Between art and tradition: the ancient dance of San Vito Martire

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Every year, on the second Sunday of July, on the occasion of the celebrations in his honor, the ancient and traditional “dance of San Vito” is renewed between the sacred and the profane.
The simulacrum of the saint is carried on the shoulders in a dance step through the streets of the town.
The marching band plays almost non-stop along the entire route and every time the music stops, the Saint is stopped.7
The event will be held in the streets of the town of Condrò allowing visitors to attend the traditional “BALL OF SAN VITO” handed down for generations.
The cult of the saint “boy” or “dancer”, as San Vito is in fact called, is very much felt in our small town, but also in neighboring towns.
The people of Condro, in fact, have always nurtured a visceral devotion to their patron saint, St. Vitus the Martyr.
The religious event reaches its apotheosis in the main square of the town, crowded with thousands of people.
Here, in fact, the bearers, holding the heavy vara on their shoulders, travel the 100 meters that separate them from the return to the Church without interruption, making the Saint dance for more than an hour on the notes of a typical dance played by the Music Band taking three steps forward and two backwards.
The bearers, exhausted by fatigue due to the weight of the vara, but full of happiness for having succeeded, once again, in what represents for the people of Condro the greatest demonstration of love for their Patron Saint, reach the churchyard of the Church “Santissima Maria del Tindari”.
Immediately afterwards follows the “greeting” of the numerous faithful, who sing the traditional songs in honor of the “Holy Dancer”.
On returning to the Church, small black grapes are distributed to the faithful, a real first fruit, with which the statue of the Saint had previously been decorated to invoke an abundant harvest.
Until about fifty years ago, the procession was characterized by the presence of two men wearing amaranth-colored costumes, embellished with golden embroidery.
On their heads they wore felucca-shaped hats with a side feather and in their hands they held a sword.
Their function was to watch over the procession.
As the procession approached the Church, the two “warriors” challenged each other to a duel and then held each other in a long embrace at the end amid the applause of the crowd.
In the popular imagination, the scene evoked the clash between the two noble Bonfiglio brothers for the dispute over the fiefdom.
During the duel, San Vito suddenly appeared to the two contenders; They then understood that it would be really foolish to die for such trivial reasons, they ceased the fight and embraced each other as a sign of peace.
The popular devotion, documented by the numerous votive offerings, is also explained by the presence of a relic, the so-called “BRACCIO DI SAN VITO”, a silver relic containing bone fragments of the saint that is preserved in the Mother Church.