Sicily Easter festival
 

Looking for ideas to see an Easter Festival somewhere in Eastern Sicily? Also, which days will stores/ruins be closed.
Thanks

Trapani in western Sicily is the place for an Easter festival.My daughter is presently studying in Siracusa (Ortigia) and everything is supposedly shut on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday in terms of shopping and most of the restaurants.Most of the smaller towns outside of Catania will be closed on those days.

In Enna - Good Friday THE BEST I have seen on the island!
Good Friday and Easter Monday are National Holidays.
Religous play (from 1728) on Easter Sunday in Adrano
Procession on Good Friday in Bronte
Celebration Tuesday through Easter Sunday in Caltagirone
Re-enactment on Good Friday in Militello Val di Catania
Monreale celebrates the beginning of Spring on Easter Monday when the monks of the Benedictine abbey in San Martino delle Scale free the birds who have been sheltered there through the Winter. This celebration includes an organ concert, Gregorian chants and folklore displays.
Easter procession in Partanna Mondello suburb of Palermo the Sunday before Easter.
Prizzi hold a celebration on Easter with the traditional dance of the devils.
Procession on Good Friday in Randazzo
In Easter week, San Biagio Platani is decorated with high, brightly colored arches over the streets. They are very impressive!

dutyfree is correct in saying Trapani’s Good Friday Processione dei Misteri is one of the most famous in Italy and very good!

Thanks for the tips. Enna sounds interesting. Is the festival in the afternoon? Should I plan on spending Friday night there?

Mutz-truly sorry for taking over your thread for a moment but wanted to thank Mousireid for all the help in getting my daughter to Sicily. She is really enjoying living over there and I fear may not come back??? She LOVES living in Ortigia with the fresh markets,simpler life(lack of central heating) and wonderful people. Her past two months have included everything from skiing Mt. Etna to taking a 6 week Sicilian food and wine course out in the countryside.It has truly lived up to all her expectations and beyond. Thanks for all your help last year when deciding on studying in Sicily. Now back to Mutz and the Easter festivals..........

Mutz-
I just read in the paper here in Sicly that "some of the must-see processions and religious performances" of Enna are;

1) Celebrations open on April 9 with a procession leaving from Papardura Sanctuary at 9am.

2) In the afternoon a procession led by the Confraternity of the Passion is performed in the historic center (no time is given).

3) On Good Friday April 14 at 4:30 the "Confraternity of the Passion" begins the procession carrying the 24 symbols of Jesus martyrdom that are called mysteries. They include the cross, the purse with thirty silver coins, the crown, the lantern, the rooster, the nails, and the scourges. The procession leaves the Church of Saint Leonardo and head towards the Duomo. As the confraternity proceeds along via Roma fourteen other Confraternite join this mournful parade. Over 2,000 hooded penitents parade in complete silence until they reach the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows where a statue depicting the Virgin Mary is preserved. The statue is then taken to the cathedral where an urn containing a statue of dead Christ was previously placed. At 7pm the procession leaves from the cathedral and reaches the Church of St. Paolini near the cemetery, where a benedicion is given with the Reliquary cross, which according to the tradition encloses a thorn from the crown of Christ.

4) On Easter Sunday Pasqua (Easter) is celebrated at the church of S. Salvatore at 10am.

5) at 6pm The Paci (Peace) ceremony begins. The two statues of Jesus and his mother are carried on the shoulders of cconfraternity members and taken from thechurches of S Salvatore and S. Giuseppe to piazza Mazzini where the Paci is staged.

It also gives the Enna tourist office tel # 0935-528288. I do not know if they speak English.

I have never been, but plan on going to the Good Friday event. I hope you'll be able to make it. It sounds wonderful.