Castelvetrano – the Aurora
At Castelvetrano on Saturday afternoon before Palm Sunday, from the Mother Church begins a procession of the simulacrum of Our Lady of Sorrows that passes through the town. This procession is called “Mary who goes in search of Jesus“. The route ends at the Church of the Addolorata. On Palm Sunday there is the blessing of the olive and palm branches at the Church of the Madonna del Carmine.
Following a short procession, attended by the congregations, the faithful, and a young man representing Jesus escorted by the twelve apostles, that ends in the Church of Santa Rosalia.
Easter is the day of the anticipated encounter between the Mother and the Risen One, the Aurora (so-called because it was in the past at dawn), whose execution methods date back to the mid-seventeenth century and to the initiative of the Carmelite fathers. The meeting takes place at 9.30 am at Carlo d’Aragona Square. On two opposite sides of the square are placed the Madonna and Christ. An angel, worn on four men’s shoulders, crosses the square from one end to the other in search of the Risen One and, after finding it, brings the news to Mother.
The scene is repeated three times and at the last announcement the Mother approaches the Son, abandoning the black mantle that covers her and, thanks to a special mechanism, widen her arms to embrace him. It’s a triumph: the bells sound, while the crowd is joyful. At the end of the ceremony, the two statues fall into the Mother Church.