“Il festivo,” which takes place on the evening of July 14, is a big street party that unifies Palermo’s citizens through a procession that symbolically purifies the city from the evils that have long afflicted it. For this annual celebration, each year Palermo commissions a new statue to represent its patron saint, Santa Rosalia. Like last year’s statue, pictured, the 2016 representation of “la Santuzza” will be marched in a triumphal chariot by the populous from the Cathedral to the port by way of Via Vittorio Emanuele II.
What a fabulous celebration! It amazes me that they will commission a new statue every year and then parade it through the streets. Wow, just wow. <3
It’s a beautiful, unifying party for a city that has been plagued by much malice over the centuries. The newness of the statue removes attachment to the past.