La Vara
One of the most important folk festivals in Messina is La Vara , a church festival that is celebrated annually on August 15th.
The Vara is celebrated in honor of the Madonna della Lettera (Madonna of the Letter), patron saint of the city of Messina. According to legend, St. Paul came to Messina around AD 41. The city senators asked him for the blessing of Our Lady for the city. Legend has it that Mary wrote a blessing letter through the hand of Jesus on September 8, 42 AD. In the Cathedral of Messina , hair is kept as a relic of Mary, which is carried through the city every year during the Corpus Christi procession and on June 3 in the Vascelluzzo, a wooden ship about one meter long covered with silver plates.
In the days leading up to August 15th, two colossal figures are drawn through the city to the port, depicting the legendary city founders: the Messinian Mata and the Mohr Grifone. The two are called Giganti , the giants. On August 15th a statue, the Vara , is carried through the city. It represents the different phases of the Assumption of Mary and is about 13.50 meters high. It consists of figures such as angels, the sun and the moon. The angels were originally represented by children, but after a few accidents they were replaced by paper mache figures. The figure of Christ is enthroned on the top, holding in one hand a silver statue by Lio Gangeri from 1902 showing the ascending Mary. The statue was built in 1535 in honor of Charles V , who was visiting Messina at the time. Today there is a large Marian column at the port of Messina. The base is inscribed with a sentence from the legendary letter from the Madonna della Lettera : "Vos et ipsam civitatem benedicimus" (German: We bless you and the city).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ TypicalSicily.it: Religious festival in Messina - La Vara. Retrieved November 13, 2016 .