The Feast of San Vito is celebrated every year on June 15th, the whole town awaits this moment with joy and experiences the preparations with great fervor.
The culmination of the event is the long Procession on the evening of the 15th , but it is also worth taking part in the moments of fun, which frame the religious event, in the preceding days.
The town's navy participates unitedly in the Festival and, in fact, the traditional game of the Antenna a Mare (a 10 meter beam on the water) is played in the small port, among the colorful fishermen's boats. The young people of the town love to challenge each other... and there will be no shortage of falls into the water.
During the days of the festival you can attend celebrations, parades of musical bands and concerts in the square.
But the most evocative moment of the festival occurs at dusk on June 15th when the boats in the harbor of San Vito Lo Capo , at an agreed signal, go out into the sea to joyfully welcome the small boat carrying the young Vito , the his master Modesto and his nurse Crescenza.
As soon as they arrive on the beach, the three Saints are welcomed by the population who were waiting for them and greeted by the fishermen's boats with the sound of sirens and the launch of rockets.
It is already dark when the picturesque procession, which winds through the streets of the town amidst hymns and prayers, arrives in front of the Sanctuary.
At this point everyone is waiting for the statue of Saint Vitus covered in insignia to come out of the Church: the crown (God's prize), the palm (the victory of martyrdom), the cross (the strength of faith) and the cloak covered with golden ex voto of the faithful (their devotion) - is carried on the shoulders by the bearers of Alcamo devoted to the Saint.
San Vito in his Sanctuary at Capo is in fact invoked by all the towns of the Gulf of Castellammare, by the towns of Trapani, Erice, the Belice Valley, Partinico and Palermo and by other distant areas of Sicily.
This intense religious moment marks the beginning of the summer season.
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