The slow passing of time has not managed to obliterate the popular traditions in Caulonia, which, even today, manage to impart the profound significance of the simple and religiously conscious lifestyle that the ancestors passed on. After a week of intense prayer, the Holy Saturday sees a singular procession which winds through the streets of the town known as the Caracolo. It gathers huge amounts of people each year because of its importance. This sacred procession, whose etymology is found in the Arabic “Karhara” meaning “to turn”, finds its roots during the time when Italy was subject to Spanish dominion. While an oppressive atmosphere lies over the town on the Holy Saturday, the two arch-confraternities, that of the Immacolata and that of the Rosario, meet in a place known as “Buveri”, from where they depart together in order to walk the main streets of Caulonia, accompanied by a melancholy and ornate crowd of people bearing lighted candles. According to the ancestral meaning, this procession consists in a careful meditation on the Passion of Jesus Christ. The statues which are solemnly borne round the town represent the last moments of the Son of God’s earthly life: Christ in the Garden, Christ alla Colonna, the Ecce Homo, the Christ bearing the cross, the Crucified Christ, Christ removed from the cross, the Addolorata Virgin and Saint John. After a long roaming, the interminable procession enters the main square of the town on the opposite side of which is their destination: the Matrice church. The crossing of the Mese square entails more than an hour and during this time it displays a very particular choreography. To the naked eye it seems asymmetric but in reality it is well timed and programmed. The statues, the followers, the brothers of the confraternity, the banners and pennants all follow behind the brass band. After entering the church, the procession reassembles in the square and, again walk the streets until they reach the “Buveri” in Via Vincenzo Niutta. Here they divide into the two initial groups, each person returning to the confraternity to which they belong. This is the Holy Saturday in Caulonia, just as it has been for centuries.