Madonna Della Cava Feast

On the second week of each August, the North End celebrates the Feast of Madonna Della Cava, which coincides with the festival held in Pietraperzia, Sicily. A beautiful cloth banner bearing the Madonna’s image is carried throughout the neighborhood during the procession to collect money and valuables donated by the citizenry. During the 1930s and 1940s, a special raffle was held and the prize was a lamb, representing sacrifice. The traditional use of a cloth banner of the saint – rather than a statue – is based on the belief that a statue will fall and crack, just like the stone bearing the image of the Madonna once did so many centuries ago.