“E decimilia voti e lodamu Maria Mmaculata.
Ludamula sempri ogn’ura Maria Mmaculata Cuncetta e pura”.

In the past, at 5 am on December 8 in the church of Santa Maria di Gesù this Holy Rosary was recited, the litanies and the Salve Regina in dialect to the Immaculate Virgin, as told by the devout Giuseppa Lanza, born in 1922. adds:

“Sia lodata la sempri sia,
La Santissima Trinità
Oggi e sempri ludamu a Maria
Cu n’eccelsita di bontà”.

The feast of the Immaculate Conception was one of the most significant events of December. Our grandparents used to consider this date the pivot of winter, as the old saying goes:

‘Mmaculata stidda fuorti’.

During the days before the feast of 8 December, the simulacrum of the Virgin is transferred from the Church of the Convent to the New Matrix, to be venerated with greater solemnity.

The ferculum of the Immaculate Conception consists of a celestial coffin holding the image of the Madonna adorned with four cherubs holding candles. Evidence of devotion are the two bands of ex-voto jewellery, attached to the simulacrum on the feast day, as well as the gold crown and starry nimbus and the ancient pendants that are attached to the Virgin’s lobes.

The festivity, organised by the fiesta’s organising committee, is characterised by religious services, questing during the early afternoon hours, and the solemn procession through the town’s main streets.

Tradition also dictated that, at the end of the feast, the same band went to the church of San Sebastiano, where the image of Saint Lucia was transferred to the New Mother Church for the triduum of the feast.

Miraculous Salve Regina to the Immaculate Conception which was recited in the church of Santa Maria di Gesù in Gratteri

Diu vi salvi Rigina
e Matri Mmaculata,
di grazi riculmata
assai abbunnanti.
Vui di lu primu istanti,
chi fustivu Cuncetta,
fustivu sempri netta
d’ogni piccatu.
Nta tuttu lu criatu
Vui sula prisirvata
di curpa libirata
Originali.
Nta tanti erruri e mali
chiancennu e lacrimannu
vegnu ni Vui gridannu:
Pietà o Maria!
Vui dati nu sguardu a mia
o Virgini piatusa,
o Matri, o Figlia o Spusa
d’un Diu putenti.
Vi preu veramenti
di farimi pirdunari,
nun vogghiu cchiù piccari
datimi aiutu.
Faciti lu pintutu
vinissi l’ urtima ura,
o Matri, o Gran Signura,
o mia Avvucata!
Accussì sarà purtata
n cielu st’arma mia,
ludannu a vui Maria
Immacolata! (bis).