The rites of Good Friday in Polistena

Polistena - Every Good Friday in Polistena a very ancient and very suggestive tradition is renewed. Early in the morning the procession starts, where the protagonist is the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows. The peculiarity of the statue is that it has real hair: according to tradition it is that of a girl who wanted to donate it and then become a nun.

But it is not only this suggestive statue to parade. Every year a man of the community wears the clothes of Christ, carries the cross on his shoulders and walks barefoot. His face is never visible, as he wears a blonde wig that hides his features. Man is a penitent who wants to atone, reliving the pain of Christ at Golgotha. The procession, always very popular, crosses the streets of Polistena and visits all the churches where the Sepulchres are set up. For the rest of the day there are also other rites. Good Friday is used to alleviate the suffering of mothers who have lost their children to the mafia or to drugs, real plagues of the territory in which the Libera association operates.