The Holy Week

The Catholic world remembers with particular devotion the days that, according to the Gregorian calendar, precede and follow the death and resurrection of Christ. They are intimate celebrations whose meaning keeps alive the memory of the dramatic and exciting events that saw Jesus Christ first victim of a humiliating trial, then the ordeal and death on the cross and then a glorious redemption with the resurrection and ascension.

Castiglion Fiorentino celebrates these anniversaries throughout the entire Holy Week, organizing not one but three processions.
The first, on Tuesday, recalls the capture of Jesus in Gethsemane.
The second, on Wednesday, recalls the episode of flagellation. Here it should be noted that in a time not so remote it was common practice among participants to whip oneself to blood; still today there is a less blooded tradition to participate to the various processions barefoot.
Finally there is the one on Friday, as is customary ecumenical, that commemorates the death of the Lord.

That's not all, however: the three processions find their ideal epilogue on the night of Saturday, when members of the many brotherhoods come together for that singular event called Volata (big push). At midnight, when in the Collegiate the priest intones the "Gloria", the wooden statue depicting “the risen Christ” makes its entry into the temple and, accompanied and driven by several brothers, crosses the nave of the church in a frantic race, between two wings of festive crowd, and stops under the main altar in a riot of rings of trumpets, bells and outbreaks of crackers in the square outside.

Since 1954 the Castiglionesi organize, in the days of Saturday and Sunday of Easter (in alternate years) a “sacred representation of the passion and death of Jesus” on texts by Angelo Tafi, which is the result of studies and researches on Gospels in the light of recent and innovative interpretations.

Where: Castiglion Fiorentino. Streets, squares and churches in the historical town centre
When: The week of Easter
Admission: Free