Festival of the Assumption and Saint Hugh (U Fistinu i Menzagustu)

A festival that captures the soul of Novara di Sicilia

The Festival of the Assumption and Saint Hugh, which locals call "U Fistinu i Menzagustu" in their dialect, is the most important popular religious event in Novara di Sicilia, a picturesque village in the Nebrodi mountains in the province of Messina, officially recognized as one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. For a few days around Ferragosto (mid-August), the entire town unites around the Virgin of the Assumption, the town's patron saint, and Saint Hugh the Abbot, in a blend of faith, tradition, and collective identity that has endured for centuries.

The "dance of the Madonna"

The heart of the celebration is the solemn procession of the Assumption on the evening of August 15th. After the singing of the Ave Maris Stella, the grand 19th-century Vara (processional float), adorned with dozens of candles and offerings accumulated by the faithful over the centuries, emerges triumphantly from the Cathedral. The bearers give the float a characteristic and unmistakable movement: three steps forward and two back, the famous "dance of the Madonna" (in dialect "a ballada da Madonna"). The procession winds through the streets of the historic center with stops and hymns in the squares, continuing until the early hours of the morning in an atmosphere of deep popular emotion.

Saint Hugh and the Cistercian roots

Alongside the Marian devotion is the veneration of Saint Hugh the Abbot, a Cistercian monk linked to the village's religious history since the 12th century. On August 16th, the solemn procession with the relics of Saint Hugh takes place through the streets of the historic center. The festival rites conclude in the following days with the translation of the relics between the Cathedral and the Abbey, accompanied by the local parish confraternities.

Rites, statues, and the Apotheosis

Preparations begin long before Ferragosto: at the end of July, the rite of "a Madonna o so logu" takes place, involving the transfer of the statue from the chapel to its place of exposition, followed by the Chinnicea, a fifteen-day novena. The wooden statue venerated today dates back to 1764 and is the work of the Neapolitan sculptor Filippo Colicci. Every five years, the festival takes on an even more extraordinary dimension with the Solemn Apotheosis of the Assumption, during which the Madonna is accompanied by fifteen statues representing angels, martyrs, evangelists, abbots, confessors, and popes.

A community gathering

Thousands of the faithful, returning emigrants, and visitors flock to Novara di Sicilia every year to experience the Mid-August Festival. Between the masses in the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, the fervor of the procession, and the warm hospitality of the Nebrodi village, the festival is both a moment of profound devotion and an opportunity to rediscover a stone-built town perched in the mountains, along with its traditions and flavors.