Demeter in Gela

This short documentary, after having retraced the initial phases of
life of the polis of Gela: the foundation and the sacrifices practiced
on the acropolis in honor of Athena, the goddess who arrived with the founders of the
city ​​from Lindos on the island of Rhodes, recalls, with the participation,
not of actors but of the re-enactors of the Akragas Historical Group
of the cultural association The Phoenicians, some phases of the rituals
which took place in honor of Demeter, goddess of harvests and fertility.
In Gela, in fact, in the Bitalemi district, next to the mouth of the river
Gela, there are the remains of a particular sanctuary dedicated to i
cults in honor of this divinity, the Thesmophoria, practiced
exclusively by women.
In these same places, in medieval times, a church was built,
dedicated to Our Lady of Bethlem and in 1963, a was built
giant petrochemical.
Demeter and the Madonna, cults which, with their differences,
substantial and temporal, they share a presence on this
same space, still sacred for some.
This was one of the ancient propitiatory rites for healthy offspring
recovered and still handed down is the moving pilgrimage
of many Gelese women who have received the grace of a child
or they would like to have it. Between April and May, several times a day
week, the procession crosses the city, until reaching the
chapel dedicated to the Madonna, built right next to the remains
of the ancient site of the sanctuary.