I was on the second floor balcony of Palazzo Notar Nicchi, overlooking Polizzi's main street when the town's numerous confraternities, moving slowly to the mournful music of the village band, turned the corner and came into view. They were followed by the village's new communicants.

A sole drummer, caped in red, led the procession.

The Satin Canopy

The new communicants, followed in single file and hugged the edges of narrow Via Garibaldi. 

And the entourage of the bejewelled and robed priest, sheltering under a canopy of yellow satin, followed slowly. The town’s dignitaries, in full uniform, were behind.

With an almost scripted precision, a woman tossed a dozen or so red rose petals from a balcony opposite. They landed in the centre of the soft canopy.

Children robed in white

Each communicant, robed in white, carried a long stemmed white lily: the Madonna lily, a symbol of humility, purity and virtue since antiquity.

The lily was fitting. Last Sunday Polizzi Generosa celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi; it is also the festive day when Catholic children take the sacrament of First Holy Communion.

A gaze and muffled prayers

As the communicants paraded, one of them, a boy in a light grey Sicilian coppola: a traditional Sicilian flat brimmed cap, looked up to the balcony of Palazzo Notar Nicchi and gazed with ease into the camera. His animated face caught my eye.

They filed under the balcony and continued past, the lowering sun silhouetted the procession.

The muted music and prayers could be heard in the distance as the procession continued through the village down Via Vinci Guerra, a street or two behind Palazzo Notar Nicchi.

Salve,

Suzanne