Il Ballo dei Diavoli

The Devils' Dance of Prizzi is an ancestral and captivating ritual where the sacred and the profane merge in a symbolic battle through the streets of the village.

From the early hours of the morning, two figures dressed in red with fierce masks and horns, accompanied by a haunting Death in an ochre-yellow robe and a zinc mask, wander through the crowd, "capturing" passersby with a symbolic crossbow to extort small ransoms in the form of money or traditional sweets.

This performance, which has its roots in distant times, reaches its dramatic climax in the afternoon during the Encounter between the statues of the Risen Christ and the Madonna. The devils unleash a frantic dance in a desperate attempt to prevent the reunion between mother and son, until the decisive intervention of the angels and the joyous ringing of the bells seal the definitive triumph of life over death and spring over winter.