After a 57-year absence, Mary is welcomed again

During the first half of the 20^th century, the Christian faithful used to hold a procession of the Madonna of Trapani (Sicily) in several Tunisian cities, including Sfax, Tabarka and Hammam-Lif. The feast marked the end of the bathing season and announced the arrival of autumn. Muslims and Jews celebrated it with the same fervor as Christians.

This religious festival returned to Tunisia this year, on Tuesday, August 15, 2017, at the Saint Augustin & Saint Fidele Church in La Goulette, a northern suburb of Tunis, with Christians of different nationalities, Tunisians of Muslim and Jewish denominations, amid cheers, applause, shouts, and religious hymns.

Mass was celebrated by the Archbishop of Tunis, in the presence of the mayor of La Goulette. This Marian procession traditionally held on August 15th, was observed throughout the colonial period by the Italian community of La Goulette during the first years of independence, before being brutally interrupted around 1961 or 1962.

After 57 years of absence, the return of the feast of the Madonna on this land of Tunisia is a source of great joy!

Source: com/tunisie