Procession
by Giuseppe Alfaro

Sorrento, on Good Friday, changes its aspect: through the narrow streets of the historical centre you will not hear the voices of tourists but the solemn music of the funeral marches, the streets will not be invaded by cars but by long files of hooded people, the lights of the sign-boards will give its place to the lighted torches at the windows. In the whole peninsula not less than thirty processions are organized on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. In Sorrento two processions are organized: the first one departing from the Annunziata church is the Solemn Procession of the Visit to the “Sepolcri”, organized by the Main Confraternity of Saint Monica it is also known as the “White” procession because of the colour of dresses and hoods worn by the participants and takes place in the heart of the night between Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  According to the popular interpretation, the Virgin Mary is looking for Her Son, who has been taken prisoner and sentenced to death. On the night of Good Friday, on the contrary, from the Church of the servants of the Virgin Mary, parts the funeral of the Dead Christ. The hooded people of the Main Confraternity of Death, dressed in black as well as the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, that is carried in the procession, follow the sculpture of the Dead Christ representing the finding of the Son by His Mother. If the first one is certainly more evocative and impressive also because it takes place in the darkest hours of the night, the second one is more solemn. Both present an anologous development.  The processions are opened by the music band playing the sad and solemn notes of the funeral marches. And then there are the symbols of the confraternity: the “pannetto” (roll) and the “vela” (sail), the small Crosses, carried mainly by children, and the mysteries, symbols of the Passion of Christ ascending to the Golgota. The hooded people who walk slowly and solemnly are more than five hundred, everything in the dark with only the light of the lamps and torches, giving the procession an atmosphere  of unique misticism. It will be difficult to hold our emotion hearing the Miserere, modulated  by two hundred singers, asking, with a Davidian psalm, the God’s pardon for the sins of humanity. But the most touching moment is when the Virgin  Mary statue is carried in procession following Her Son, whose  statue is a real masterpiece of the 18th century  sculptured in wood . Of an unknown author, the statue of the Dead Christ, visible in the Church of the Servants  of Mary, could have been made, according to the popular legend, by a man condemned to death who took refuge in the Church of the Main confraternity of Death and payed his debt with the confratelli making  this real masterpiece. It is difficult to explain to a foreign  visitor the deep meaning ofthese processions for the Sorrentine people far from being a folkloristic evidence they are together popular faith, tradition, love to the own historical and cultural roots. Don’t be surprised if in the heart of the  night you see small children taking flowers to the statue to  Our Lady of Sorrows. Don’t be surprised if groups of children, at four o ‘clock in the morning have the strength and voice enough to break the silence  of the night singing with all their lungs the hymn to the Lady of Sorrows. It is the tradition going on. It is the continuation of a ritual made before by their parents and grand parents. For Sorrentine people the appointing with the processions  is unmissable and represent the essential meaning of Easter. Once the procession  has ended and it goes back to church good willings are exchanged. Attending them leaves a deep mark in the soul  of the most distracted or nonbelieving spectators.