• Effems

The rites of the Holy Week of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto are a cycle of typical popular religious events. Event registered in the Register of Intangible Heritage of the Sicilian region since October 20, 2008.^[1][2]

• 400th anniversary of the first reconstruction carried out in Pozzo di Gotto in 1621.

The Procession of the Mysteries or Procession of the Varettes, statuary groups representing certain salient episodes of the Passion of Christ, is of Iberian origin and dates back to the 16th century during the Spanish domination in the Kingdom of Sicily.

The Good Friday processions or Office of the Passion or Passion processions or Station of the Cross (or Via Crucis), culminating with the phase of Procession of burial of Jesus Christ, also known as entierro or burial of Jesus.

Procession of the Mysteries of Good Friday in Pozzo di Gotto in 1621.
Procession of the Varettes on Good Friday in Barcellona in 1871.

In 1835 the two towns of the province of Messina, Barcellona and Pozzo di Gotto, united into a single municipality maintaining their own traditional procession for each.

Even today, in fact, two similar processions take place on Good Friday, of which that of Pozzo di Gotto is older, while that of Barcellona is more recent, as it appears by emulation of the previous one and is dated to 1871, when, at the initiative of the church of Sain John the Baptist, some families of Barcellona decided to finance the construction of the varettes, this is what the statuary groups are called.

• Fridays of Lent: On these days, the «Pious Exercises of the Stations of the Cross» and the resumption of the singing of the Visilla take place at the church of Jesus and Mary, at the church of the Capuchins, at the Oratory of the Purging Souls, at the Auditorium of Saint-Guy, at the church of Saint John the Baptist, at the church of Notre-Dame de Fátima, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
• V Sunday of Lent, Time of Passion: Velatio of crosses and sacred images in places of worship.
• Passion Week: last week of Lent according to the liturgical calendar of the Roman rite.
  • Friday of Sorrow or Friday of the Passion, today called Friday of the Council: Heritage derived from ancient Iberian traditions equivalent to the Viernes de Dolores or Viernes de Pasión of Passion Week, the last period of Lent.
  • Passion Saturday derived from Sábado de Pasión.
  • Palm Sunday: commemoration of the messianic entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and blessing of the palms.
• Holy Week or Major Week.
  • Good Wednesday: "Rite of deposition of the Ecce Homo" and meeting of the Visillanti of Barcellona and Pozzo di Gotto, at the church of Jesus and Mary of Pozzo di Gotto.
  • Maundy Thursday: In all churches during the Missa in cena Domini the rite of washing of the feet is celebrated. In particular, the procession of the Apostles begins from the dome of Assumption of Mary of Pozzo di Gotto with a visit to the citizens. The procession is accompanied by the singing support of the Visillanti.
  • Good Friday: In all parishes, the Passion of the Lord, in the ecclesial liturgical form of the Passio recited , is reconstituted as a «reading» of texts taken from the Gospels. Then comes the symbolic binding of bells, instruments formerly replaced by the sound of the traccoles, the stripping and browning of the altars. To Pozzo di Gotto: Dressing the Jews. The Passio figurative or Procession of the Varettes: during the two distinct processions the Passio recited and commented by the ministers who preside over them alternate and overlap with the Passio sung interpreted by the Visillanti to the song of the Visilla ("Vexilla Regis Prodeunt ...") by Venantius Fortunatus.
  • Holy Saturday or Saturday of Glory: The Easter Vigil takes place in all parishes.
  • Easter Sunday: The procession of the Meeting between the Risen Christ and Mary takes place in the parish of Oreto.
• Easter Monday:
  • in the morning, the solemn mass and the repositioning of the Ecce Homo are celebrated at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Barcellona.
  • in the evening, at the church of Jesus and Mary of Pozzo di Gotto the solemn mass is celebrated and repositioned in the niche of the Ecce Homo.
• Sunday in albis .