Type of event: Rites of Holy Week
Date of event: during March/April
Location: Sorrento and the Peninsula of Sorrento
Holy Week is an eagerly awaited moment for the inhabitants of Sorrento and of the Peninsula, in which history and ancient traditions take on life through the vast evocative processions that take place on the city streets.
The roots of these processions are ancient and are traced back probably to 1500. In those times, it was the tradition that fraternal orders visited local churches and monasteries on the evening of Holy Thursday, where Easter sepulchers had been prepared.
This tradition continued to this day and represents an essential motive for the celebration of Easter.
The task of organising the various Processions of Holy Week in Sorrento, which occur between Holy Thursday and Good Friday, fall to the numerous lay fraternal orders which for centuries proclaim the evangelical message of love and charity towards our neigbhours.
There are two principal events that are carried out in the city of Sorrento: one is carried out in the heart of the night between Thursday and Friday and the other, on the night of Good Friday.
Other than the two processions in Sorrento, are the numerous processions in the other Peninsula communities, totaling sixteen: three at Sant’Agnello, seven at Piano di Sorrento, three at Meta, two at Massa Lubrense and one at Vico Equense.
Still today, the processions of Holy Week can not be considered merely folkloristic events but a testimony to the profound attachment to religious roots of the local inhabitants.
List of the principle processions:
- White Procession Sorrento – Confraternity of Saint Monica;
- Black Procession Piano di Sorrento – Confraternity of the Dead and Oration;
- Black Procession Sant’Agnello – Confraternity of the Mountain of the Dead of the Saints Prisco and Agnello;
- Red Procession Piano di Sorrento – Confraternity of the Pilgrims and Convalescents of SS Trinity;
- White Procession of the Josephites of Sorrento – Confraternity of the Heart of Mary and Saint Joseph.
