Arbëreshë Easter (Pashkët) – Holy Week Rites

The 2025 edition of the Holy Week rites in Santa Cristina Gela confirmed the extraordinary continuity of this Arbëreshë tradition in the province of Palermo. During the days of the Java e Madhe, the community intoned liturgical chants in the Albanian language and Sicilian dialect, carried the Dead Christ with Our Lady of Sorrows in procession on Good Friday, and celebrated Easter Sunday (Pashkët) with a solemn Pontifical Mass. Women in sumptuous traditional costumes animated the final procession, which concluded with the distribution of red eggs and panaret pastries, according to a ritual handed down for over five centuries in Greek-Byzantine Sicily.