Memorial Day Weekend Part 1: Festa di Santa Croce in Casteltermini

For Memorial Day weekend, since Jason had the whole four days off, we decided to take advantage of the break and take our first ITT tour from the base. To our knowledge, we were only going to see the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, but to our surprise, we got to do two trips in one. There was a town close to Agrigento that was having a catholic/historic festival that same day. Because I am documenting our time here in Italy through pictures on this blog, there will be alot to go through. I split the trip up into two posts... one for each stop. This is the smaller of the two.

The festival we went to was the festa di Santa Croce and the Sagra Del Tatarata in Casteltermini. The festival is to celebrate a cross that was found in the 17th century. Recently the cross was carbon dated by an institute in Pisa and the construction of the cross dates back to the 1st century A.D. The town celebrates by dressing up in period costumes and parading a replica of the cross through the town, visiting the actual cross in the small church were it is housed, and watching the dancers of the Tatarata. The Tatarata is from traditional Arab style that comes from the folklore of Sicily.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

This is Aidan on the bus... It was a long ride and she was in anticipation of seeing the temples from the time we left the base at 7am.

Aidan and Jason walking up to the small church on the top of the mountain in Casteltermini.

A tile mural for Santa Croce (these tile murals are very common throughout Sicily).

This is the actual cross, housed in the church.

These are the doors to the church... I thought they were very interesting.

Here is a view from the side of the church.

Aidan was having fun picking up the leaves from the ground and sticking her tongue out at us.

Here is the church... and some of our tour group.

Each town has a monument in the city-center. This one had wreaths in honor of the festival.

Aidan and I waiting for the parade to start. The bleachers were metal and extremely hot... It was over 90 degrees. Luckily I am the planner I am and made a canopy out of an old sheet to hang over the stroller to keep Aidan cool, filled our Camelbaks with ice and water, brought copious amounts of sunscreen, and several changes of clothes. (I might have overdone it.)

Aidan really liked the idea of drinking water through the tube from a backpack.

This is one view from the Piazza Duomo (church square), this is the campanile (belltower).

We picked up sodas at a bar so that we could use their bathroom. Aidan decided she wanted the soda instead of the water. Jason was busy watching the hoards of people filing out of mass.

Aidan getting ready for the parade to start...

Now I don't know for sure, but I think the processionals are paid for by town contributors... This is one of the families with their shrine to the cross... the head of the family reminded me of a movie mafioso with his dark glasses and shiny suit surrounded by his family.

This is the beginning of the Tatarata's dance.

The dance of the Tatarata.

The processional of royalty. (The festival used to be class segregated.)

Il Duomo (the cathedral).

This was another monument in the town... The grouping was interesting, and the face of the screaming man at the bottom.

And that was the end of our visit to Casteltermini and the festa di Santa Croce. Stay tuned for the next installment of Memorial Day photos... It takes me forever to upload them because of our slow internet on base. Until then... Ciao.