy Saturday the pain for the dead Christ is represented with the procession of Maria Desolata. The most touching moment is that of the meeting between the virgin and the deceased son, for the final greeting in front of the church of Purity.
In Canosa , the period dedicated to Easter rites lasts longer. The first appointment is already on the Friday preceding Holy Week with the procession of the Addolorata, which generally takes place on Good Friday elsewhere. The procession lasts until late in the evening because the bearers are forced to stop continuously to allow the faithful to tie the black veil of the statue, the offerings in money or gold. Also suggestive is the procession of the Desolata on Holy Saturday, unique of its kind. The statue of the Desolate is preceded by a group of children carrying the tools of the martyrdom of Christ, followed by the choir of young women, some barefoot, dressed in black and with their faces covered singing a very moving “Stabat Mater”.
A particular devotion is reserved to Trani to Our Lady of Sorrows, whose statue is carried in procession on the night of Good Friday. It is said that during an assault by the Turks, these, as a sign of contempt, placed a rope around her neck and tried to take her away but the statue began to bleed and the frightened Turks ran away. The procession of the Mysteries on Holy Saturday is also in memory of a miracle of a host that became bloody and took place around the year 1000.
One of the oldest processions takes place in Andria on Good Friday . . It is that of the Mysteries: through the streets of the city, preceded by twenty crosses, the statues that tell the passion and the Holy Thorn of the crown placed on the head of Christ, a miraculous relic that when Good Friday coincides with on the day of the Annunciation he reddens, reviving the bloodstains. The twenty crosses that precede the statues are made of wood, extremely heavy and show painted images of Christ crucified and the instruments of the passion, the whip, the nails, the crown of thorns. The simulacra are decorated according to the inventiveness of the bearers, the crucifers, with olive branches, flowering almond or peach branches and illuminated vaults. The oldest wooden cross is dated to 1850.
