Down in the old town of Mussomeli, the party is just getting started. Around 6,000 people are crammed into the narrow streets around the Madonna dei Miracoli church, bodies pressed against bodies, waiting for the show to begin. The streets are ablaze as if it’s Christmas: arches lit in neon blue, white, green and flashes of red. The Baroque façade — cream stone, with a double layer of columns — is lit up, “W MARIA” (“Long live Mary”) in a holy blue hue over the door.

Then, out she comes: a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, covered almost entirely in precious golden jewelry donated by the townspeople. At nearly six feet high and on a platform made of thick wood, it takes 20-odd men to carry her. But carry her they do, down the steps of the church, up the steep street to the town center, an

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