Every city in the great Catholic nation of Italy has a patron saint, and the past few days have marked the celebration of Santa Agatha, the Resident Saint here in Catania. Such celebrations include (shockingly) many parades, street festivals, and of course, food.
On Monday, we were invited to the beautiful family home of Gregorio (aka Greg, or T.O. as in Terrill Owens), to watch the parade and have lunch. In my head I flashed back to the only real parade in my life, where as a drummer for the 9th grade band at Ferrucci Junior High School I got to march – wearing the smallest, itchy-est sweater one could ever dream of – in Puyallup’s Daffodil Parade. I was also thinking an American lunch – perhaps some sandwiches, maybe even a salad. Boy was I ever wrong – in BOTH cases.
We were treated to one of the most amazing 3 hour, multi-course lunches while watching a parade of thousands go by – and this was just the section of the parade in our neighborhood. After snacking on some nuts, local chips, and beverages, we were provided the first course of appetizers, consisting of bread, parmigiano cheese, breadsticks, and olivette de agatha – or bright green “gum-drop” type candies in the shape of an olive, served with or without a dark chocolate shell.
The main course followed about an hour later, consisting of multiple pasta dishes and much more. The central dish was a ‘traditional’ pasta, only served on this day, called, “Cinque bucci” (literal translation: five holes) – a great tasting noodle with tomato sauce.
The deserts were – as always – to die for. I opted to go with a chocolate covered biscuit filled with you guessed it – more chocolate. There were also many friend options covered in powdered sugar that would give any mini-donut or elephant-ear maker in North America a run for its money.
The parade itself was quite a site as well. Watching from one of the 8 balconies (their beautiful condo covers the entire second floor of a large building – note to self: when in Catania, the older the building, the more modern the inside is!), we saw the procession of many golden ‘shrines’ followed by the main “float” (for lack of better North American equivalent) – complete with a talking priest. George noted that all Catholic priests around the world share the same love of talking.
While I heard multiple explanations of the celebration, the closest I could gather is that Saint Agatha was a 3rd century girl who was executed by a Roman emperor after refusing to be one of his many wives/servants. Years later, when the lava from Mount Etna was closing in on Catania, her cloak was put in the path of the lava and it instantly stopped… thus sparing the town. (Perhaps our Defensive Line could borrow said cloak? And isn’t “cloak” a cool word that we seldom get to use?!) People also dress in White Cloaks (yes, 4 times in one paragraph!) and black hats to commemorate the fact that when her bones were delivered back to the city after her death, it was midnight and people came running out in their PJ’s. Do you think if Agatha was killed today, centuries later people would wear baggy t-shirts and boxers with flowers on them?
The other ritual is for people to buy candles and burn them as a “thank you” to Saint Agatha for answered prayers. Let me tell you – if you think Bath & Body sells candles, you haven’t seen anything like this. The larger the candle, the bigger prayer that was answered. I saw some guys walking down the street with 6-foot tall candles, but I thought they might get uncomfortable if I asked what their prayer was.
All in all, this was a really cool “slice” of Sicily that I got to participate in, and as always, ate lots of great food, met some great people, and took more pictures than necessary!
~ J. Twice
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