Taormina, Various locations, from Thursday 28th February to Saturday 9 March 2019

Carnival is a Western Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typically involves a public celebration and/or parade combining some elements of a circus, masks, and a public street party. People wear masks and costumes during many such celebrations, allowing them to lose their everyday individuality and experience a heightened sense of social unity. Common features of carnival include mock battles such as food fights; social satire and mockery of authorities; the grotesque body displaying exaggerated features, especially large noses, bellies, mouths, and phalli, or elements of animal bodies; abusive language and degrading acts; depictions of disease and gleeful death; and a general reversal of everyday rules and norms.

Le case del Natale

Chiesa del Carmine, from December 7th 2017 to January 7th 20187

Opening hours:10.00am/1.00pm and 4.00pm/8.00pm

Exhibition of art  objects of Christmas inspiration

Good Friday – Procession

Taormina, April 3 2015 – Late afternoon/night

Good Friday is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday. In Taormina, the event starts in the late afternoon just before dusk, as hundreds of women clad in black, carrying orange-colored lanterns, descend the narrow steps linking the main streets, and begin the procession. A group of women support on their shoulders a statue of the blessed mother engulfed by flowers. A band playing somber music processes behind them, while the men of begin their march, bearing the statue of Jesus on their shoulders. The entire group slowly walks to the duomo and back.

All shop’s lighting and all street illumination on the Corso Umberto will be switched off, as soon as the procession is arriving. Only the candles of the procession give some low light. When it is passed by, the shopkeepers switch on the lights again.

Whether you’re Catholic or not, you can’t help but get caught up in the beauty, the history and the solemnity of the occasion.

(credit: Ciao Chow Linda and others).