1. An island, a continent Easter in Sardinia

2. The Holy Week in Cagliari Every year, in the centre of Cagliari, at Easter people re-enact the Passion ad Death of Jesus, with solemn songs, tears and grief to express the mourning of the population.

3. The rites On Friday, there is the commemoration of Christ’s funeral with a procession organized by three confraternities: the Sacred Crucifix, the Solitude and the Standard.

4. The protagonists The sisters of the confraternity are dressed in black, with shawls and veils. They hold candles and rosaries. The brothers wear white tunics. The women behave like the Mother who lost her Son, with cries and mourning.

5. Theatrics of the event The wooden simulacrum of the dead Christ is carried on men’s shoulders on a litter and it is covered with a canopy. A statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, who takes her so to the church, is dressed in mourning clothes and on Easter morning there is a symbolic meeting of the Madonna and the risen Christ called “S’Incontru”. During the procession men carry two standards (XVIII century) decorated with the symbols of the Passion: the rooster, the nails, the sword, the mantle and the dice of the Roman soldiers

6. Origins and meanings of the Holy Week events The theatrics characterizing this event has a clear Spanish origin. However, some traditions belong to earlier times, such as “Is Nenniris”, plates full of cotton wool sown on Ash Wednesday with legumes and left to grow in the dark. It reminds of the Phoenician myth of Adonis, that celebrated the death and rebirth of the vegetation.

7. Curiosities During the Holy Week, people used to climb the hill of Buoncammino, listening to what passers-by were saying. Then they joined these pieces of conversation to foresee the future. This is called “Is Ascurtus”. In this period, women didn’t spin because they thought that it was like tearing out Christ’s hair. For the same reason, they also avoided washing their hair.

8. What it is like today Although it is very common also for young people to attend processions, nowadays Easter for teenagers has a more commercial meaning, made of chocolate eggs, peluchis representing colourful bunnies or chicks that they exchange with their friends. On Easter day they go to church with their families and then they have big lunches together with their relatives, in happiness and peace. They usually eat a lot, especially chocolate. They like to break their Easter egg to see the surprise toy in it. They also have some days off from school!!!

9. Scuola media “G. Pascoli” - Assemini This survey was realized by the pupils of the 2nd A and 3rd A classrooms of the Scuola media “G. Pascoli” in Assemini, Sardinia. We hope you like it and it may be useful to learn to know us, our country and our culture a little bit better. The pupils were helped to assemble texts, photos and music by the English teacher, Caterina Cambosu. Texts and photos were taken from local realia, the music is a traditional motive called “Nanneddu dillu”.