Vita è Troppo Breve

Life is too short indeed.

Why state the obvious here? Because of course you always think about stuff like this when something tragic happens.

In our case, it was the heart-breaking news that the husband of a friend of ours died this month. From cancer. That most cruel of all diseases.
Now Alice and I didn’t know him as well as we should (could) have, but then we all get wrapped up in our own lives. No excuse I know, but that’s one of the (other) harsh realities of life.
Human nature being what it is, when you get the saddest of news like this you get to thinking about your own life. You begin weighing up the pros and cons of what you have, or have not, done. What you’ve achieved during the limited time we all have. And equally so … what you haven’t.
But I have to reckon this need not necessarily be a depressing subject to think about.
We all are, after all, merely human and therefore all of us are ‘accident prone’. By that I mean subject to making what could be seen as ‘mistakes’ or ‘miscalculations’, rather than ‘wins’.
It’s all about balance. If’n at the end of our days, long or cut short, others can say with some certainty that the good we did, or that was in us, outweighed the bad, then that’s gotta count as a ‘win’, surely?

But by any measure, Jon was a good man.

Theatre

Statistically, a higher percentage of Sicilians regularly attend church than elsewhere in Italy.
While not ‘scientific proof’, I’m happy to attest that I’ve noticed this when out walking in the city on any given Sunday morning.

Seen outside an abandoned home...

Certainly, more are going to church in Modica than I noticed when visiting and/or living in the north of the country. I’m talking young families here too, not just the middle-aged, or the solo elderly.
Now I’m not religious at all. Something I won’t apologise for I’m afraid, but then I do have respect for those who believe.
I will, however, admit to attending more masses in the last two years than I have in the previous decade at least! It’d be uber-hard not to in a place often described as “The city of a hundred churches”.
Why have I been to so many? Well, there are two distinct reasons.
Firstly, a mass always proceeds a religious procession. Such processions are great pageants to witness, and do bring a community together in a way nothing else can seem to. Except perhaps football! Anyways, I believe that if’n you’re attending one ... then at the very least you should attend the other.
The other reason being that I enjoy the ‘theatre’ of Roman Catholicism. There’s so obviously comfort in, for example, the reciting of the rosary before a mass that I find fascinating. Also, when you’ve decided to settle somewhere, shouldn’t you respect the local social customs?
It’s the very least one can do.

Cavalcades

I’ve talked before of these local religious festivals-come-processions?
Specifically, April’s “Madonna Vasa Vasa” and “Festa di San Giorgio”. Both of which were widely advertised, being big draw cards for, besides us locals, other Sicilians and loadsa tourists too.
But there are many others not so well known. And perhaps more important to their communities as these grander affairs are to the wider city, of course!
And many of them remain unknown to us imports. Modicans know all about them: It’s just that the locals seem to assume we should too.
Somehow.

A for-instance here: A modicano friend, when asked about any festivals coming up in June, stated there weren’t any. Yet when I queried about the “Corpus Domini” one I thought was on that month? His answer was: “Yes … except for that one, of course.”
So, for my own piece of mind here (and perhaps for others?), I’ve decided I’d better create a webpage listing all the known “Feste a Modica” (Modican Festivals). I mean: I spent hours on Google trying to make a definitive list and, while I did uncover several, I only discovered two by stumbling across random posters, in dusty shop windows, down side streets…
All that aside, and thus far, my list stretches to a grand total of 17! Albeit three of these don’t involve actual processions, but are of great local importance, so f’sure warrant inclusion.
Why am I so interested?
Well, are we not now both a part of this community too?

More Soon...