386th Santa Rosalia Festival in Palermo

Submitted by Tonya Puleo on Wed, 2011-06-29 09:28

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Each year summer in Palermo is marked with a both religious and profane festival, Santa Rosalia, with this year reaches its 386th festival.

Each year, the entire city of Palermo celebrates the festival of the patron saint, Santa Rosalia, between July 10 and 15, with a programme rich in events including horse shows and holy and pagan celebrations with a spectacular climax taking place at the procession on July 14.

The festival of Santa Rosalia, known in dialect as the “Fistino”, is one of the major religious festivals in Sicily and a special event for the city of Palermo, where its citizens take to the streets to celebrate the patron saint. Each year the procession is followed by pilgrims, eager to witness to passing of the statue, photographers, tourists and groups of young people celebrating with beer and “babbaluci” (boiled snails garnished with garlic and flat-leaf parsley).

Food specialities are a big part of local celebrations, especially in cities like Palermo. If you want to try out some of the local dishes popular during the “Fistino”, take a walk around the historic markets of the city (Capo, Ballarò, Vucciria) where you will find pasta with sardines, “sfincione”, a local type of pizza, boiled octopus and refreshing watermelon. While walking around enjoy “scaccio” which are dried chick peas and pumpkin seeds locally known as “calia e simenza”, which you can buy from numerous vendors or in the historic shops of Via Torremuzza.

Santa Rosalia, affectionately known by locals as “Santuzza” was a noble lady, Rosalia Sinibaldi, who lived in the 12th century under the rule of King Roger. She lived her life as a hermit in a cave in Mount Pellegrino. In 1624, Palermo was sieged with the plague: one night a soap-maker, Vincenzo Bonello, had a vision in a dream of Rosalia who revealed where her remains lay and invited him to carry them in a procession which would oust the “black death” from the city.

Citizens of Palermo freed from the plague and commemorate her each year with a “Triumphal” wagon, which is different each year and created by contemporary artists and carries a statue of the saint in a procession through the streets from the Norman Palace crossing Corso Vittorio Emanuele (the ancient Cassaro axis) until the seafront. At midnight, a colourful hour-long fireworks display concludes the celebrations.