A few weeks ago, the Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, inaugurated the Jubilee for Naples, a year-long period of civic and religious commitment meant to reawaken social values in a troubled city. Part of the activities on the first day will be the placing of a large bust of the patron saint of Naples, San Gennaro, at the old city gate that is still called Porta San Gennaro at the modern square of Piazza Cavour. It is significant that the cardinal chose the Ragazzi dei Misteri from Procida to sculpt the four-by-three meter display of the saint. Procida is just four-square-miles in area and is the smallest island in the Bay of Naples but it maintains one of the most interesting religious traditions in Italy: The Procession of the Mysteries on Good Friday. That tradition is kept up by a loose band of dedicated young artists and craftsmen who are traditionally called the Ragazzi dei Misteri—"Children of the Mysteries."

"Mysteries," in this sense, refers to Biblical events commemorated by Christians as having a special or mystical significance (such as, for example, The Last Supper). The procession is a display of large shoulder-borne floats with allegorical displays of the "mysteries" drawn from Biblical sources. The floats are made of wood, and the displays are a combination of wood, cloth, plaster, copper and papier-mâché. The floats are decorated with fruits and flowers. The procession on Good Friday is part of the Holy Week celebrations on Procida that last from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. The Procession of the Mysteries follows a fixed path from the old Terra Murata, the fortress at the highest point of the island, down to the port of the Marina Grande. Those involved in the procession will have spent many weeks crafting their displays. Typically, those who build a particular float will be the ones to carry it and, in theory, the only ones to have seen the display before it is moved to the staging area before the procession.

Traditionally, the floats are unique each year and are disassembled or destroyed after each procession. There are however, some perennial, fixed pieces such as representations of Mary as the Mater Dolorosa as well as the center-piece of the entire procession, The Dead Christ, a large wooden sculpture from 1728, crafted by Carmine Lantricene. Activity starts on Thursday night when torch-bearing, cloaked and hooded townspeople make their way up to the staging area at Terra Murata and wait for Good Friday to dawn. The procession of about 80 floats will start at sunrise and last for some three hours. A full one-third of the island's 10,000 inhabitants can be expected to participate in the procession at some point; they wear the traditional costume of hooded white tunic and sea-blue cape. Children as young as two years of age help lead the procession; they wear black robes embroidered with gold and pearls and caps adorned with black and white ostrich plumes. These children are called angioletti—"little angels." Eerily, the procession is accompanied by a town band playing a traditional funeral march, punctuated by blasts on a trumpet. This recalls the trumpet sounded in Roman times to announce executions, for this is the Friday on which Christ was crucified.
The tradition of the procession goes back to the 1627 when the Congregation of the Turchini (so named for the turquoise color of the garb worn by the altar boys of the congregation) in Naples started services on Procida. The first processions are said to have been somewhat gruesome affairs of self-flagellating penitents, and only somewhat later to have developed into the colorful and choreographic displays that they are today. Procida is a natural place for such skills to develop as go into the construction of these ornate floats; it is an island of fine craftsmen who truly know how to work with their hands, trained over the centuries by building their own sailboats for their own fishermen. Of the island's 10,000 inhabitants, at least 2,000 work in some maritime capacity.

For about five years, there has been an actual organization called "I Ragazzi dei Misteri," formed to preserve the tradition of the procession. Traditionally, the floats were built in relatively large spaces such as the large entrance ways or courtyards of old 17th-century buildings, places that had not been used in many years. Little by little, however, those spaces have been gobbled up for renovation as various commercial ventures—a restaurant, a bar, etc. or have been condemned as unsafe. The young craftsmen were running out of spaces where they could work. That situation has apparently now been resolved. The organization counts about 600 members on the island; they are self-financed through contributions and have managed to procure a number of large tents to work in. As well, in the interest of preserving mementos of past processions, at least some of the used floats are no longer disassembled but, rather, wind up in a display hall where they can be viewed by the public. Lending permanence to the artifacts of the Procession of the Mysteries should encourage outside interest and help maintain the tradition.