Sunday, April 03, 2016

Bari - Easter Sunday in Ruvo di Puglia

The day before Easter we took the regional FSE train from Martina Franca to Bari, the 2nd largest city in southern Italy (after Naples) with about 1,000,000 people in its metropolitan area. Bari is also one of the great seaports on the Adriatic. Not on our itinerary when we left Raleigh, we very much enjoyed our stay in Bari with an Easter Sunday excursion to Ruvo di Puglia and Easter Monday excursions to Polignano a Mare and Trani.

This post covers our Easter Sunday in Ruvo di Puglia.

On Sundays the Bari Metro trains do not go all the way to Ruvo so we had to switch to a Metro bus in Bitonto. The train coach in was brand new; had that new coach car smell.
Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

The Ruvo di Puglia Easter Sunday procession gets started at 9:30 and does a quick, 1.5 hour circuit around town, stopping at the Town Hall, and ending at St Domenico's. On the way, 3 quarantana (dolls that look like witches) that have been strung up on a wire all Lent, are blown to bits. Let's get right to the action with the destruction of the first quarantana.




And here's the link for folks who get the email version.

Priests, lay people, civic leaders and employees, all participate in the procession.
Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

The wide streets and sidewalks of Ruvo are prefect for a procession.
Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

The second quarantana, before, during, and after.
Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

There was a good crowd in the piazza in front of the Town Hall to watch Quarantana #2 get blown to bits.
Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

A town offical gave a long speech.
Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

The quarantana gets blown up only after the procession goes by.
Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Then we all walked down to St Domenico's, where after an hour long outdoor church service, and balloon launch, the 3rd quarantana bit the dust.
Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy

Quarantana - Ruvo di Puglia, Apulia, Italy


3 comments:

Crash Eddy said...

Holy bat guano, Robin! It sure doesn't pay to be a quarantana in Ruvo di Puglia and thanks for the video. The second q'a looks very lifelike, strung up there on the wire. I don't recall witches playing any part in any Easter story I've been told.

The train coach is beautiful. Here in Raleigh, we struggle to get an oxcart from the city to RDU. No one here knows what a new coach smells like.

Nancy said...

I was there yesterday and saw her hanging and researched her, she is NOT a witch. They call her a 'Quarantana' ('Quaranta' means 40 in Italian, and Lent is called 'Quaresima'---referring to Lent lasting 40 days). Apparently she's Carnevale's widow...they have a 'funeral' for Carnevale (represented as a fat man) on Ash Wednesday and the black-clad Widow (symbol of Lenten deprivation) gets hung up, carrying a spindle of thread (to represent the brevity of life), a fish (as traditionally no eating meat during Lent) and a piece of fruit (representing the coming spring) with feathers stuck in it (6 black ones for each week of Lent and one white one for Easter; one black feather gets plucked out each week). Now for the best part: they blow up the Quarantana when Lent ends on the Easter vigil! We will be returning on Easter Sunday for the festivities and to have out Easter dinner in Ruvo. Great pictures and video!

john said...

Nancy, Thanks for the informative comment! It all make sense now. Sorry for the delay in posting - we are busy enjoying Easter in Portugal this year.

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