The procession begins at dawn on Good Friday, when all the mysteries have already been brought to the open space of Terra Murata, where the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo is located .
Here, following the " call " of the oldest brother of the Turquoises, the order of the procession is established, according to the religious theme being treated.
The beginning is characterized by the sound of a trumpet to which 3 drumbeats respond : these are the sounds that accompanied those sentenced to death in ancient Rome, and which will be repeated throughout the procession. The mysteries follow , carried in the arms throughout the journey with a series of breaks. Then there are various statues with a fixed religious subject, the main ones being that of Our Lady of Sorrows (19th century), the statue of the Dead Christ (18th century by Carmine Lantriceni ) and the “ pallìo ”, i.e. the funeral canopy. The procession of angels precedes and follows the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows: male and female children up to 3 years old, wearing black clothes embroidered in gold as a sign of mourning to recall the dress of the Virgin of Sorrows, carried in the arms of an adult. The procession is closed by the musical band , which performs funeral marches, the religious, civil and military authorities of the island and, in a moving silence, a procession of people from the island and not.
At the end of the procession the statues are carried to the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo while the mysteries end their journey in Piazza Marina Grande. The statues of the Dead Christ and of Our Lady of Sorrows are kept in the Church of S. Tommaso (New Church) where the Turchini Confraternity is based .
History of the procession
The Good Friday procession of Procida is an ancient tradition, to be placed between the end of the century. XVI and the century. XVII, when also in Naples the Solidad confraternity organized a procession with the mysteries of the Sacred Passion, the development of which was in all respects similar to that of the Procession of Procida. ( Sergio Zazzera ).
Initially born as a penitential procession, limited to the ancient medieval village of Terra Murata, today it is mainly made up of the "mysteries", which follow "the trumpet and the drum" and precede the statues with a fixed religious subject and finally the Dead Christ, a wooden work carved in 1728 by Carmine Lantriceni.
The characteristics with which the procession was observed immediately make one think of those imported from Spain to Naples in the 16th century and then so much propagated by the Jesuits. The use of the trumpet and the drum, of sumptuously Baroque elements, of chains and scourges... all refer to the descriptions made by the Neapolitan writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the Easter processions called processioni degli Spaniards. ( From "WHO IS DEVOTED" by R. De Simone, M.Jodice )
The "mysteries" are representative tables of the words written in the Old Testament and in the Gospel made with various materials: papier-mâché, wood, plastic, polystyrene and other poor materials.
The boards are made from scratch every year, with a variable weight depending on the material used. Usually the number of ''mysteries'' varies between 40 and 60 representations. These cross the historic center of the island, supported by arms, generally from Terra Murata to Marina Grande.
The procession is preceded by various rites of which the most fascinating is that of Holy Thursday, better known as the procession of the apostles.