Piana degli Albanesi – Songs and Costumes
The ceremonies of the Holy Week of Piana degli Albanesi possess, for precise historical and cultural reasons, a different character from that of the other ceremonies of the island. They in fact, derived from the liturgical tradition of Catholicism of greek-Byzantine rite imported into Sicily in the 15th century by settlers from the Balkan Peninsula.
The program of celebrations, officiate in the church both in Greek and in Albanian language, begins on Friday before the Palm Sunday with the celebration of the Resurrection of Lazarus, characterized by the execution of the song of Lazarus, performed in Albanian language first in the cathedral and later in the old town by groups of young people going from house to house getting cakes and eggs. It is a veritable song of begging. On Palm Sunday, starting from the Church of St. Anthony the Great, there is a procession with the Bishop, representing Jesus, on the back of a donkey, followed by priests and deacons with woven palm branches in their hands and women in a traditional black dress.
On Holy Friday, inside the Cathedral, the statue of Christ is laid down by the cross and stretched out to the altar which represents the sepulcher at the Simeron Kremate. In the afternoon the women, mourning the death of Christ, singing in front of his body the dirges (Vajtimet), and begins a procession inside the temple.
The procession ends where it started.
Similar Rites can also be found in Mezzojuso, Palazzo Adriano, Contessa Entellina, Santa Cristina Gela, other centers where traces of the solemnity of Byzantine-Catholic celebrations persist.