Peter, the apostle of the junta. Caltagirone - Sicily

I want to tell you another story.
That of Peter, the apostle of the junta ...
Always in the collective imagination, the Easter party is linked to the memory of St. Peter who runs to announce to Our Lady that Jesus has risen. His figure, imposing and joyous, begins the Feast according to a ritual, almost intimate and reserved, handed down by the family who, with devotion and respect, keeps it during the year. The dressing of the statue, his arrival in the Church, his wandering around the city and his return after the breakaway, are something that not everyone knows and that is worth telling ...
Thanks go to the Municipality of Caltagirone, to the people of the Mayor Gino Ioppolo and his friend Antonio Montemagno, to the families Pavone, Montaudo and Pagliazzo for their patience and maximum availability.
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Of ancient tradition is "'A Giunta", dominated by a gigantic figure of Saint Peter who reaches Piazza Municipio from the homonymous Church, to go to meet the Risen Jesus and announce it to his mother Mary. From this meeting the denomination 'a Giunta. Easter Sunday in Caltagirone is a big and popular festival that takes place outdoors, through the city streets.
It consists of two moments 'in Giunta (the meeting) and' in Spartenza (separation), during which the three simulacra of San Pietro, the Risen Christ and the Madonna meet and separate.
The first attestation of this party dates back to 1857 and precisely to a description written by dr. Giuseppe Libertini Guerrera. However, its origin seems to be more remote: dating back to 1752, the most ancient news attributes its authorship to the Jesuit Fathers.
Thousands of citizens and tourists attend from every corner of the square but above all the Scala Santa Maria del Monte looks like an immense audience where everyone goes to look for a place to admire the event.
'A Giunta, certainly the most significant and spectacular moment of the festival, is the result of a precise path: St. Peter, after leaving the church of the same name, after a short stretch of road, meets the Risen Christ with immense joy; both, going up the Via Infermeria and crossing Piazza Umberto, head towards Piazza Municipio - the real theater of the meeting - to give the happy announcement to the Madonna.
Mossosi slowly and cautiously, as if looking for someone, San Pietro reaches the beginning of via Luigi Sturzo where he finally sees the Madonna. Wrapped in a black cloak as a sign of mourning. In front of her, the gigantic statue bows three times, announces the resurrection of her son and then runs quickly to Christ to announce that Our Lady is aware of the miraculous event. Mother and Son can thus meet at the center of the square, at the incessant sound of the bells; there, facing the Risen Christ, the Madonna lays the black mantle and performs three bows, while the crowd, with great jubilation, shouts "live Mary".
San Pietro is a "giant" of papier-mâché, whose genesis, not exactly reconstructed, seems plausible to place in the period of the Spanish denomination of the late sixteenth century. In 1797 the statue underwent restoration work entrusted to the painter calatino Isidoro Boscari who takes care of the head and hands as well as oil coloring.
The simulacrum of St. Peter, about three meters high, consists of a wooden structure, hollow inside to make room for the bearer, the man who "carries him on his shoulders" through the historic center, on Easter.
Dressed in a precious purple tunic and a lively and voluminous red cloak, Saint Peter tightens the keys of Paradise in his left hand, and on the side of the same side, stuck in his belt, bears a sword, in memory of the ear cut of a Roman centurion.
Placed in the center of his chest is the most important element: the fine silver filigree reliquary made by master craftsmen of Catania, containing a small bone fragment of the Saint.
For over a hundred years, the simulacrum of St. Peter is kept in a family of Caltagirone that provides for the conservation, care and maintenance of the same.
www.comune.caltagirone.ct.it
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Francesco Scelba
scelbafrancesco
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