The traditional procession on Montevettolini

 With the re-enactment in costume it is renewed the rite of the passion and death of Jesus

On 19 April 2019, Easter Friday, in the ancient village of Montevettolini, the Festa Grossa will be renewed, every three years, alternating between Casalguidi and Quarrata.

 According to popular tradition the devotion dates back to the mid-seventeenth century, when a great plague decimated the inhabitants of the village and stopped only by the intercession of the Crucifix, a wooden work of art of the fourteenth century which, since then, the population dedicated a solemn procession.

With the spread of the practice of the Via Crucis, the procession is the costume re-enactment of the ascent of Christ to Calvary.

Over the years it has also become a tourist attraction thanks to the suggestion that the presence of numerous costumed figures, including many Roman soldiers on horseback, arouses, and to take place at dusk by torchlight along the perimeter of the medieval village.

Many faithful and tourists attend the long procession in silence

. The original crucifix has been replaced, some 20 years ago, by a copy in order to preserve the ancient work of art from possible breaks .

The Festa Grossa includes the re-enactment of the passion and death of Christ, which takes place on Good Friday and the thanksgiving procession which is held from some editions on Easter Monday.

On Easter Friday, at dusk, many people dressed in Roman costume, with shields and spears on foot and on horseback, and many women and men, also in period costume, parade through the streets of the town and along the outer perimeter .

 Usually at 17.00 the religious celebrations begin and at 18.00 h the solemn procession opened by the Cross of the Passion escorted by Roman knights is slowly and silently held.  Following the infantry and the Roman cavalry then the Longinus, that is the Roman soldier who pierced the body of Christ on the cross.

The following compositions present Jesus escorted by soldiers and the Cyrene that carries the cross that Judah follows that counts the money.

 The children carry the symbols of the mysteries of the cross, the girls in black with the seven swords, symbols of the sorrows of the Virgin, open the next section of the procession which presents the procession of the Pious Women with the Veronica and then the Madonna with Saint John.

The parade ends with the girls in black, the clergy, the parish choir, the banners with the last phrases of Jesus on the cross, then the Compagnie of SS. Sacramento.  

The statue of the dead Jesus closes the historical representation: from the 1930s it replaced the Crucifix, which is currently carried in a procession only for the Thanksgiving holiday on Easter Monday. 

Population follows the procession until the return to the village square. 

 On Monday the festival takes on, in addition to the religious meaning with the rites and the procession with the copy of the wooden crucifix also that of the village folk festival.

At 23 fireworks, at the end of the three-year manifestation.

Women and men traveling around the country and the surrounding areas are responsible for collecting offers.

 A free shuttle bus service allows you to reach Montevettolini without the use of a car, which remains forbidden during the celebrations times.

17 March 2019