The symbols used in this little poem are obvious. Corajisima is hard life, bad quality life and the “lattuga” (lettuce) has always represented, from biblical times, the adversities: the bitterness of the forty years of the people of Israel unable to reach their promised land, the bitterness of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. Lettuce is used to help digest fatty meat foods. “Manale”, our sausage container, represents the abundance to come when it breaks open and the Corajisima will cease her existence.

The nursery rhyme, together with the jokes tied to the character, were used to lighten the heavy Lent period.

During the night of the Friday before the first Sunday following the ashes, a mysterious voice can be heard among the streets of the historical centre, even today. It happens every following Friday and once more on the night of Holy Wednesday in order to begin the “Pater noster”.

Prota writes about this particular moment:
< The gathered people who are called “comunicati”, and who are a memory of the congregation “Congregati di Castelvetere”, reminds us immediately of medieval times heritage. On all the Fridays of Lent, in the dead of night, the male population gather in the church to listen to the preach against sin and bad behaviour. When the orator has inspired the assembly, the lights are extinguished and in the dark, the miserere is sung; the people flagellate themselves with iron rods, ropes and Cactus leaves (Agave): if in the darkness someone else is hit, not a word is said. This task completed, the most intoned men wander the streets of the town, stopping every now and then to ring a bell and with deep voices sing “O brothers, o sisters, remember that we all have to die! Today we stand, tomorrow we will be buried!” Having repeatedly rung the bell, they then say: “A Pater Noster and an Ave Maria for the souls in mortal sin… for the souls forgotten by purgatory…for the peace among Christian princes…” and so on. I still tremble when I remember the terror which made me flee to my mother’s side when I was a child awoken by the noise. Destining all those Pater Nosters to things I didn’t understand and the following mumbles of my mother and other members of the family, I will let you imagine the state of the hairs on my terrified head >.

Beautiful words which even today impart the mysterious moment of wonder that the hearing of such invocations provokes. Such a prayer, perhaps for the veil of fascination which surrounds it, has always attracted the Caulonian people’s attention. In more recent times, Alessandro Cavallaro, in his novel “The shadow of the Past”, evokes all the mysterious suggestion of those nights:

< …and while he was in that position, still overwhelmed by the nightmare and shaken by the violence of the thunder, a lugubrious ringing broke the dark silence and all his hairs stood on end, making him sweat cold. He was cold and his teeth began to chatter, he was unable to tell whether it was still the nightmare or if he was really awake. When the ringing stopped he fell exhaustedly onto his cushion and covered his face with the covers. Just at that moment, a sepulchral and pained voice, vibrant with arcane omens, began to sing a warning to men who live in sin. Is said more or less this:

May the Santissimo Sacramento
And the Virgin Mary,
Who conceived without original sin, be praised.
O brothers, O sisters,
consider that we must Die
And don’t know when or where,
because today we stand
and tomorrow we are buried.
Blessed is he who prays for his soul!
Let us say a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria
for the souls of the Saintly Purgatory.

These words hit Don Ciccio’s soul like a whip and although he buried his head in the pillow, and covered his face with the blankets, that voice penetrated his brain anyway. When he thought the voice had stopped talking, he raised his head to look at the darkness but he didn’t manage it in time, the ringing and the voice began again:

And another Pater Noster and another Ave Maria for those souls who are in mortal sin! >

During the last years, the Pater Noster ceremony has come back into fashion, al least in its open air phases, and many people, not living in the historical centre, come up to hear the lament. Often also the emigrates to America and Australia are present during this time probably remembering their own memories of this custom.

The unstoppable passing of time brings us to the Friday preceding Passion Sunday.

The brothers of the arch-confraternity do the SS Rosario before sunset, still carry the statue of the Addolorata in a procession which is known as “A ‘nchianata da Madonna”.

The statue of Maria Addolorata arrives at the Matrice church and here, in her presence, the mission preaches begin.

For this function, even today, Lent fathers were invited (Franciscan monks, Agostinian monks, and mostly, Domenican monks). These preaches consisted of moments of strong reflection about the life of each believer during that period. The people of Caulonia have always been devout to the Madonna Addolorata, whose cult is a residue of the Spanish occupation still very much alive in us. There is no town in the world which has been touched by the Spanish invaders and doesn’t have an altar to the Madonna Addolorata. More than one source tells us that the name Dolores is still the most common name among Spanish speaking countries. For Passion Sunday, all sacred images were covered with purple drapes. After days of preaches, incense, and prayer, the following Friday is reached. In the darkness a religious procession leaves the Matrice church and bring the statue of the Maria Addolorata back to the Church of the Rosario.  This time the procession goes in the opposite direction to the previous Friday therefor it is known as the procession of the descending of the Madonna (scindunu a Madonna).