Although the celebrations dedicated to Sant'Agata take place during a good part of January, the highlight of the festival is definitely the 3rd, 4th and 5th of February. The whole city stops and pours day and night through the streets of Catania, giving life to one of the most important religious festivals in the world, in which religion and folklore are inextricably intertwined.

The religious celebretions begin on February 3rd with the evocative procession of the offering of wax to the Saint which starts from the Church of Sant'Agata alla Fornace in Piazza Stesicoro, built on the ancient furnace where the Saint was martyred, to reach the Cathedral in Piazza Duomo. The procession is opened by the 11 candelore or "cannalori", tall wooden columns, richly carved and decorated, containing waxes representing the corporations of arts and crafts of the city of Catania.

Considering the conspicuous heaviness , the candelore are carried on the shoulders by 4 or 12 men, the bearers, who make them proceed with a characteristic gait called “a 'nnacata”. The procession is followed by all the civil and religious authorities of the city. The "Senate Carriage" leaves the Palazzo degli Elefanti, seat of the Municipality.It is actually two eighteenth-century carriages that belonged to the ancient Senate of the city, on board of which the mayor and some members of the council go to the church of San Biagio to bring the keys of the city to the religious authorities. This first day ends in the evening, "a sira 'o tri", in a very crowded Piazza Duomo, with a concert of songs dedicated to the saint together with a grandiose and unique fireworks display in which the fireworks follow the rhythm of the music.

The celebrations continue on day four with a religious function, "the dawn mass" in the Cathedral in Piazza Duomo. Before the function, the reliquary bust depicting Sant'Agata is taken out of the room where it is kept. Three keys kept by three different people are used to open the heavy gate of the room where it is kept.This is the moment in which the citizens meet again after a year with the “Santuzza”. Exciting and irrepressible the cry of the devotees who greet her with the cry that calls all the citizens present to venerate her while waving a white handkerchief.

 <<è ccu razia e ccu cori,
pi sant'Aituzza bedda, ca stà niscennu,
cittadini!
semu tutti devoti, tutti?
cittadini, cittadini,
cittadini!
evviva sant'Agata,
cittatini!
evviva sant'Agata.
tutti devoti, tutti?

cittadini, cittadini! »

The precious half-bust containing the relics of Agata, is loaded on the ferculum," a vara ", and transported to the main altar and thus the religious function begins. Immediately after the mass, the ferculum, loaded with the silver casket also containing the relics of the Saint, is carried in procession. The "external tour" of the city begins, a long tour that will end at the first light of dawn on the 5th and which crosses the places of martyrdom and the places of the "Santuzza". The most evocative and spectacular moment of this second day is certainly "a cchianata de 'Cappuccini", the moment in which the ferculum is hauled by the devotees up to the top of a climb called “dei Cappuccini”, thus arriving in front of the Church of San Domenico.

 Another important stage of this tour is also "a calata da marina", the ancient descent towards the sea which until the end of the nineteenth century reached where the so-called arches of the navy now stand. This is the symbolic place of the departure of the Saint's relics for Constantinople. The tour of 4 ends at the first light of dawn when, once again in the Cathedral, the Saint is greeted by a spectacular fireworks display.
A short break, a little rest before seeing the city crowded again with faithful  a devotees with the white sacks for the last long day of the party.

It is February 5th, the day of S. Agata.

In the late morning in the Cathedral the solemn pontifical is celebrated, in the presence of the bishops from all over Sicily and a papal legate. The fercolo, which the day before was covered of red carnations to symbolize martyrdom, now is covered of white carnations, a symbol of Agata's purity. After sunset, around 6 pm, the "inner tour" of the city begins. The fercolo climbs up Via Etnea, arriving late at night in Piazza Cavour, better known as the “Borgo”, the district where refugees from Misterbianco were welcomed following the eruption of 1669.
Here the Saint stops for another long- awaited fireworks display after which the tour continues down the Via Etnea until surely the most spectacular moment of the whole party, “a cchianata 'i Sangiulianu”. Between two wings of a crowd with bated breath, the fercolo is rushed by the devotees along the steep climb of Via San Giuliano. A very dangerous piece of route that precedes the stop in the most beautiful baroque street of the city, Via Crociferi, where, in front of the convent of the Benedictine nuns, the crowd in silence listens to the nuns who intone songs to the Saint from behind the grates of the monastery.
An evocative and mystical moment for all those who participate. This is the last stop before returning to the cathedral ,which for years now has been taking place at daylight. Another great fireworks display. The last one. After three long days in the hands of her citizens, the Saint greets her city to return back to her small chamber. festadisantagata.it